'Request timed out' every 20-30 seconds.

Awesomeish

Awesomeish

Awesomeish

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8 Mar 2010
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Hey, I hope anyone doesn't mind helping me. I'm having occasional lag spikes with my new laptop's wireless adapter.

I first noticed it in games, and decided to ping my router in CMD. I see the occasional "request timed out", and not sure how to fix it.

My other computers connected to the network are working fine, and I've tried USB Wireless adapters in my laptop which work fine, which implies the problem lies with the inbuilt adapter itself.

I've tried reformatting, and updating drivers, but to no avail.

I thought maybe the adapter might just be faulty, but then I decided to test it on Linux. I pinged the router in the terminal and... it seemed to work fine. I thought maybe some background process in Windows might be doing something to cause the problem, so I started in safe mode (with networking)... still the problem remained.

So I'm pretty much out of ideas now. Do I need to change a setting in the router? Is the adapter faulty somehow? Or is it just Windows messing up?

I'm on a Dell Inspiron 7520, Windows 8. The adapter is a Centrino 2230.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
 
Well it's a bit random, but can be once every 20-30 seconds, or every minute, but at most it probably goes no longer than 2 minutes without having a 'request time out'. Sometimes it'll be 4 times in 30 seconds, etc.etc.

On average I'd say one time out per minute :P
 
sorry for the bump, but does anyone have any ideas?

I think I've improved the connection a little - I disabled 'TCP/IPv6' in the adapter settings, and now I only get 'request timed out' during downloading or gaming (in the past it happened even if idle/browsing internet), still a problem though :(
 
Do you have multiple WiFi connection settings saved?

If so you may need to disable "search for preferred connection" as every so often your WiFi driver will try to search for the preferred WiFi instead of the one you are currently connected to. This could cause the periodic lag spikes you are seeing.
 
depends upon your WiFi adapter driver, but if it doesn't replace the built in windows stuff it might be similar to the instructions in this thread:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1411471
I'd try these steps:
Go Control Panel --> Network and Sharing Centre --> Manage Wireless Network (In the top left corner).

Once you're there drag the desired network to the top of the list of networks, then right click and go properties. Once in this page untick the box "connect to a more preferred network" and make sure "Connect Automatically when this is in range" is ticked. Once you've done this arrange the rest of the wireless networks in order and make sure for the other networks the "Connect to a more preferred network" box is ticked.

Hopefully this should help.

EDIT: Also might want to untick connect automatically for other networks.
Click to expand...
 
Hi again.

Alrighty, I tried the suggestion, but I'm afraid it's made no difference. I even had the network card replaced, but still the problem remains...

makes me think it's something to do with Windows 8, or maybe I'd need to change a setting in the router?

Anyone have any more ideas? :D thanks
 
Ping responses are treated as a very low priority. If there's something more important to do they can be dropped. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's a serious problem.

Are the ping response times fast and consistent between the failures?
 
Yes they are. It'll be working normally - nice, low consistent pings - and then suddenly a 'request timed out'.

The timeouts coincide with my lag in online games, downloading etc.
 
An update!

I was staying at someone else's house and the wifi works fine there. I guess the problem must have something to do with my router...

Which is weird, because no other device of mine has had this problem with it. Would anyone know what router settings could be changed to fix this?
 
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