Poor connections everywhere.
Poor connections everywhere.
Hi, I'm from Belgium, a country in the EU known for poor internet connections, including ADSL. My city is constructing a tram system, which means a lot of construction work. I enjoy online gaming but it often disconnects unexpectedly—sometimes for 2 to 15 seconds every other minute. This disrupts turn-based games and sometimes cuts me off from Discord. It's been happening for weeks. I've already talked to my ISP; they confirmed the line works when checked, so they won't address the issue based on partial connectivity. I don’t have Ethernet access except with a CPL Plus laptop dongle, but my home is in the 180s and I doubt the electrical setup can handle ADSL reliably. I can't use Wi-Fi because we're renting. I've tried speed and ping tests online—my connection is about 10 Mbytes/s and ping stays under 250ms on average (~20ms). I used InSSIDer to check channels; my Wi-Fi is on its own channel with a strong signal of -61 dBm. How can I determine if the problem lies with the ADSL line, my router, or my laptop's Wi-Fi card?
Do you have direct access to the router for temporary Ethernet testing? If yes, you conduct your tests over Ethernet. If everything functions smoothly, the problem likely lies with Wi-Fi. If not, the issue probably involves the aDSL connection. Essentially, you must identify the root cause before investing in repairs.
I tried it with a different laptop for half an hour and it seems to function well on both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. It looks like the issue might be with the laptop's Wi-Fi card, which is still nearly new. Are there other methods to check your laptop's Wi-Fi card?
The issue is depending on the building materials of the laptop and where the antennas are can really determine how well WiFi will work. Also the type of card matters as well. Most Laptop WiFi antennas are built in to the screen. I have heard in the past with Laptops makers using Aluminum to build the laptops chassis and it would block the WIFi and bluetooth signals. As you indicate its a new laptop I would figure it has WIFI 5 or WiFi 6. I do know when I replace my sisters old laptop's WiFi card from WIFi 4 to WiFi 5, it made a world of difference. The other issue is laptop WiFi cards while easy to replace physically. Some laptop manufactures like Lenovo can have a white list in the BIOS of what cards they will allow to work. So that can make it difficult to figure what what cards to buy.