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Question

Periodic bandwidth drops

Jan 6, 2015 6:15PM PST

Hello,

I started to get periodic bandwidth drops on my connection.
I live in a crowded house so at first i thought it was a random problem + heavy usage and would go away after some time but it has been 2 weeks and i still get the same problems.
So the way the problem occurs is every 8-15 seconds i get a bandwidth drop, meaning connections bandwidth drop to almost none and recovers. The period is sometimes shorter sometimes longer. The way i can monitor this is through speed tests or online video games.
Here is a graph of download speed test:
http://i.imgur.com/E84LohO.png
And also you could note that i get short dc s on online games when the drop happens.

I tried to find the cause of it numerous times but i couldn't come up with a solid cause. I don't know if this is network related or PC related but i think it is PC related. Some reasons i'm thinking that are i speed tested on my laptop and despite the results were somewhat similar, i didn't get nearly as big of a drop as i get on my desktop, i tried connecting to my personal hotspot and i got very similar results(although this is not a solid reason since i get very poor signal at home) and pretty much the most significant reason is that my roommates are not experiencing similar drops.

I am no expert at internet connections and unfortunately i don't have access to interface for gathering further information, so i'm stuck with it unless i get help Sad

I don't know what specs are relevant so i'll post whatever you guys need.

Thank you for your time.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Isn't that normal?
Jan 6, 2015 11:14PM PST

I've seen such for years. And now over WiFi even more. Why do you think it should be steady or a straight line? That is, how the internet works, it will vary.
Bob

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Not a straight line, but not a huge dive either.
Jan 7, 2015 2:12AM PST

Hey Bob,

To clarify, i am not aware of this problem because i monitor the bandwidth graph regularly, i noticed it because it affected my regular activities. And the other thing is i don't expect it to be a straight line but nor it to have a huge dive every so often, but rather small hills, kinda like a wave "^^^^^^^". Thank you for your reply,
Ugur

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So you know it will vary.
Jan 7, 2015 2:20AM PST

With more and more folk doing Netflix it will strain your ISP at times. Folk consistently report slowdowns in the evenings.

WiFi is subject to interference so again a well done topic. What's interesting is that pulling back to 802.11g on routers can help.
Bob

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The thing is...
Jan 7, 2015 10:02AM PST

Hey again Bob,
Ah, i'm sorry i forgot to mention. All those speed tests were done in the middle of the night, therefore not nearly as much Netflix actions were going on as you think if not at all. Actually through the interface i can see what devices are connected and it was only my PC and couple of cell phones. And another thing to note is
i was getting full bandwidth promised by ISP which is 15-16 Mbps, except between drops. I also monitored my network usage through task manager and videos and streams indeed load as periodic chunks BUT none of them is really big enough to consume nearly all the bandwidth.
As i said i am convinced this is not an every day wireless network issue, since i've been living here for 3 months and the problem was non-existent until last couple of weeks.
Thank you for your reply, i really appreciate your time,
Ugur

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Then the final test.
Jan 7, 2015 11:15AM PST

No router. Just your PC to the cable modem. If it varies it's your ISP and the web.
Bob

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Wish i could..:(
Jan 7, 2015 1:50PM PST

It's so hard to test that considering i have to set my PC up upstairs: take the monitor the case, and just to figure out where the problem is... I don't think i will do that for now, i think i would rather have a worse connection for now especially since i might move out in the next couple of weeks. Happy
Thank you once again,
Ugur

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Answer
Edit:
Jan 6, 2015 7:09PM PST

I just switched 802.11d from disabled to enabled, now don't really know what that is but either it helped or just randomly something happened because i am getting significantly softer drops meaning i don't lose all the bandwidth but drop is still there.