Member Avatar for pttp

Hi,

The problem occured roughly 3 days ago, where the Wireless Network Connection speed will go from 11mbps straight down to 1kps then back up to 11 again and back down... constantly, 1 second apart.

I'm with BT broadband and so am using the Bthomehub router, and have been for the past few months with absolutely no problems whatsoever.

This happens to all the computers and laptops in the house using the 11b adapters, and with the 54g adapters it doesn't show the 11kbps or 1kbps as it just stays at the 54.0 Mbps with excellent signal, but still manages to be slow, just as slow as the 11b adapter.

I've called up BT and they wasn't much help, just said that our line was fine and it was something to do with the adpaters we have... which I find hard to believe considering that before this happened, all of them was fine and now every single computer and laptop receives 1Kbps Wireless speed no matter how close you are to the router.

This leads me to believe that it has something to do with port forwarding or the internals of the router.. but can't be sure..

Any suggestions or theories will be appreciated!

Thanks for taking the time to help.

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Short diagnosis and most likely cause (based on ’s symptoms and the follow-ups from and ): the behaviour you describe (11 Mbps links collapsing to 1 Mbps while some 54 Mbps clients still show link rate but see poor throughput) usually points to RF congestion/retransmits or the 802.11 protection mechanisms that kick in when legacy 11b traffic is present — those protection modes add real airtime overhead and can drastically cut usable throughput. (h3c.com)

A focused, ordered troubleshooting checklist (do one change at a time and test after each step):

  • Confirm the WAN/internet is fine by connecting one PC with Ethernet to the hub and running a quick speed test (this isolates ISP vs wireless).
  • Measure local LAN wireless throughput (not Internet) with a short iperf test between a wired machine and the wireless client to see if the bottleneck is the radio or the ISP. (documentation.meraki.com)
  • Map the RF environment with a Wi‑Fi scanner (shows SSIDs, channel use and signal) and look for heavy overlap or hidden APs; pick the least crowded non‑overlapping channel. (metageek.com)

Settings and configuration changes to try next (low risk first):

  • Force the AP to “G‑only” or disable 802.11b/legacy rates (if you don’t need very old clients). That removes protection overhead but will stop true 802.11b devices from joining — test carefully. (h3c.com)
  • Manually set the 2.4 GHz channel to one of the non‑overlapping choices (1, 6 or 11) and fix channel width to 20 MHz rather than auto. (wiisfi.com)

Other quick checks and cautions:

  • Move or turn off household 2.4 GHz devices (cordless phones, baby monitors, microwaves) while testing — they can produce heavy interference. (cisco.com)
  • Update NIC drivers and disable aggressive power‑saving or proprietary “throughput optimization” options on client adapters. If these steps don’t pin it down, capture a short iperf run and router wireless stats (retries, retransmits) and post them — they show whether the radio layer or the ISP is at fault.

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Member Avatar for pttp

** Error in the listing **

I mentioned Kbps when I ment to say Mbps

Member Avatar for Spriggan

my vote is for radio or magnetic interfearance.

if there was an issue with port forwarding you wouldn't see the logical link (11Mbps) drop to 1, this happens onyl* if your wireless nic is getting a (or what it thinks is) a weak signal.

any new neighbors with ham radios?

have you tried changing the channel your router uses from 6 (usually default) to 1 or 11?

54Ghz being at a higher frequency may not be getting enough interfearance to drop its signal strength, maybe just enough to slow down it's transmission because it has to resend a bunch of data that's getting messed with en route...

I have seen this happen in wifi crowded areas if there are one or more ::hidden:: networks.

*...In Real Life this can also be caused by software/hardware issues at the client side.

Member Avatar for Spriggan

...on second thought, I would be sure my router/modem firmware and all my device drivers were updated too, just to be sure.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Do you have a cordless phone?

They operate on the same frequenecy as wifi. My wifi goes from 54 to about 3 when im on my phone.

Member Avatar for DenisOxon

I think youi will also find that if you have different wireless cards, running at different speeds, then network will run at speed of slowest card. Therefore these boxes act like hubs, not switches.

Bluetooth uses same frquency, but I have done tests in a classroom and did not find any problems.

Also do you have any neighbours with wireless ? If so try changing your channel number because if you are using same channel then there will be conflicts.

Member Avatar for pttp

Hi, I tried all that was suggested, but there was not much improvement.

There are several routers around my area, but most of them have been around for a while.

I do have a wireless phone, but it's been operational for the past 2 years without any interferance with the router.

Is there a type of device that can scan for interferance? (probably a stupid question. That's what happens when you're desparate for fast internet again... you hope!)

Thanks for your help so far!

Member Avatar for Spriggan

im not even really sure this is real but...

clicky

or you could always get a MIMO router.

Member Avatar for pttp

I have another router, a Belkin MIMO router.

I tried hooking that up to see if the router was the problem, but it was still the same performance.

Wireless kept gettin interupted.

(Packet loss)

Member Avatar for Spriggan

must be a client side wireless device thats scaling back the routers performance like Denis metioned earlier. time to try a bit of everyone's favorite game! proccess of elimination!

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