[TriLUG] WiFi quality monitoring

Thu Aug 14 13:08:08 EDT 2014

One thing I seldom remember when first troubleshooting wireless performance 
problems is that I have many devices of my own using WiFi. My Wii uses it for 
updates, Dish Network uses it for various updates and downloads. We have two 
smart phones and I have a Kindle Fire HDX that performs non-scheduled updates 
for various programs as well as content downloads.

So consider the those and other devices you have such as wireless thermostats, 
refrigerators, etc., and then consider that one of your neighbors with some 
technical chops may be using your bandwidth.

Also notice the time of day this happens because after school and early 
evenings, the neighborhood kids will be downloading lots of stuff and taking up 
cable bandwidth.

However the problem could actually be your WiFi router, as you think. I have had 
mine for a couple years and it has worked fine. However I am now seeing random 
loss of connectivity that requires a wireless router reboot. Although I do have 
all of my hardware on heavy-duty UPS devices, problems like this may be due to 
power issues and may be a precursor to needing to replace a UPS battery. I have 
found that both my own TP-link wireless router and the TWBC Ubee cable router 
tend to be sensitive to power issues and won't restore connections even though 
the power to the devices was allegedly never interrupted.

As suggested below, you should definitely try a wired connection for a while and 
see if that helps.

On 08/14/2014 12:49 PM, Robert Dale wrote:
> I had a thinkpad that caused my netgear wifi router to degrade - it
> wasn't just the wifi - and require a reboot after a few minutes. After
> figuring that out, i turned the wireless off and wired in.
>
> Have you tried with the laptop wired (with wireless hardware switch
> off) and not have any issues? I would try turning off all other
> wireless devices and have only the laptop on wifi. And then
> systematically go through all your wireless devices until you find the
> culprit. Also check the forums for your router to see if others had
> issues.
>
> To isolate the microcell, you could turn it off and have something
> wired at the router and transfer data to something wireless.
>
> Good luck.
>
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 12:21 PM, Igor Partola <igor at igorpartola.com> wrote:
>> I have a problem with my new Wi-Fi setup that I cannot make go away using
>> the usual methods. The problem:
>>
>>   - Intermittent but high packet loss over Wi-Fi. This can last anywhere
>> from 2 to 60 seconds where 5-75% of the packets are lost.
>>
>>   - Intermittent high ping times. Normally, I see ping times in the range of
>> 2-3 ms, but about every 10-50 packets it jumps to 100-300 ms.
>>
>>   - Probably related to packet loss, but loss of speed. During normal
>> operation I can easily see iperf speeds of about 80 Mbps. During slowdowns,
>> I am seeing speeds of 2-3 Mbps. There are also times when I see speeds of
>> around 20-30 Mbps for no good reason (no other device on the network is
>> active).
>>
>>   - Random connectivity dropouts on iPhones/iPads.
>>
>>   - All of this happens on both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks.
>>
>> Things I tried/eliminated:
>>
>>   - My laptop normally sits 5 feet away from the router.
>>
>>   - There is only one other Wi-Fi network around me, on a 2.4 GHz band. I do
>> have two Roku's which use Wi-Fi for their remotes, but when issues happen
>> nobody is using them.
>>
>>   - I changed channels to several different values with no success.
>>
>>   - I monitored the noise and signal levels and they tend to fluctuate quite
>> a bit.
>>
>> My current suspicion is that the AT&T Microcell is what's causing the
>> issues, but I have no good way to prove it one way or the other. So the
>> questions:
>>
>>   1. Can a GSM microcell intermittently interfere with 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi?
>>
>>   2. Is there an existing piece of software that can continuously monitor
>> the quality of my Wi-Fi (signal, noise, ping, actual bandwidth via an iperf
>> type test) for 24-48 hours? I'd like to run it with the microcell running,
>> then again without it to see if that is in fact the issue.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Igor
>> --
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>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
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