Baffled! Wifi is slowing down my PCs

Hi All

This is a new one on me but my wifi seems to be killing my PC performance and I am not just talking about internet stuff, the whole Windows 7 operating system is affected on my Desktop PC with a USB wifi adapter and a netbook with a built in wifi adapter...

Let me explain how I have come to this conclusion...

I was experiencing a VERY slow machine it was taking a long time to boot, it was freezing and was very sluggish. I suspected a virus and ran EVERY scan possible to no avail. I disabled nearly everything uninstalled unnecessary programs, but again could not pin point it. I suspected it was my hard drive so defragged it but still didn't work. Thought it was my bittorent client but changed that with no success. Did a windows repair, even did a cluster scan on HDD and there were some damaged so thought it was my harddrive failing and was about to give up hope, when VERY oddly last night I suddenly lost access over my network (via wireless) to my WD Cloud network drive. It showed up in explorer under networks one minute and was gone the next.

Peer Networking Identity Manager could not start and had become corrupt. I followed this guide:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/error-1068-windows-could-not-start-the-peer/647907b2-5ba6-4fc5-b724-266bdfaddd37

..and I deleted idstore.sst it then let me start Networking Identity Manager but I still couldn't see my network drive after several restarts....

I borrowed a homeplug for the desktop and connected my PC via Ethernet and it suddenly started to run LIGHTENING fast but I don't just mean for internet stuff everything such as windows explorer etc became more responsive so it got me thinking... Is my Wifi Adapter faulty and slowing my machine???

I started reading up on.. Could a wifi adapter slow your machine... and there wasn't much out there. Then I realised round about the time we switched routers to join another provider my wife said that her netbook was also running SLOW!!!

I tried to increase the speed with everything again to no avail and just thought it was old, but I had a brainwave.... I connected the netbook via etherenet and same thing happened LIGHTENING fast for EVERYTHING!!!

Which meant it MUST have been some settings in the router!!??? But how the hell can a router slow down your whole machine? Not possible surely? I found this after browsing for a long time:

"First, some multi-band (802.11 a/b/g) clients or routers get confused and start flip-flopping between modes, either at the client end or in the router. The fix is to set the client and the router to '802.11g-only'."

I checked my router settings and sure enough it was set to AUTO I changed it to 802.11b only with a fixed channel and BAM!!!! My network was instantly visible over wifi again but not only that the performance was a 100% improvement even over wifi. My webpages load instantly but also windows explorer is quicker at building file structures, desktop programs that don't use the internet are quicker how can this be? The netbook was faster in all aspects too.

If I put it back to Auto it becomes sluggish again, the downfall is though on 802.11b I get half the speeds I would get for torrent download on Auto and transferring files to my network drive is a joke it will take an hour do a file that previously only took about 5 minutes, so I need a compromise!! I don't really understand why this is happening or how to get the best out of router but here is what my settings look like:



In terms of spec can't remember exactly off the top of my head but running windows7 x86 4gig of performance ram, quadcore AMD etc. I should not have windows running bear minimum acting so sluggish for sure, but it's weird that it is on 2 machines and also on my Raspberry Pi over wifi runs VERY badly!??

 

Slow DHCP from the router could be the issue.

Statically assign an IP address to your wireless card and test it.

 

Thanks for the quick response, how do I assign an IP to the wireless card itself, will that be in the router settings?

Thanks in advance

 

No.

Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections

Right click wifi connection, go to properties.

Highlight internet protocol version 4 and click properties. Set it there. IP, subnet and default gateway (address of router).

 

Thanks I can see exactly where to put it and sorry for being so thick but what exactly I am I putting there? The IP address to access the router is 192.168.0.1 I tried subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 then wasn't sure for default gateway so tried the ones in my router settings but said I had an IP conflict and wouldn't connect at all

I have this on my current setup. Does this look normal? Sorry I am a network noob!!!

 

IP 192.168.0.8
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1

 

Thank you set that up and the PC was much more responsive even on the "auto" modes, I could transfer to my network drive, but couldn't load any webpages presumably cause this is just to test the card and I can't use a static IP address?

Where do I go now does it sound like a Slow DHCP? What exactly does that mean?

I did Google slow DCHP some people said that Bonjour Service can cause this so tried disabling but it did not make difference.

Thanks for your help and patience

 

DHCP= Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It assigns the info to your machines that we set manually. If its slow to do it, and some older routers are (or if they are failing), then you can speed the computer up accordingly by assigning it yourself. XP had a real problem with this, but I've not seen it in Windows 7 or 8 (they just time out and just boot normally).

Odd that you couldn't browse though. Go one step further.

For your DNS settings, try the following:

Primary: 192.168.0.1


-or-

Primary: 8.8.8.8 and Alternate: 8.8.4.4

 

WOAH!!!

That worked like an absolute charm, it is running at incredible speeds over wifi now! Thank you so much :-D:-D

I just needed to add the DNS server thing! Thanks and I learnt a bit more about networking too

 

Glad it worked out

 

Also, if you don't want to run into future issues with IP conflicts, you can do this to each of your computers, using a unique IP address.


It can be anywhere from

192.168.0.2 -> 192.168.0.254

You have already used 192.168.0.8 though, so don't duplicate it.

 

Thank you!!! I can't believe how long I spent trying to figure this out and finally it's solved! I was ready to bin the damn thing haha.

 

You might have to at some point. Routers seemingly have limited lifespans and I've always found that DHCP server is one of the first to go. This buys time though.