Connection dips to 1.0mbps when other comp tries to connect

Okay so here's my problem.....

I've lived in this same apartment for over a year, had the same network and the same ISP, and never had any problems with my internet connection. I got a new roommate about 2 weeks ago, and ever since she moved in it's been a headache. I keep trying to narrow down what could be causing it, but I'm running out of ideas.

What it's doing is..... I'll connect fine, at about 54mbps, and then all of a sudden it will dip down to 1.0mbps. It will still say connected, the signal strength will always say good, very good, or excellent, but no websites will load, and if you're connected to any instant messenging programs it will kick you off.

At first I assumed it was a problem with Charter. I got a new modem from them and no luck. The tech came out and replaced all the connections, but still no luck. Then one day me and my roommate were both in the living room, I was on my laptop and she went and got hers. As soon as she tried to connect to the internet, my connection dipped to 1.0 and she wasn't able to connect at all. I had to repair my connection, and eventually connected at 54 again, but she wasn't able to get online the rest of the night. I can stay connected for hours with no problem, but the second she starts up my connection goes bye-bye. She tells me that there are times when I'm at work that she can be connected all day with no problems.

My laptop is a Gateway running Windows XP. My modem is whatever the generic brand Charter gives you. My router is a Linksys RangePlus Wireless G. The network was set up on my computer, and all of my previous roommates who have connected have done so on computers running XP. My new roommate's computer is a Sony running Windows Vista.

Could this be some sort of XP/Vista conflict? Does my router not like her computer? Do I need to reinstall the router and create a new network connection? Or might there be something she can do on her computer that can fix this? Any ideas would be great, thanks...

 

3 things come to mind as possibilities.

1) She has every program on her comp set to auto-update.
2) She is running a P2P/filesharing program of some sort.
3) She has malware of some sort that is phoning home.

Her comp is sucking up all the bandwidth and leaving none for you to use.
Might try having her boot into "Safe Mode with Networking" (F8 at bootup) and see if that changes anything.
Also, you might have her go to the Malware Forum and do the Read and Run Me procedure.

 

So let me just make sure I have understood this correctly:

You have a room-mate with a laptop running Vista.

You have a laptop running XP.

You have had a new modem, which is a generic charter one.

If these are all correct, then please answer the following questions:

1. What happens to the connection when your flatmate is already connected and you try to connect?

2. Do you have any security or encryption on the router?

3. How exactly do you repair the connection when this problem occurs?

4. What security/anti virus/malware programs are running on your computer?

5. When was your last full scan with all of the products?

6. What security/anti virus/malware programs are running on your room mate's computer?

7. When was your room mate's last full scan with all of the products?

8. Do you know if your router is configured to hand out IP addresses?

Sorry we are not helping yet, but information is the key to success.

 

Thanks for the reply.

As for 1 and 3, I'm not really sure how her comp is set up or what might be on there. I'm pretty sure she's not very secure, she asked me what free security programs I would recommend because she doesn't want to pay for Norton, and when I started naming things she told me to write them down because she would never remember.

As for 2, you're right on the money. She has Soulseek running pretty much the whole time she's online downloading music. I had never really thought about this being a possible cause though. I'll tell her to disable it and see if that changes anything next time she tries to connect.

 

Thanks for the reply.

1. When she's connected and I try to connect it's the same thing, she gets booted and I can't get on for a few minutes.

2. Yes, the router has SSID.

3. I right click the icon in the system tray and click repair.

4. I'm using Online Armor for my firewall, AVG, Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Guard, Spyware Blaster, Firefox with AdBlock and NoScript, and HiJack This.

5. My last scan with AVG was about 2 weeks ago, my last scans with Adaware and Spybot were within the past week.

6, 7. I don't really know what she has on her computer, but I'm under the impression she isn't very protected and probably hasn't done any scans recently.

8. That I don't know.

 

Thank you for your responses.

Just for your information, SSID is the network name, not a form of encryption. Encryption formats generally come in either WEP, WPA or WPA2 form.

The easiest way to identify encryption is: Does the computer ask for a passkey when you try to connect to the wireless network? Or did it ask for one first time you connected?

Could you ask your room mate to attempt to connect to the network with her peer-to-peer software temporarily diasbled you already connected?

 

Oh, duh lol. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to networking and sometimes I mix up my terms. Yes it is encrypted, I believe it's WPA. There is a password to connect to the network.

Last night I got her to disable Soulseek and it didn't make a difference, she still couldn't connect. However, we disabled IPv6 and so far so good, we were both able to connect and no one got kicked off. Do you think that might be what was causing it? Or am I jumping to conclusions too quickly?

 

It sounds like it might be. I have had many problems with IPv6 myself. If you have disabled it and everything works normally, it should be fine to leave it disabled.