Wifi slow on one PC (802.11ac)

[Zhaoman]

Hi all, hope you're keeping well!

I've just upgraded to 250Mbps Virgin Media and using their Hub 3.0 it seems to work fairly well for most of my devices. However when I look at network speed my main desktop PC is only getting around 15-20Mbps despite my laptop (Surface Book from 2015) hitting network speeds of 700+Mbps and all other devices getting 200+Mbps despite also being right beside the main PC so I don't think it's the distance.

I tried Speedtest.net which showed I was getting 15Mbps down and 20Mbps up which I thought was strange. Other devices report 150Mbps+ download which I am happy with. I checked the network settings on my desktop PC and the protocol shows as Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). I'm using the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 which is built in to the mobo (MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450I-GAMING-PLUS-AC).

I'm not a power user but I do want to be able to get what I'm paying for especially on my main PC. 150Mbps+ would really help with some large files I occasionally have to download for work. I a bit stumped what to do to improve things. Any help appreciated!

[DDY]

Sometimes I have weired issues like that and changing the wifi channel might help.

[Jasp]

Hi, Does it use two little stick antenna? had the same issues with my MSI carbon AC and turned out to be them, replaced with a different antenna and not had any issues since.

[Saracen999]

Check and see if there are any driver issues, and/or updates.

I switched to a WiFi 6 router a little while back and while almost everything connected fine, one Dell laptop refused to connect at all. Well, a couple of hours of head scratching later, i finally thought to check what should have taken me about 60 seconds and checked ax comptibility, only to find there's a problem with a couple of Intel chipsets. One driver update later and it was working perfectly.

As mine was, I believe, specifically ax-related I presume it won't be your problem but something similar might (so look at chipset in device manager and search on that for known issues. You never know.

Failing that, just be aware radio can do funny things. I had a 42Mhz radio in the car and was parked on a frien d's driveway, just about to depart, while talking to another friend. I had a strong signal, move about 6 feet forward, no signal at all. Another few feet, back to strong signal. This was consistent and repeatable, with a dead spot about 5 to 8 feet long, talking to someone about5 miles away. There was a blind spot, but I never did fnd out why. Nothing obvious, though.

Try moving either your PC or the router a bit, preferably closer and with direct line of sight, just to make sure you do not have a similar issue.

[Zhaoman]

So I tried the obvious stuff first like changing position of my PC slightly and then updating the Wifi driver but they didn't help. I got the most peculiar result today from Speedtest of 0.4Mbps down and 9.58Mbps up. What would cause the download speed to be so dramatically slower than the upload?

I'm going to try moving the router to a different location and then try swapping different stick antennas and changing the channel next. I'm hoping placing the router much closer to the PC will do it. I'm open to any other ideas!

[DDY]

If you haven't already, you can also check that the antenna's internal connector is properly seated.

For example;

https://hardforum.com/threads/asrock...issue.1932953/

[Zhaoman]

After a few engineer visits from Virgin Media, this issue is now resolved! A quick update for anyone who might be having similar problems in future:

The main problem was terribly erratic download speeds (but unaffected upload speeds) which, I'm told by the Virgin Media engineers, was due to a signalling problem on a downstream channel. This was likely caused by a faulty splitter which they couldn't find in the house. So they installed a new line which fixed this issue. I'm now getting 250Mbps down consistently which is great.

The second problem was specifically to do with my desktop PC which had much lower Wifi speeds than the rest of my devices. I found that because the router and my PC were quite low to the floor (i.e. hidden away) and after moving both of them around, I found there was a large tub of paint in the signal path (we just moved into this place so have a bit of DIY still to do). When I moved this tub of paint away my Wifi signal to the PC was much better.

So that's it! Easy in hindsight but at the time a bit of a head scratcher. Thanks for all the suggestions and help!