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silencekit
May 1, 2014


Problem description:
I'm getting extremely slow internet speeds on one computer. Other devices on the same wireless network are unaffected. The connection is often so bad that I am not able to perform a speed test. I lose the connection before it is even able to complete testing. The most recent completed speed test put it at 0.04 mbps download (before telling me it couldn't complete the test for the upload). This makes most online tasks impossible.

One interesting thing that I can't figure out that hopefully points someone more tech-savvy right at the problem: in Network Connections, when I right click the adapter and click diagnose, it resets the network adapter, gives me a very detailed diagnostic report that I can't make sense of, and then my internet connection is terrific for about 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, it slows to a crawl again. (no longer applicable)

Please help. :(

UPDATE: PC gets good internet speed on 5 GHz band, but unusable speed on 2.4 GHz band. It switches to 2.4 GHz automatically when it is in my room, while other computers tested in my room stay connected to the 5 GHz band (and get awesome speed). Why does it automatically do this, and is there a way I can prevent it from doing this? Seems like as long as my PC is on the 5 GHz band it gets great speed.

UPDATE 2: Renamed SSIDs for 2.4/5 GHz bands. PC will connect to 5 GHz band and give good speed on Steam, but trying to use Google Chrome causes it to disconnect and sometimes crash Chrome. Uninstalled/reinstalled Chrome, same results. Using Firefox gives good speed. 2.4 GHz is still consistently less than 1mbps download.

Attempted fixes:
Reset the router
Called my ISP and got a remote reset
Uninstalled/reinstalled latest drivers for my wireless adapter
Reset the adapter
Turned the computer on and off
Moved the computer to a different room to be right next to the router retested this and it helps; automatically connects the PC to 5 GHz
Connected via ethernet (this improves speed)
Used a different wireless adapter

Recent changes:
None. The problem isn't really new, either. I'm just finally deciding that enough is enough and I would like to be able to use this computer online.
--

Operating system:
Windows 10, 64 bit

System specs:
adapter = Qualcomm Atheros AR938x
Intel Core i5-4590
BIOS = American Megatrends Inc. P1.50, 1/15/2015
ASRock board
16 GB ram

I'm not great at computer so please let me know if I missed something that could be helpful.

Location:
NY, USA

I have Googled and read the FAQ:
Yes, extensively.

silencekit fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jun 27, 2017

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Killer Low Life
Sep 6, 2010

What does the diagnostic report say?

Salt Fish
Sep 11, 2003

Cybernetic Crumb
Does your motherboard have bluetooth? You don't have the specific mobo model, some asus boards have it, but if you're using a particular wifi band which I forget you can get interference from bluetooth.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
If you're using any non-Microsoft antivirus or firewall software uninstall it completely (not just disable) and see if that fixes it.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I'll be back at my computer tomorrow and will respond to each.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Killer Low Life posted:

What does the diagnostic report say?

Here's the big ugly report, and apologies in advance for info overload. I don't know what here (if anything) is pertinent:

Troubleshooting report says posted:

Details about network adapter diagnosis:

Network adapter Wi-Fi 2 driver information:

Description . . . . . . . . . . : Qualcomm Atheros AR938x Wireless Network Adapter
Manufacturer . . . . . . . . . : Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
Provider . . . . . . . . . . . : Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
Version . . . . . . . . . . . : 3.0.2.201
Inf File Name . . . . . . . . . : C:\WINDOWS\INF\athw8x.inf
Inf File Date . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, July 16, 2016 11:41:50 AM
Section Name . . . . . . . . . : ATHR_DEV_OS61_OSPREY.ndi
Hardware ID . . . . . . . . . . : pci\ven_168c&dev_0030
Instance Status Flags . . . . . : 0x180200a
Device Manager Status Code . . : 0
IfType . . . . . . . . . . . . : 71
Physical Media Type . . . . . . : 9



InformationalDiagnostics Information (Wireless Connectivity)
Details about wireless connectivity diagnosis:

Information for connection being diagnosed
Interface GUID: 0c6584f4-0c45-48c7-bd1a-972a7cdfb631
Interface name: Qualcomm Atheros AR938x Wireless Network Adapter
Interface type: Native Wi-Fi

