Wireless Lag Spikes

[Wintermute]

Finally getting back into some online gaming and finding that my system still has an intermittent lag spike cycle even after a fresh reformat.

Out of curiosity I ran the Task Manager whilst playing TF2 and Torrenting and found that at semi-regular intervals the connection seemed to stop transmitting. It doesn't disconnect, it just sort of flatlines for a few seconds.

TF2

Spoiler: show

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ero/Wifi-1.jpg

BitTorrent

Spoiler: show

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._Zero/WiFi.jpg

I've also pinged the router. I'll get a list of 1-3ms results but once every minute or so it'll shoot up to 1.3k+ and happens the same time the connection status drops.

My desktop connects to the router (Conceptronic C54APRA) using a PCI wireless card (Conceptronic C54Ri). Neither of the two laptops in the house experience any such lag (at least as extreme) when connecting and using the Wireless and the other desktop which is connected via Ethernet doesn't experience the lag.

I've pinged the router from my old laptop and whilst the ping does increase it maxes out at 150 or so at about half signal strength.

I've tried switching the PCI card to another slot but the problem remains, and the drivers are as up-to-date as I can get them.

I've a sneaking suspicion that the problem may be with the WiFi settings on the card itself, but infortunately I've not got a clue what settings to mess around with.

Anyone have any clues or suggestions that don't involve buying a new card?

[Leolai]

It probably doesn't have anything to do with the wireless cards.

It's due to the autoconfig for the wireless in windows. I had the problem with my Vista and couldn't in the life of me figure out what the problem was. But it's apparently a "feature" that searches for a newer better network to connect to once every minute, and during that search the wireless traffic goes flat for like a second or so (reaaally annoying when gaming).

What I did to get rid of it was the following. Make a shortcut with the following path:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="<insert the name of your wireless connection here>"

However, disabeling it hinders windows to connect to a wireless network, so disable it after you're connected.

To enable it I have another shortcut like this:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=yes interface="<insert name of your wireless conncetion here>"

just edit the <insert the name of your wireless connection here> into what your connction is called. Mine is: Trådlös Nätverksansultning (due to me being a lolsweed).

There are probably better ways to do it if you google it.

[Wintermute]

It probably doesn't have anything to do with the wireless cards.

It's due to the autoconfig for the wireless in windows. I had the problem with my Vista and couldn't in the life of me figure out what the problem was. But it's apparently a "feature" that searches for a newer better network to connect to once every minute, and during that search the wireless traffic goes flat for like a second or so (reaaally annoying when gaming).

What I did to get rid of it was the following. Make a shortcut with the following path:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="<insert the name of your wireless connection here>"

However, disabeling it hinders windows to connect to a wireless network, so disable it after you're connected.

To enable it I have another shortcut like this:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=yes interface="<insert name of your wireless conncetion here>"

just edit the <insert the name of your wireless connection here> into what your connction is called. Mine is: Trådlös Nätverksansultning (due to me being a lolsweed).

There are probably better ways to do it if you google it.

Seems it was the Windows autoconfig. Re-re-installed the Ralink Chipset drivers and Software after getting rid of all the Conceptronic clutter and letting that handle the connection seems to have sorted it out.

[Olo401]

Wireless networking can be a bit... err.. flaky at times. Radio interference on the same frequency from cordless/cell phones or whatnot messes with it easily. I've even found an excess of heat & humidity can screw with it.