Network lag spikes

Hello, Since i moved into my new student appartement i've been having lag spikes every 2 minutes. At peak times i feel like it worse than at non-peak times. The weird thing about it is that my brother, who lives downstairs but connected to the same connection, doesn't have any lag spikes what so ever. Also, on a lan party i didnt have any neighter, so the problem is not my pc. Anyone has a clue what i could be? Skuded.

As you know, tracking down the reasons/causes of lag spikes can involve a little bit of work! Some of the following steps may not be possible for you… but do your best!

Interference with a wifi signal can come from many sources. In addiition the signal can be attenuated by lots of things as well….. distance between the wireless access point and the wireless receiver, and or the presence of metalic objects, walls etc that impede the passage of the signal.

Here's a suggested plan of attack:


1 move your computer to within 2 metres of your WAP…. check to see if there is any improvement.

2 if no improvement then check for interference from:


1. A neighbour's WAP operating on the same or adjacent wifi channel (change channel if possible and choose one that is not "shared")


2. A device that is operating on the same or similar frequencies to your WAP… these include, microwave ovens, DECT phones baby alarms etc.


3. Old Firmware in your WAP or Router… check for updates in the firmware and in your computer's wireless network adapter (update and or roll back as required)


4. Old Bluetooth equipment, old phones etc… Keep them well away.


5. Intermittent faults in your home wiring and the use of home networking over "home electrical mains voltage wiring"


6. Using security (encryption) on your home network but an old router/WAP that's been uplifted from WEP to WPA2 may have an effect on performance but should not normally cause a disconnection.

7. Check to see what processes are running when the lags occur, you can check this via Task Manager and see what applications are using up your CPU cycles…If you prefer a more comprehensive then download and run process explorer:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinte…s/bb896653.aspx

8. Many programs "call home" to update themselves, including Windows Update and of course your AV+AS applications. Whilst any application is updating or checking in its likely to cause a lag, so step 7 is very important from a diagnostic point of view.

9.The indexing service can sometimes cause this sort of problem so check this

10. If anyone has installed P2P file sharing applications (torrents etc.) then this is a likely cause. With access through your firewall, it's practically guaranteed to slow things down and create lags at the very least. Along side file-sharing comes malware (not always, but a lot of the time!) so a thorough check for these sort of applications and code on your computer should be done.

11.Have you tried flushing your DNS cache, clearing browser and other caches, checking for sufficient free disc space, defragging etc ??

12.Running this code before the lag starts and then again immediately the lag starts can be useful information. From a command prompt with elevated privileges (right click and select "Run as Administrator" execute the following:

cmd /c "ipconfig /all > postme.txt & ping bbc.co.uk >> postme.txt & notepad postme.txt & del postme.txt"

Note please use "copy and paste" (Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v) for these commands,(everything in blue) as this will automatically make sure you get the syntax correct!

13. Post back the contents of the two notepad windows that will open and we will advise the next steps.

14. Boot into safe mode with networking via the F8 procedure and try your internet for a short test… do the lags still happen? (Be careful as your protections (AV etc.)will not be working properly in this mode)

15.Create a new user account via control panel "users accounts" log into this new account from a cold boot, check for lags again any difference?

16 Does the lag still happen when connected via Ethernet cable?

17 Please time the lag over a number of cycles and advise.

Post back with the results/outputs from all the above and we will advise the next steps.
Regards
paws


 

Sorry, i when i said it didnt occur on a lan party, i thought it was clear i was talking about the connection WITH an eterneth cable, also at home Could it be the cable itself that is broke?

Hi….

1 I missed the" LAN party" part of your post …sorry! Just to make sure we are speaking of the same thing have a look here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Host-a-LAN-Party

 

2 Is this what you mean by a LAN party? if so we need a list of your equipment, its specs, including the make model number of your router/ modem and particularly the switches and how many participants you have in the party…… if all are connected via Ethernet cable …(provided by you?… or your friends?) and how many computers are in use at any one time and how the electrical mains supply is shared between the members of the party……….

 

3 It's possible that a lower than required mains voltage is arriving at the modem/router/switch/computers, so degrading performance, what steps have you taken to monitor or stabilise the voltage in your set up, for example what type of conditioner or Automatic Voltage Controller are you using?

 

4   yes, its possible to have a dud Cat 5/6 cable but presumably you have tried known good working Ethernet cables?

 

5 Just try the steps indicated in my previous posts but excluding the wi fi elements…. start at number 5 in my previous list, miss out 6 and complete all the rest through to 17 and let us know how things go with each one.

This should provide us with sufficient information to advise on the next steps.

Regards

paws