Wifi internet lag spikes

My internet used to be perfect, it sometimes feels perfect and then suddenly it will go into a period of lag spikes, i cant play online games and it sucks. Im on windows 7, is there any option i should look for? It's like a pattern to the lag spikes, every 30 seconds it will rise. Sometimes very high. Please help! ;(

How about try it actually wired so as too see if it is even the wifi that is the issue. A dumb question.. Do you have your wifi password protected and all?

Hello, yes. And i have no ability to use wireled i live in a house with a bunch of roomates. For example the ping can start off at 40 in counter-strike and then raise up to 150 and then back down again, and it repeats like that, sometimes it goes to like 500. It's the same when no roomates are home too. I dunno :/

Not so dumb if someone is actually getting free wifi and stealing bandwidth.

Run a continuous ping and see if you get some jumps. Like someone stated above make sure your wifi is password protected. I would also try running a msconfig and making sure all programs are disabled except the ones you need.

@soolkiki: I thought it dumb because it's the most obvious of issues. Walk into an apartment building and there at least 1 person who's left it unprotected and open for everyone. Though If he lives in a house with roommates that might just be his problem. He might need to get himself a faster connection for all of them too run out of the same place efficiently. Also a major issue with many people in a house downloading and uploading torrents. Most don't stop seeding after download and just let the world leach and bog down their connection. It's even worse when 3-5 people are doing it on the same connection.

Have you thought about using powerline?

Wireless depends on many factors.

- How far away is the router?

- How many obstacles are in the path?

- What type of wireless are you using?

- Is the router a good brand?

Like another poster said, it could be the internet so you need to test it with a cable first to make sure your internet is actually stable, then look at different options afterwards. PM if you need help.

Are you by chance in northern california, and using AT&T? If so, it's because AT&T is atrocious. Drop that shit immediately, and go to literally any other ISP.

I downloaded a program called Wlan optimizer which turns off the background scan for other networks and omg!!! It is working, atleast a little bit. I dont want to get my hopes up, ill see if the internet is fine tomorrow! :D

Good to hear, but note that playing a competitive FPS on a wireless signal will always put you at a disadvantage against other players. For FPS you need pure speed and low ping, and only ethernet can give you that.

@szafto: I wouldn't recommend something like that as a fix it's a band-aid and a not so good one at that. You don't even know if it's your wifi that is the issue. Without hooking a computer up to your router to test if it is, you'll just be throwing solutions to problems you don't know exist.

I'd plug a PC right into the router and do tests just to make sure it is the wireless.

If it is the wireless for sure, try manually picking different channels until you can find one that is fast. A good test would be to use two computers. Have one plugged directly into the router with a network cable. And another using wireless. Then copy a huge file from one pc to another, and see its speed, try different wireless channels and pick the one that has the best speed.

I had to do this on my router because my ISP is fixed wireless internet and my router wireless was interfering with my microwave signal fixed internet receiver... which both use 2.4ghz signal. I eventually found a channel that my fixed wireless internet and router didn't share.

Another thing to try is to buy a wireless usb stick and see if that helps. It could be your wireless on your current pc is failing for some reason.

If you live in a city theres probably thousands of 2.4ghz signals all over the place and you shouldn't be using wireless, crowded signals and huge security risk with that many people that could intercept it.

I use an android app called wifi analyser, it shows all the other nearby routers and what channels they're on in a nice graph and recommends what channel to set yours to.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

@kraken2109: ummm very nice, i'm gonna try that out next time i'm having a wireless conflict. thx