Wireless LAN speed gets progressively worse

Freakitchen · 10 Jul 2015 at 10:49

Hi guys,

Scratching my head on this one, any ideas?

I have a desktop computer running Win 8.1 connected to my router through a USB wireless adapter - a TP-Link TL-WN822N. Mainly used for storage and a Plex server.

Recently I've been struggling to play content through Plex over the local network. Remoted in to the PC in question and found it to be very sluggish over MS Remote desktop and Teamviewer. Did a broadband speed test and got 4Mbps - I have FTTH so this should be more like 75!

Rebooted the machine and things were much snappier. Did another speedtest and got the correct speed, was able to stream videos from it no problem. 24 hours later and the problem has returned - back to 4Mbps.

I think the USB wi-fi is at fault here because rebooting the machine, rebooting the router, and physically unplugging the dongle all fixes the issue temporarily.

Are there any other options you gents can think of to troubleshoot this? It's running on the latest driver.

Cheers.

bledd · 10 Jul 2015 at 15:40

Avoid wifi for anything but light web browsing

Freakitchen · 10 Jul 2015 at 15:56

Nice idea in theory but I can't currently cable to the cupboard that this computer is in. Nor can I move it anywhere else, it's one of those HP Microsevers that makes noise!

Guest2 · 10 Jul 2015 at 16:17

Powerlines? Either 500Mbps ones or 1200

I had 85Mbps and wondered why my speed was so rubbish. I have cabled into my router now but I think 500Mbps powerlines would give ~70Mbps - Go for the 1Gb / 1.2Gb ones if you need higher than 90Mbps - interference from chargers etc will lower speed but I wouldnt have thought be a great deal

bledd · 10 Jul 2015 at 19:38

I wouldn't use power line either. Cable it up

Benihana · 10 Jul 2015 at 20:46

No problem here with the Devolo Powerlines, give em a try!

Freakitchen · 10 Jul 2015 at 23:35

I'll look into alternatives if I can't get this fixed, but at the moment I can't understand why I just managed a speedtest at 72Mbps down and 4 up, but in the morning I probably won't be able to get more than 4 down on that machine without refreshing the connection.

Can it be anything other than a faulty Wi-fi adapter?

bledd · 11 Jul 2015 at 06:28

It shouldn't get worse, try running inssider to see if there's a with less traffic on it.

You may have more joy with a PCI or pcie card

Guest2 · 11 Jul 2015 at 08:57

Benihana said:
No problem here with the Devolo Powerlines, give em a try!

What are speed tests and ping like in comparison if you connect a cable?

OP - are you sure there isnt just a power saving option on your NIC or something in power options? Normally power options are only available on laptops i think.

Also check bios settings. Thinking about it im sure I had something similar years ago and it was just a power saving option i had to turn off

b0rn2sk8 · 11 Jul 2015 at 10:09

Are you putting the dongle in the cupbaord with the PC? That will serriously effect the speed.

As others have said if wifi is no go then powerlines are the next best and a fairly reliable.

Benihana · 13 Jul 2015 at 08:51

Guest2 said:
What are speed tests and ping like in comparison if you connect a cable?

The broadband speed here is pretty terrible (15/1) so the 600mbps adapters I have don't effect the speed for that. If I run an ethernet cable to the modem directly, I get a ping of 26-27ms, by wireless (MBP a/c) 28ms and powerline is 28ms also.

I have the all the powerline sockets in the same room though, I chose them mainly for the ability to hide the cables and the reliability over wireless. Not had any issues so far.