Re: Extremely Slow Ethernet Connection Through Wifi Extender

Urrno · ‎2018-10-16

I have my desktop hooked up to my wifi extender through an ethernet cable. Currently, my donwload speed is less than 1mbps. My phone, which is connected to wifi and is in the same room as the extender and the desktop, gets over 30mbps.

My internet speed was fine until yesterday morning. Since then, it has suddenly become so slow as to be unusable.

Can anyone help?

StephenB · ‎2018-10-17

Did you try restarting the extender?

Urrno · ‎2018-10-18

Restarting the extender did not help much. My speed is up to 3 mbps, which is a little bit better, but not nearly as good as it should be.

StephenB · ‎2018-10-19

What speed do you see if you disconnect the PC lan cable, and connect the phone to the extender's network?

You might also use the Windows task manager (clicking on the performance tab) - just to double-check that there isn't a background task that is using network bandwidth.

Urrno · ‎2018-10-19

Connecting to the extender with my phone is even worse. 0.7 mbps on phone through wifi, currently 3 mbps on desktop through ethernet.

Definitely nothing else hogging bandwidth, as I unplugged the connection to the desktop before testing on my phone.

StephenB · ‎2018-10-19

What color is the router led on the extender?

Restarting the router is probably a good idea if you haven't tried that already.

Urrno · ‎2018-10-19

The router LED is orange, but I can't move it any closer to the router (the extender needs to be on the second floor, the router is on the first floor).

It's kind of odd that I've been using the extender for over a year, without having any problems until this week. I didn't move the extender or the router, but now it looks like the distance might suddenly be a problem.

Yeah, I already tried restarting the router.

StephenB · ‎2018-10-20

@Urrno wrote:

The router LED is orange, but I can't move it any closer to the router (the extender needs to be on the second floor, the router is on the first floor).

Well, I do suggest moving it to a spot where the router LED is green as a test (perhaps measuring speed with your phone). That will give some indication on whether the extender is working or not.

Finding the approximate distance where it turns green might also be useful information. It's conceivable that something has gone wrong with the radio (or antenna connections).

Urrno · ‎2018-10-20

Moving the extender so that the light is green, I'm still only getting 5mbps.

StephenB · ‎2018-10-21

@Urrno wrote:

Moving the extender so that the light is green, I'm still only getting 5mbps.

That sounds like something might have failed with the extender hardware.

But maybe try resetting the extender and setting it up again - it's possible that will resolve it.