Wireless Speed Declining Rapidly

[Stg-Flame]

Alright, a few days ago, my friend came over and found out that our network was not passworded and open to anyone (which a few unknown people were leeching off of). He reconfigured the network and opened some ports for everyone on the network - two people on wireless adapters, one on the router.

Anyways, before he reconfigured the wireless network, my speed was 54 Mbps. It stayed at that speed regardless of what signal strength I was getting.

Well, after he opened the ports, my download speeds increased immensely, but only for a couple days. Yesterday, I tried to update my GPU Driver, but it would not update. I tried downloading it manually, but I was unable to connect to the Internet. The icon in the system tray had a caution sign on it which said "Low or No Connectivity." I power-cycled the router and even my wireless adapter - didn't help. I then decided to restart my PC. When everything loaded, the Internet was working fine... for a few moments. I watched as the speed declined from 54 Mbps, to 32, to 24, to 18, to 12, to 6, and finally to 1 Mbps, all in the course of less than a minute.

Since yesterday, the aforementioned process of my speed declining happens every time I restart my PC or unplug/replug my wireless adapter.

I have already e-mailed my friend who configured the wireless network, but I doubt I will receive a reply from him anytime soon as he does not have a permanent place to stay and he is heading back to college (plus his laptop is a royal PoS).

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and how to fix this problem from occurring again?

Screenshot

EDIT: When I say he, I am referring to the person who initially set this network up. Not just some random friend.

 

[jdw2]

Do your other computers experience the same problem or just yours?
Are you sure you are still automatically connecting to your SSID?
Have the latest driver and firmware updates for your wireless card and router?
Is it possible for you to hard wire the computer into the router to see if you still have these speed problems?

The worst case scenario if you think it is the router is you reset it to factory defaults and put the security back on yourself, which we can help guide you if needed.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Originally posted by: jdw2
Do your other computers experience the same problem or just yours?

Just mine as far as I know. My roommate on the other wireless says he is pinging around 200 on WoW and my other roommate has been out of town.

Are you sure you are still automatically connecting to your SSID?

No idea what that is. I just Googled it and I cannot find what it would be on my wireless, or even how to check if I am connecting to it.

Have the latest driver and firmware updates for your wireless card and router?

Yes

Is it possible for you to hard wire the computer into the router to see if you still have these speed problems?

I do not own an Ethernet cable long enough to reach, otherwise I would. That and the problem with the router being locked in my roommate's room.

The worst case scenario if you think it is the router is you reset it to factory defaults and put the security back on yourself, which we can help guide you if needed.

If I reset it to factory default, I would have to reconfigure it for me and my roommate. I would prefer to resolve this without having to reconfigure mine and my roommate's wireless adapters. It's quite an arduous task, especially since he has an adapter I am not familiar with.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I am still experiencing this problem. After only a few seconds of being connected to the Internet, my connection will rapidly decline down to 2Mbps.

Could the wireless adapter just be dieing, or does the problem lie elsewhere?

EDIT: Now the connection is just shutting off completely after about five or so minutes. The signal icon will turn red and the Link light on the wireless adapter will turn off - disconnecting me from the Internet.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing this and/or how to fix it? My roommate is having no trouble staying connected, so it leads me to believe that the adapter might be dieing.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Is this normal for a 54MB/s DSL connection?

 

[NickOlsen8390]

Your DSL isn't 54MB/s thats your connection from the computer to the router, your DSL is more like 3Mb/s note the Mb/s not MB/s there is a big difference.
I would look at interference, That speed is based on your signal. If its going all the way down to 1 that means that both your router and laptop are having to turn the transmit all the way up to stay connected, and dropping the speed.
Download netstumbler and see what other networks are around you, change your channel on your router to 1,6,11 which ever is less populated, dont change it to something else other then 1,6,11

 

[Chapbass]

I had a computer like that come in a few days ago. Exact same problem. Using a test USB wireless adapter, it stayed at 54mb just like normal. I believe the resolution was replacing the adapter. Did the problem with the faulty adapter at both the customers house and at the shop.


just my .02

 

[Stg-Flame]

Originally posted by: NickOlsen8390
Your DSL isn't 54MB/s thats your connection from the computer to the router, your DSL is more like 3Mb/s note the Mb/s not MB/s there is a big difference.
I would look at interference, That speed is based on your signal. If its going all the way down to 1 that means that both your router and laptop are having to turn the transmit all the way up to stay connected, and dropping the speed.
Download netstumbler and see what other networks are around you, change your channel on your router to 1,6,11 which ever is less populated, dont change it to something else other then 1,6,11

Well, I'm not on a laptop, but when we reconfigured the router, my roommate did set it to channel 9. He said it was the best channel and since I had no prior experience with wireless networks, I wasn't about to question him on it.

I will change the channel and see what happens.

 

[spidey07]

Channel 9 is actually the worst channel there is - it competes with both channel 6 and 11 which are the defaults on a lot of gear. I wouldn't trust what he has to say any longer.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Edit

I got an e-mail from my friend and he said that the channel and encryption status is most likely the combined problem. The channel - for reasons already stated here; and the encryption status - possibly incurring delay when trying to encrypt four separate signals at once (my third roommate has his laptop on our network which I forgot about).