I've been experiencing a frustrating issue with my PC's Wi-Fi connection. Recently, while using my computer, I noticed severe lag spikes, with ping going upwards of 5,000. Initially, it seemed to fix itself, but after returning home from my girlfriend's place, the situation got worse. Now, my Internet speed is ridiculously slow—I'm measuring it in bytes, as Steam struggles to update. This has been ongoing for over seven hours! What's strange is that other devices like my phone and Switch are working perfectly fine. I've tried both my Wi-Fi card and a USB adapter without any improvement, and I've uninstalled the Wi-Fi card to see if that helped, but it didn't. My PC connects to the network without any issues, yet everything loads extremely slowly, making it feel like there's no Internet. I can't even run a speed test. I've also scanned for viruses, and my computer came up clean. If anyone has any insights or questions that could help identify the problem, I'd really appreciate it!
4 Answers
Are you having issues connecting to other Wi-Fi networks? If so, it could be a hardware or software problem with your device. If not, it might be a problem specific to your home network.
What kind of connection speed are you seeing when you check your Wi-Fi properties? Not the Internet speed, but the link speed of your Wi-Fi connection itself. You can find it in the settings for your Wi-Fi adapter.
Have you tried moving your PC closer to the Wi-Fi router? Sometimes physical barriers can mess with the signal. Also, have you noticed any new metal objects that might be causing interference? Check your Wi-Fi signal strength too; if it's only three out of four bars, that could be part of the issue. However, given that your phone is getting decent speeds, it might just be something funky with your PC.
I wish I could move it, but my setup doesn't allow it. The PC's been in the same spot for a while, and no changes have been made recently. But the Wi-Fi signal is usually good, so I'm not sure why it's only affecting my PC.
If you have an Android phone, try using an app like Wi-Fi Analyzer. It can help detect if you're dealing with a weak signal or interference from nearby networks. Sometimes changing the Wi-Fi channel can fix issues like this!
I checked the 2.4 GHz channels, and they show lower latency across several ranges but a lot of interference from neighbors. The 5 GHz channels have a neighbor on the same channel as mine, and their latency is all over the place. I guess that could be part of my issue.
I checked, and it says the aggregated link speed is 86/29 Mbps right now. I feel like this speed has fluctuated quite a bit since all this started.