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Wireless Woes

RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
edited October 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
I am currently on a network at home where my two roommates are connected via ethernet, and I am on a wireless connection. Whenever either of them run a torrent, it seems to be okay. Whenever I run one, it seems to suck up all the bandwidth and their connections slow to a crawl. In fact, sometimes my mere being on the network slows down their speeds, and it speeds up when I disconnect. Is there anyway to figure out why this is the case? I hate being asked to disconnect while they're on WoW.

RMS Oceanic on

Posts

  • Enos316Enos316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    Make sure your torrent client isn't booting up with Windows and running in the background. Also, cap your upload on the torrent client to like 10 kb. If that doesn't help then run some anti-spyware software (ad-aware), you might have some malware running that would kill your speed.

    Enos316 on

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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    Tried it, it didn't do anything, and I still got a question from my brother last night asking me if I was downloading.

    RMS Oceanic on
  • ihmmyihmmy Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    our previous roommate had a similar issue. Turns it out was from two different issues - 1) she didn't know how to throttle/limit her torrent client and 2)she had a virus on her computer that tried to eat all our bandwidth while her laptop was on. Not sure if either of those apply to you, but that's how it was for us

    ihmmy on
  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    Do you have a shitty router? If it's a particularly awful brand, or god help you an ISP-provided modem/router/AP combo, it may just be unable to handle high bandwidth on both the wired and wireless interfaces.

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  • ErandusErandus Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    See if you can turn on QoS (Quality of Service) in your router somewhere. On the Linksys G router that most people seem to own, you'll find it here.

    Otherwise, look in your torrent client for a way to throttle your max upload to around 75% of the rated upstream for your broadband.

    Erandus on
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  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    In fact, sometimes my mere being on the network slows down their speeds, and it speeds up when I disconnect.

    How's the signal with your PC? Is your machine falling back to 801.11b by any chance? That could negatively impact the other wireless clients.

    Barrakketh on
    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    Barrakketh wrote: »
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    In fact, sometimes my mere being on the network slows down their speeds, and it speeds up when I disconnect.

    How's the signal with your PC? Is your machine falling back to 801.11b by any chance? That could negatively impact the other wireless clients.

    They're connected via wired, 11b fallback shouldn't affect that.

    Would still like to know the kind of router the OP is using here, as well as suggesting he install a bandwidth monitor (does DUMeter still work for this under Vista/7?) and see how much he's using just "idling" at his desktop. TCPView might also help play Spot The Trouble Area.

    PeregrineFalcon on
    Looking for a DX:HR OnLive code for my kid brother.
    Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    PeregrineFalcon wrote: »
    Barrakketh wrote: »
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    In fact, sometimes my mere being on the network slows down their speeds, and it speeds up when I disconnect.

    How's the signal with your PC? Is your machine falling back to 801.11b by any chance? That could negatively impact the other wireless clients.

    They're connected via wired, 11b fallback shouldn't affect that.
    Despite reading the OP several times I somehow overlooked that fact.
    Would still like to know the kind of router the OP is using here, as well as suggesting he install a bandwidth monitor (does DUMeter still work for this under Vista/7?) and see how much he's using just "idling" at his desktop. TCPView might also help play Spot The Trouble Area.

    If his router can let him see the number of connections it's keeping open it would be a good idea to look at that. Old Linksys routers/firmware had a problem where they were allowed to stay open for too long and maybe some applications or his torrent client is being too aggressive/misconfigured and causing the router to bog down.

    Barrakketh on
    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • Enos316Enos316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2009
    RMS Oceanic wrote: »
    Tried it, it didn't do anything, and I still got a question from my brother last night asking me if I was downloading.

    What part did you try? The torrent fix or the spyware?

    If you get to a DOS prompt and type in "NETSTAT" you can see all your open connections. Has to be something running in the background of your PC.

    Or, check your task manager, sort by memory used and end anything that seems out of the ordinary.

    What sort of anti-virus do you run? Try Avast and schedule a boot-time scan of your PC. See what it finds.

    Enos316 on

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