A Tale of Internet Troubles

[ad_hominem]

Seeing as you people seem to be pretty well versed on technical issues, I thought I'd see if you could solve a genuine PC mystery story.

For the past couple of days, my wireless internet connection has been very shoddy. I've been getting little to no connectivity, with hours passing at a time with me unable to browse the web at all. My computer, however, seems to think everything is working fine when I diagnose the connection.

Today, however, I answered a phone call on Skype, expecting it to be a short-lived mess that kept cutting out. Instead, not only did the phone call work perfectly, but during the time it was being made the rest of my internet worked as well. Since then I've been calling the Skype Test Call service, and each time I do I get a decent connection for the 50 seconds the call lasts.

So, any idea what the hell is going on with my internet, and how I can make it work a bit more regularly than at the moment?

Cheers.

[ErikKiller]

Hmm my friend has the same issue.
The thing he does is that he goes to Trackmania, goes into a game, minimizes it and begins surfing ze web.
Probably helps you a bit.

[BubbleQ]

Maybe your internet provirder was fixing somettihng and did not tell you about it? Otherwise, I have no idea^^

[coder0xff]

I can only speculate as to what's causing it (do have some ideas, but they'd be impossible to test or directly correct). I think your best bet is to try some of the standard troubleshooting procedures and see if any of them happen to fix it.

Connect to your router by ethernet cable - this will establish whether it's your wireless network or something else that's to blame.
If the problem continues, try a different computer, then try a different router (if available, otherwise connect computer directly to modem), and lastly contact your service provider.

If the problem is fixed, it's most likely a wireless problem. Try elevating your router (off the floor), and your computers antenna if possible. Change wireless channels on the router setup (if pre-wireless N). Make sure sources of interference are not nearby the antennas (other network hardware like the modem, TVs, microwaves, etc.). Try bringing the router and computer closer together. If you establish that it is a wireless problem and one of these temporarily fixes it, but is not a viable permanent solution, you may want to try getting a wireless-N router and receiver. It uses frequency hoping to automatically find frequencies that are working best. Naturally, it's still not a guarantee in an inhospitable RF environment.

Of course I have to mention, sometimes a power cycle (or even hard-reset to the OEM defaults) of the router will solve problems.

[Dr. Delta]

Seeing as you people seem to be pretty well versed on technical issues, I thought I'd see if you could solve a genuine PC mystery story.

For the past couple of days, my wireless internet connection has been very shoddy. I've been getting little to no connectivity, with hours passing at a time with me unable to browse the web at all. My computer, however, seems to think everything is working fine when I diagnose the connection.

Today, however, I answered a phone call on Skype, expecting it to be a short-lived mess that kept cutting out. Instead, not only did the phone call work perfectly, but during the time it was being made the rest of my internet worked as well. Since then I've been calling the Skype Test Call service, and each time I do I get a decent connection for the 50 seconds the call lasts.

So, any idea what the hell is going on with my internet, and how I can make it work a bit more regularly than at the moment?

Cheers.

Quality of service, possibly.