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Wireless router latency problems


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#1
Nate7410

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I'll try to give you as much information as I can think of, so that you can help me. If you need to know anything more, please ask.

I have a new laptop and to supply internet to it, I bought a DLink DGL-4300 router. Before the router arrived, I'll admit we were connecting to a nearby wireless network. It may have been a neighbor's, or the school's across the street. Anyway, we weren't experiencing any unusual latency.

Ever since receiving the Dlink router, setting it up, and connecting to that network, we've been experiencing intermittent spikes of extreme latency. Sometimes the internet will just hang indefinitely for 30 seconds or a minute, and sometimes it just goes very slow. We notice this most often while playing World of Warcraft, but that may be because that's what we do most often on the laptop. Now, I believe this problem originates with the router. We (my girlfriend and I) can both be logged into World of Warcraft, at the same time, on the same server, and she'll be experiencing the massive lag spikes on the laptop, while I'm experiencing nothing of the sort on the desktop PC. So I don't think the problem is our ISP, or World of Warcraft's servers. Also, the laptop never had this problem while it was connected to the other wireless network, so I believe it has to be something to do with our router and our network.

The laptop always shows excellent signal strength, even when the internet isn't moving.

I called Dlink tech support and the tech told me he was pretty sure it was interference from my cordless phone, so we unplugged it and bought a plug-in phone. Still have the problem.

I've tried various things in the network settings.. I've tried changing the channel on the router, and it hasn't made a difference. I've tried disabling WEP, and it didn't make a difference. I've tried lowering the MTU, and that didn't help either.

In case this helps you to diagnose the problem, I'll describe exactly what the latency looks like. While playing WoW, when the lag strikes, it causes actions to take a very long time.. like casting a spell will go on and on and on until it finally goes 20 seconds later. Sometimes I'll be able to run around seemingly as usual, but non-player characters in the environment will be idle and unresponsive. Sometimes, this is followed by everything speeding up for a second and rapidly catching up, but sometimes it just skips to catch up. Usually the latency bar will remain green and still show a good latency, even while this is going on. Other times, it goes red and shows 3000-9000ms latency, although oddly, this usually only comes with less extreme effects.

This problem is not exclusive to WoW, by any means. I've noticed it while browsing web pages. Sometimes they just won't load, for a minute or more.. just, nothing happening.

I'm not very knowledgable about networking. You are. Please, tell me what to do to put an end to this. There's no reason that I can see why this should be happening. I would be deeply grateful to anyone who can help me fix this. I'll try anything you suggest, or run any tests that you need me to run.

Thanks.

edit: I tried changing to a different router channel again, and so far my girlfriend says she's not experiencing any lag.. but, I'm not getting my hopes up. Sometimes it can go for a long time, hours, without any problems, and then all of a sudden, it goes haywire.

edit: The latency bar started to go yellow, and then red, though it only went to 610ms. Exiting the game and repairing the connection solved the problem for the moment, as it was back to the green when I logged back in. However, I don't want to have to do this regularly.

Edited by Nate7410, 31 January 2008 - 03:20 AM.

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#2
hfcg

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Hello, and welcome to Geeks To Go.
It sounds like you have an interference problem, or a slow INTERNET service.
Can you tell me what speed your service provides?
Wireless speeds are slower than wired, and the Bandwidth is divided among the computers using the connection.
Interference may come from
  • The wireless network you where connected to.
  • Fans.
  • Light dimmer switches.
  • Home appliances.
  • Cordless phones.
  • Garage door openers
  • The list of electrical devices goes on.
With your router connected, Try connecting to the other wireless network for testing purposes.
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#3
Nate7410

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I think the speed is 54mbps.

If it is an interference problem, what can I do? Keep trying different channels on the router?
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#4
hfcg

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I think the speed is 54mbps.

You are looking at the router.
What I am looking for is the speed that you are paying for from your Internet service provider. (Dial up-56K, Dsl-Up to 5M, Cable up to 8M)
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#5
Nate7410

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Well, it's AT&T Yahoo DSL.. I'm not sure of the exact speed. On their website it says "Speeds up to 6mbps."
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#6
hfcg

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Try moving the router, even just a little.
I would also like to ask you if the same thing happens with both of the computers hard wired?
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#7
Nate7410

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I don't know, I've never had them both hardwired... I was just thinking of that, though. If I can't find a way to fix the wireless, then that's what I will do.

How do I hardwire them both up to the DSL? I wouldn't know where to plug the laptop in. Do I need to buy some more hardware?

Thank you.
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#8
hfcg

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You hardwire the laptop up to the router, just like the desktop.
I would like to ask you to do that just to see how it works.
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#9
Nate7410

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So, all I have to do is use a cat5 cable to connect the laptop to one of the ports on the router?
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#10
hfcg

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Yes. Connect the Cat5 cable (with rj45 connectors) from your ethernet port to the router, just as you did your desktop.
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#11
eskimo1979

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I have tried all the "solutions" suggested by everyone from freinds and family to tech support at D-link, ATT, and WoW. I think here is nothing that can be done about the lag and disconnecting from WoW on a wireless router. Of all the threads I've read, nobody has ever mentioned the data packets sent and received by wireless routers. I am not a professional so by all means ask more questions, but I beleive that because of the nature of the online games, there is too much information constantly streaming for the wireless routers to keep up. So much info that packets are being sent and received with incomplete info. I used my system on a freinds router, with a cat5e cable and had no problems at all. I hope this helped a little. good luck.
I know this is a year old thread, but just a little info nobody may have shared with you.

Edited by eskimo1979, 14 January 2009 - 12:12 AM.

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