Moved into a two-story house about a month ago and the WiFi situation is driving me insane. We have 1.5 gig fiber. The router is downstairs in the living room, and my gaming PC is upstairs almost directly above it.
At first I was getting around 250–350 Mbps, which I figured wasn’t amazing but was at least usable.
Then I started getting random drops. Games would freeze, Discord would cut out, and sometimes a speed test would show literally 1 or 2 Mbps.
ISP came out and replaced the router with a newer model that’s supposedly better.
Somehow things got worse. I don’t have Ethernet or coax upstairs, so I’ve been looking at WiFi extenders. A friend suggested buying my own router instead, but I’m hesitant to spend more money when I don’t even know what’s wrong.
I tried a couple of signal testing apps and they say I have about 70% signal at my desk.
Does that mean the signal is fine and my ISP is just terrible? Sorry if these are dumb questions. Networking really isn’t my thing.
1.5 gig fiber doesn’t mean your PC will get 1.5 Gbps over WiFi. But dropping from 300 Mbps to 1 Mbps is absolutely not normal. Have you tested the connection downstairs with a device connected directly to the router by Ethernet?
@GoodAfternoon_sun Not yet. My PC is upstairs and I don’t have another computer with an Ethernet port. My phone gets around 600 Mbps when I’m standing next to the router though.
That’s useful, but I’d still want a wired test if possible. We need to separate the internet connection from the WiFi connection before blaming the ISP.
Forget the 70% signal reading. That doesn’t really tell you enough. Install NetSpot on your PC and look at the actual signal in dBm, the band you’re connected to, and the channel. Then compare it with a laptop in the same room if you have one. If your PC is seeing -80 dBm while another device in the same spot sees -60, that would point toward the PC rather than the router.
Is this a desktop PC? If so, stupid question, but are the WiFi antennas actually attached to the back of the motherboard? I’ve seen this exact thing happen after people move houses.
@Householder It’s a desktop, yes. I honestly have no idea what antennas you’re talking about lol.
Look at the back of the PC. There may be two little threaded connectors where antennas are supposed to screw in. Sometimes they’re separate pieces included with the motherboard. If they’re missing or loose, your WiFi performance can be awful.