Connection incident diagnosed
Auto Configuration ID: 1
Connection ID: 1

Connection status summary
Connection started at: 2017-06-18 13:19:15-045
Profile match: Success
Pre-Association: Success
Association: Success
Security and Authentication: Success

List of visible access point(s): 9 item(s) total, 9 item(s) displayed
BSSID BSS Type PHY Signal(dB) Chnl/freq SSID
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
C4-04-15-3C-9F-4B Infra <unknown> -50 1 3C9F4C
44-94-FC-5D-52-F3 Infra <unknown> -60 6 NETGEAR90
20-4E-7F-03-65-50 Infra <unknown> -51 11 Don't throw food in our yard
22-4E-7F-03-65-51 Infra <unknown> -51 11 optimumwifi
C4-04-15-3C-9F-4A Infra <unknown> -72 5180000 3C9F4C
C6-04-15-3C-9F-4B Infra <unknown> -72 5180000 optimumwifi
52-F5-DA-EB-D7-75 Infra <unknown> -72 5180000 (Unnamed Network)
22-4E-7F-03-65-51 Infra <unknown> -66 5785000 optimumwifi
20-4E-7F-03-65-4F Infra <unknown> -75 5785000 Don't throw food in our yard

Connection History

Information for Auto Configuration ID 1

List of visible networks: 5 item(s) total, 5 item(s) displayed
BSS Type PHY Security Signal(RSSI) Compatible SSID
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Infra <unknown> Yes 100 Yes 3C9F4C
Infra <unknown> Yes 80 Yes NETGEAR90
Infra <unknown> Yes 94 Yes Don't throw food in our yard
Infra <unknown> No 98 Yes optimumwifi
Infra <unknown> Yes 56 Yes (Unnamed Network)

List of preferred networks: 1 item(s)
Profile: Don't throw food in our yard
SSID: Don't throw food in our yard
SSID length: 29
Connection mode: Infra
Security: Yes
Set by group policy: No
Connect even if network is not broadcasting: No
Connectable: Yes

Information for Connection ID 1
Connection started at: 2017-06-18 13:19:15-045
Auto Configuration ID: 1
Profile: Don't throw food in our yard
SSID: Don't throw food in our yard
SSID length: 29
Connection mode: Infra
Security: Yes
Pre-Association and Association
Connectivity settings provided by hardware manufacturer (IHV): No
Security settings provided by hardware manufacturer (IHV): No
Profile matches network requirements: Success
Pre-association status: Success
Association status: Success
Last AP: 20-4e-7f-03-65-50
Security and Authentication
Configured security type: WPA2-PSK
Configured encryption type: CCMP(AES)
802.1X protocol: No
Key exchange initiated: Yes
Unicast key received: Yes
Multicast key received: Yes
Number of security packets received: 0
Number of security packets sent: 0
Security attempt status: Success
Connectivity
Packet statistics
Ndis Rx: 82915
Ndis Tx: 14540
Unicast decrypt success: 3336
Multicast decrypt success: 0
Unicast decrypt failure: 0
Multicast decrypt failure: 0
Rx success: 3386
Rx failure: 59305
Tx success: 2631
Tx failure: 0
Tx retry: 183
Tx multiple retry: 58
Tx max lifetime exceeded: 0
Tx ACK failure: 5127
Roaming history: 1 item(s)
Times: 2017-06-18 13:20:31-302
Roamed from BSSID: 20-4e-7f-03-65-50
Reason: 0x00000008

InformationalDiagnostics Information (Wireless Connectivity)
Details about wireless connectivity diagnosis:

For complete information about this session see the wireless connectivity information event.

Helper Class: Auto Configuration
Initialize status: Success

Information for connection being diagnosed
Interface GUID: 0c6584f4-0c45-48c7-bd1a-972a7cdfb631
Interface name: Qualcomm Atheros AR938x Wireless Network Adapter
Interface type: Native Wi-Fi

Result of diagnosis: There may be problem


Salt Fish posted:

Does your motherboard have bluetooth? You don't have the specific mobo model, some asus boards have it, but if you're using a particular wifi band which I forget you can get interference from bluetooth.

I don't believe so. It is the ASRock H97M Pro4.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/h97m%20pro4/

Alereon posted:

If you're using any non-Microsoft antivirus or firewall software uninstall it completely (not just disable) and see if that fixes it.

