Ping appears to shoot intermittently for short periods.
Ping appears to shoot intermittently for short periods.
Hello. I’m unsure if this forum is the right place for my question, but I haven’t found any better options yet. Recently, I assembled my first PC and have been using it with Wi-Fi (built-in chip and antenna). It’s worked fine for nearly a month now. However, over the past few days, my Wi-Fi has been quite unstable. When playing Apex Legends with a friend, everything seems normal until my ping spikes to very high values (2000+) and becomes erratic. It then swings between smooth gameplay and this frustrating series of freeze frames and extreme latency. The game’s analytics show me high ping and packet loss, but my FPS remain steady above 40. For testing purposes, I stopped the game during a recent update and saw download speeds drop to around 10–100kbps, then jump back up to 7 or 8Mbps. When this occurs, the router interface displays a completely blocked wireless channel. I’ll share a picture that clearly illustrates the problem. It might also help to note that according to my router’s display, all incoming data is coming through the channel, and when download speeds return to normal, there’s a sudden surge of outgoing traffic I’ve never seen before. This usually happens around 10–12 pm, though it could shift slightly. It seems to coincide with my usual playtime. Could this happen at other times too? If you have any insight into the cause or a possible fix, I’d really appreciate it. I’m considering switching to a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi (though I’ve been hesitant about the aesthetics), and I’m also thinking about trying another router if possible. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to one. Please let me know if you can provide more details that might help diagnose this issue. Thank you in advance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Consider purchasing a PCIe Wi-Fi adapter to connect your PCIe port for testing. Example link: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513L...SX679_.jpg
Unlikely to resolve the issue. Both devices rely on the PCIe connection (though the native port likely uses another connector) and both employ I/O antennas. @WackyPlaysPS - What you're observing is generally expected for WiFi, especially in busy networks or ones not fully optimized by the access point/router. Are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz when experiencing this delay? Please: Perform a channel analysis on both bands with WiFiman and share the visual results. Take a screenshot of your WiFi configuration (passwords omitted) so we can identify potential improvements. Based on the findings, several adjustments may be possible.
Hello once more. I'm using 2.4Ghz, probably the graphical output from inSSIDer shows my router (which is inSSIDer) as Vladimir, and I also tried Wifiman which gave me around 50mbps down and 12mbps upload last night. Now I'm puzzled about the sudden drop in download speed yesterday. I don't want to add more confusion without fixing the main issue first. Regarding the initial problem: Yesterday evening I played with a friend and everything worked fine. Probably just a coincidence, so I'll keep watching. It's a good sign that there were no issues then. The only changes I made before playing were switching the Wi-Fi channel (inSSIDer suggested less crowded one, though my router said it's the busiest) and updating my DNS server from 1.1.1.1 to Google's public DNS 8.8.8.8. Honestly, networking and Wi-Fi still feel like a big mystery—just like printers, but less frustrating.
The WiFiman app aimed at channel analysis, though speed testing wasn't its main focus. Using inSSIDer should suffice. Avoid 2.4GHz if possible because it faces heavy interference from nearby networks and devices. Your graph shows another broadcast on channel 1. If your neighbor isn’t using WiFi simultaneously, performance shouldn’t drop much, but when they do, both may experience issues. On the 5GHz band, channels 36-48 are free of interference or can be used freely, or even higher channels. Either switch your device to prefer 5GHz or assign a distinct SSID to your 5GHz antenna so it stands out and forces the client to use it. This should help avoid conflicts.
It seems my router isn't even able to handle 5GHz signals. I haven't found any settings related to that frequency and checked the instructions I was given, but Google says my router doesn't support it. I've tried restarting it multiple times without issues, so whatever the issue was, it appears resolved now. It might be connected to my neighbors using their bandwidth during that time or something unrelated to Wi-Fi problems. Perhaps the DNS server only affects web browsing and has little impact on gaming speed. Thanks for your help and patience despite my unclear questions. If anyone has better router options or more details, feel free to share. Have a great day!