What's killing my computer's internet speed?

Right, but (as I initially missed myself), Qadgop’s problem seems to be localized to one particular device, while others on the same wifi network apparently seem fine?

Apparently nothing has been moved or changed, so that would seem to point to either:

  • a wifi adapter starting to fail, perhaps intermittently, or, possibly
  • some new source of interference, perhaps closer to the problematic device than others?

I have heard anecdotal reports of things like microwave ovens interfering with wifi, but never seen any such behavior myself…

I can confirm that anecdotally, since I had a wifi router which would be jammed by the microwave oven (if the router was left to its default wi-fi channel settings).

check your DNS settings.
(it is always DNS)

open a Command prompt and type “ipconfig /all”
find the results for “DNS servers” for your system and for your wife’s.

Interesting. As I said, I have never experienced it. Presumably this can be fixed by changing to a different wifi band, though I have never had to do that.

In Qadgop’s case, one has to wonder: is there anything recently new in the picture?
Not necessarily network related, and maybe not even in your house?

Another aspect: if the slow throughput is related to a specific download source, it’s possible the remote server is throttled or otherwise not pushing data as fast as the receiver can receive.

Even glass doors can cause issues. In one case, the router worked fine but was sitting in a small living room/den. It had old glass doors and whenever they were closed, WiFi speed decreased for devices on that side of the house.

Pretty rare, but an actual issue. I would guess some older heavy wood doors could cause similar issues.

My phone gets WiFi great almost everywhere in the house. The shower wall though pretty well blocks the signal though. So I had to be creative to have WiFi in the bathroom. I think there is a metal mesh involved in the shower wall and that is the problem. A minor Faraday cage effect maybe. I’m honestly unsure, maybe just the ceramic tiles are enough.

OK, ever since I did the Windows 10 update this AM that the system has been nagging me to do for months, internet speed has risen to meet my needs.

Everything is back to norbal.

Maybe a driver issue then.

A mystery it remains. We can call it a Tom Bombadil event.

Sounds like it may have been a driver problem, then… maybe caused by a previous update?

I’m in two minds about the Windows frequent update habit: it can fix things quickly, but it can break things too. If for example they push out a new driver which hasn’t been well tested with a wide range of devices.

There is something to be said for “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”…

I did see a guy in a blue jacket walk past this AM, but no yellow boots.

Yeah, that’s why I kept putting it off. Past updates have occasionally made life harder.

Interesting. My wife’s Win 10 computer choked after an update a few weeks ago. I got into safe mode, removed the update, and rebooted, and it worked fine after that. It even fixed her camera which was all blurry. I don’t know that this has anything to do with your problem, but it’s suspicious. What brand of computer do you have?

Lenovo. It’s rather older. Pentium G2020 running at 2.9 GHz

Microwaves generally operate at 2.45 GHz, rather close to the 2.4 GHz WiFi band.

Going to a 5 GHz band will typically help. I had a dual-band router in my kitchen that I evenutally converted to 5 GHz-only when the microwave started killing my Zoom sessions.