I have AVG Technologies free version anti-virus software installed. About to uninstall and see what happens.

Thanks again, guys!

edit:

Update: I uninstalled all AVG stuff, uninstalled and reinstalled Google Chrome, got the latest Windows 10 update, and the problem persists.

silencekit fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Jun 18, 2017

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Just tried connecting via Ethernet. There was a significant improvement when I conducted a speed test. Download showed about 5 mbs and upload about 20. This is still way way slower than other computers on the wireless network.

My roommate suggested that there may be a motherboard issue. I'm not computer savvy enough to know how to localize the test like that, plus it seems like a major undertaking to replace the motherboard without being certain it's addressing the problem.

Any ideas, tech goons? I feel like I'm running out of variables to test

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

silencekit posted:

Just tried connecting via Ethernet. There was a significant improvement when I conducted a speed test. Download showed about 5 mbs and upload about 20. This is still way way slower than other computers on the wireless network.

What download/upload speeds are the other computers getting?



Might as well do some preliminary scans with

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tdsskiller/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/

see if those find any problems.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Zogo posted:

What download/upload speeds are the other computers getting?

Might as well do some preliminary scans with

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tdsskiller/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/

see if those find any problems.

Other computers (including those in the same room as the PC) are consistently getting DL speeds between 35-40 mbps, sometimes as high as 50. Those tools seem useful. I'll check them out when I get home tonight. Thanks!

UPDATE:
I spent all yesterday working on this with my roommate, and we stumbled on some things that feel like parts of a breakthrough, but we don't know how to read them. Here's a summary of our findings yesterday:

1. When my PC is in my room, it gets like 0.05 mbps.

2. When it is in the living room (nearer the router), it gets close to 50 mbps.

3. My 2014 Macbook Pro, connected to the same network, from the same location in my room, gets close to 50 mbps.

4. Using other, fully functional wireless adapters on my PC (that have been tested on other computers), my PC still gets the same 0.05 mbps in my room.

5. (this feels significant) When my PC is in the living room (near the router), our ISP site shows that it is connected on the 5 GHz band (getting awesome internet speed). When it is in my room, it shows that it is connected on the 2.4 GHz band (getting unusable internet speed).

6. When my Macbook is in my room, it is connected to the 5 GHz band (getting awesome internet speed)

Is there a way I can manually tell my PC to stay connected on the 5 GHz band and not switch to 2.4 GHz? Or is there a way anyone can think of to find whatever it is that is telling my computer to make that switch?

silencekit fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Jun 26, 2017

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

silencekit posted:

Is there a way I can manually tell my PC to stay connected on the 5 GHz band and not switch to 2.4 GHz? Or is there a way anyone can think of to find whatever it is that is telling my computer to make that switch?

Are your 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands named the same? If so, I would recommend naming them differently (perhaps just put 2.4/5 on the end of the SSID name), I've had issues when broadcasting both bands with the same SSID name.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


MF_James posted:

Are your 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands named the same? If so, I would recommend naming them differently (perhaps just put 2.4/5 on the end of the SSID name), I've had issues when broadcasting both bands with the same SSID name.

That's interesting. I have no idea. Is that something I can see/edit on my ISP site?

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

silencekit posted:

That's interesting. I have no idea. Is that something I can see/edit on my ISP site?

Do you have your own router, or do you use one supplied by your ISP? Typically there's a management page you can access via the address of the router, which should be listed as the default gateway on your NIC (if you go to the commandline and do ipconfig /all you can find it). I'm not sure what kind of access you can get to it if it's owned by your ISP.

MF_James fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Jun 26, 2017

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Hmm, yeah I'm pretty sure it's owned by our ISP, but I will double check with my roommates. Am I wasting my time to call my ISP and try to explain this issue to them? It's not the kind of thing they would be able to assist with, is it?

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

silencekit posted:

Hmm, yeah I'm pretty sure it's owned by our ISP, but I will double check with my roommates. Am I wasting my time to call my ISP and try to explain this issue to them? It's not the kind of thing they would be able to assist with, is it?

Not sure, if they own it and they configure it (and lock you out of the configuration) then it would be their problem, but if you have access to the configuration you should be able to do it yourself, though I'd be willing to bet the ISP could help you anyway, since there are plenty of people out there that have no clue what a router is, much less how to access it via a webpage.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Alright, named the SSIDs differently to distinguish between 5 and 2.4. This keeps getting more and more bizarre:

1. Still can't get any usable speed on 2.4.

2. Can connect to 5. Get awesome speed browsing the Steam store. As soon as I launch Chrome and attempt to pull up a speed test, I get immediately disconnected from the network (and sometimes Chrome crashes completely).

3. On Firefox, connected to 2.4, do not get usable speed.

4. On Firefox, connected to 5, get great speed (40 - 50 mpbs download).

5. Uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome. Repeated tests, same results.

6. Uninstalled Chrome and deleted all files. Connected to 2.4 on Firefox. Still do not get usable speed.

I'm getting good speed by connecting to 5 GHz band now, but what the gently caress does it even mean? It's kind of annoying that I can't use Chrome, but mainly now I'm just curious about where the problem could possibly lie...

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

Dehumanize yourself and face to Trumpshed
College Slice
What router are you using?

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Alereon posted:

What router are you using?

Hi, sorry for delay. It's a Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router.

http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/WNDR3400V2/WNDR3400v2_UM_23JAN2013.pdf

Jacobus Spades
Oct 29, 2004

It kind of sounds like a lot of your problems are being caused by WiFi signal loss, either because of router placement or cross-interference from too many devices in the immediate vicinity.

Do you live in an apartment complex? Before I got a dual band router the 2.4 GHz in my apartment turned ball crushingly lovely one day with no explanation; come to find out that there were over 22 individual devices generating something like 35 connections in the immediately detectable space in my living room. Apparently our new upstairs neighbors lived in the goddamn future because the majority of the devices were theirs.

What I learned was that the 2.4 GHz band has 3 devices channels but most modern routers are programmed to balance the load between them if they get too crowded. Well with 35 connections the two routers (ours and the neighbor's) were constantly changing the channels of every single device, producing a ridiculous amount of cross-noise and basically knocking all our devices off of the 2.4 GHz.

Once we got everything over to 5 GHz (which has something like 9 spectrum-specific channels) almost all of our connection problems were instantly solved.... well, except that the 5 GHz has a much weaker signal than 2.4 GHz, so not everything stays connected 100% of the time.

If you want to see what things look like in your area you can download something like Meraki WiFi Stumbler which will show the current devices in the area, the channel they are on, and the signal strength and quality of each hotspot and channel combination. If you find that there are any problems spots in your home or if there's a lot of devices showing you might be able to improve your signal on both bands by moving the router to be in a more centralized location or moving your PC closer to the router (even a few feet can make a considerable difference in some cases).

silencekit
May 1, 2014


That all seems totally plausible. I do live in an apartment building in a crowded block in Brooklyn. But my 2 roommates have never had any issues, which would seem to rule out WiFi signal loss from cross-interference, right?

Jacobus Spades
Oct 29, 2004

It honestly depends on the type of device, its location relative to the router, how many walls are between it and the router, and finally how many devices its competing with on the spectrum. I remember another symptom that queued me into it being cross-interference was that the problem got considerably worse in the afternoon when our upstairs neighbors got home and flipped all their poo poo on.

You could try moving another device to the same location and see if it has similar issues, if it doesn't it would be relatively safe to rule out signal loss. If it does though, I would recommend removing/"forgetting" the 2.4 GHz network and leaving just the 5 GHz, that way the device won't try to reconnect to the stronger 2.4 GHz signal if the 5 GHz signal drops temporarily.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


Jacobus Spades posted:

You could try moving another device to the same location and see if it has similar issues, if it doesn't it would be relatively safe to rule out signal loss. If it does though, I would recommend removing/"forgetting" the 2.4 GHz network and leaving just the 5 GHz, that way the device won't try to reconnect to the stronger 2.4 GHz signal if the 5 GHz signal drops temporarily.

Yeah, this is where I'm at right now. The 5 GHz network is totally usable and I have no real issues with it. Forgetting 2.4 GHz is a great workaround. At this point, I'm just curious what in the world is causing my computer to have so many weird issues with the 2.4 GHz network.

ProjektorBoy
Jun 18, 2002

I FUCK LINEN IN MY SPARE TIME!
Grimey Drawer
The 2.4Ghz network is easily crowded and it's not unusual for an adapter to freak out while trying to maintain connection to a 2.4 network among the noise. I'm not at all surprised to see 5Ghz be the part that works best.

In spite of Qualcomm Atheros being usually pretty nice, it may be a good idea to try a different wireless adapter. You may even want to snag a wireless bridge if the problem persists. I don't think the issue is with the PC or OS itself.

That said, disable the Windows Firewall. The one on your router probably works just fine.

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

ProjektorBoy posted:

The 2.4Ghz network is easily crowded and it's not unusual for an adapter to freak out while trying to maintain connection to a 2.4 network among the noise. I'm not at all surprised to see 5Ghz be the part that works best.

In spite of Qualcomm Atheros being usually pretty nice, it may be a good idea to try a different wireless adapter. You may even want to snag a wireless bridge if the problem persists. I don't think the issue is with the PC or OS itself.

That said, disable the Windows Firewall. The one on your router probably works just fine.

Also, your ISP should have firewall services enabled as well.

Flat out, wireless sucks, it's good in theory, but is a pain in the rear end.

2.4GHz band sucks because, as everyone else said, in the USA we have 3 useful channels and when you live in a city where there are 10 residences within 150' of you, you're going to have a bad time.

5GHz is a little better, but due to the wave patterns it doesn't penetrate walls well, a wall that is drywall? It'll probably be fine, 2-3 walls of drywall? You're probably hosed. A wall of concrete/block? Turbofucked. 5GHz also doesn't have the range that 2.4GHz does, so even with clear line of sight, signal strength will drop after a shorter distance than 2.4 would.

silencekit
May 1, 2014


ProjektorBoy posted:

The 2.4Ghz network is easily crowded and it's not unusual for an adapter to freak out while trying to maintain connection to a 2.4 network among the noise. I'm not at all surprised to see 5Ghz be the part that works best.

In spite of Qualcomm Atheros being usually pretty nice, it may be a good idea to try a different wireless adapter. You may even want to snag a wireless bridge if the problem persists. I don't think the issue is with the PC or OS itself.

That said, disable the Windows Firewall. The one on your router probably works just fine.

Have attempted both of these fixes with no results. Tried several wireless adapters. Same results. :/ I haven't tried a wireless bridge. Is there one you can recommend? Thanks for the suggestions!

MF_James posted:

Also, your ISP should have firewall services enabled as well.

Flat out, wireless sucks, it's good in theory, but is a pain in the rear end.

2.4GHz band sucks because, as everyone else said, in the USA we have 3 useful channels and when you live in a city where there are 10 residences within 150' of you, you're going to have a bad time.

5GHz is a little better, but due to the wave patterns it doesn't penetrate walls well, a wall that is drywall? It'll probably be fine, 2-3 walls of drywall? You're probably hosed. A wall of concrete/block? Turbofucked. 5GHz also doesn't have the range that 2.4GHz does, so even with clear line of sight, signal strength will drop after a shorter distance than 2.4 would.

Yeah, it's just baffling to me that neither of my roommates have any connection issues. One of my roommates uses the WiFi on the other side of 2 additional walls and a hallway, and he doesn't have any issues with it. Seems to me like that localizes it to my computer, but that doesn't make sense either.

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

silencekit posted:

Have attempted both of these fixes with no results. Tried several wireless adapters. Same results. :/ I haven't tried a wireless bridge. Is there one you can recommend? Thanks for the suggestions!


Yeah, it's just baffling to me that neither of my roommates have any connection issues. One of my roommates uses the WiFi on the other side of 2 additional walls and a hallway, and he doesn't have any issues with it. Seems to me like that localizes it to my computer, but that doesn't make sense either.

Yeah, poo poo's weird, you could run something like inSSIDer (I think it's still free) from your computer and your roommates and see if there's more/less interference somewhere, then have roommate move his computer into your spot.

Or just settle with 5GHz working, or you could do powerline adapters to get a repeater right next to your computer and then 2.4 would (probably) be usable.

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Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

This is the last free version:
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

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