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Unreliable wireless from FIOS?

I recently switched from my Charter Cable service over to FIOS (Also switched my TV service to get an HD box in my room as well) but lately I have been having a real miserable time with the dependency and quality of the wireless connection from the router (Verizon MI424WR or whatever, not the Actiontec model). First, it was just on and off slow loading of web pages and some online games (Warhammer Online, for example, where I receive 5 second lag bubbles every minute or so), so I turned off the WEP encryption, which I was told could slow the net speed since everything coming in and out was being encrypted. This provided very little remedy, if any. I'm connected through my Linksys Wireless-N USB adapter (The only product they had that would work with Vista x64, and I used to have a Linksys wireless router with my cable). I get a solid 3 bars, however occasionally I will watch the speed drop from 54mbps, to 24, 36, back and forth over the day. Attempting to play most games online (Warhammer, Company of Heroes, Warcraft 3) provides me with horrible pings, and stuttering connectivity. I haven't quite noticed this with my PS3's connection (I can still connect to the PSN and download things, though sometime the load speed seems slow), but I haven't tried to play any games online lately. I've tried opening ports, changing the firewall settings to Low, but nothing seems to work when I'm gaming; I still get piss poor connection. Running speakeasy speedtest, it's reporting me with 16/4 (Signed up for 20/5), so that seems fine to me. My download speeds will average generally 1.5mbps, but for some reason whenever I'm gaming I never see these sort of speeds. In fact, the only games that have not given me net problems are FPS (i.e. CoD 4/5, where my pings are consistently low). The MTU is set to 1500, I'm pretty much at my wit's end here.

I'm just curious as to whether or not anybody else has had this sort of problem, and if they found a solution. Is there a setting on the router I'm missing or something? I figured I'd ask here after reading some of the horror stories about how useless FIOS tech support is, and their little online repair center always gives me an error saying, "Sorry, cannot be accessed at this time." I'm actually starting to miss my cable connection, as much as I enjoy having a hefty DL speed.

Edit: I've also switched the channel to 11 instead of automatic in the event of wireless interference, but there is no cordless phone within 15-20ft of the router or my adapter.

Message Edited by ShiftyBW on 12-30-2008 01:23 PM

Comments

ShiftyBW

Bump, anyone? I find this all pretty strange and have been working on it all day. I also uninstalled my Forceware Network Access Manager (as it was said that hardware firewall was extremely buggy), but it's weird that my reports aren't reported as open. uPnP settings is on, my bit torrent client connects perfectly, I can be pinged...But the explanation for why my pinging is horrible in online game situations appears out of my league.

ShiftyBW

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Boofs>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Boofs>ping 192.168.1.1 -n 100

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3376ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 99, Lost = 1 (1% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 3376ms, Average = 34ms

If that shows anyone anything...For some reason I get a signal drop out in there, or a massive spike to 3376.

Provider7

Being a gamer I can appreciate your frustration. Nothing worse then shooting someone only to find yourself dead. I have a couple of questions.

Your gaming system, is it wireless? Can it be wired to the router instead?

Your running vista 64 bit on the gaming system?

Anyother computers facing this same issue?

You mentioned when you used your old router you had no issues. Have you considered trying to bridge your old router to the actiontec? You could then use your old router for your wireless in the house?

How to Bridge your Actiontec M1424 Router

Provider7

One more question did you use the Vista optimizer when you set up your systems?

http://text.dslreports.com/forum/r19536758-Anyone-on-Vista-not-getting-full-speed-from-FIOS-Answer

ShiftyBW

My gaming system is wireless, I can't hardwire it in to the router as the router is one room away.

I am running Vista x64 on the system, and as I'm the only computer connected wirelessly in my home there's no way for me to tell if it's happening on any other computers. My father uses his laptop for work wirelessly, that'd be the only way I could check.

And yes, my old Linksys Router did not give me these ping issues. I was actually going to bridge to the actiontec yesterday until I checked the router and noticed that I am connected via Coax, not the WAN ethernet, and there is no physical way that I would be able to run a CAT5 cable down to the outside of my house from the router without some serious work involved.

Also, I did run the optimizer, it "claims" it worked and my system is now already optimized, however I would be disagree. When I run the speed test it says that my system ISN'T optimized, and the nice little pie chart says my speed is being limited by the network and nothing else (all blue). I did attempt to apply the Vista hotfix, but both the x86 and x64 versions say that "the update does not apply to my system." It is likely I already got the update since I'm running Home Premium with SP1 anyway and installed a couple groups of updates after I installed anyway.

I also disabled the IPv6 functionality in the services menu for the adapters, disabled the 780i's 2 built in 10/100/1000 ethernet adapters (That were for some reason showing up in my device manager) and uninstalled the nForce Network Access Manager and its firewall, as I read that that was also problematic in slowing down data transfers. Alas...I still have not found a remedy. I still get the ping spikes. I even tried changing the router channel to 11, which I have it set on now, but nothing. At someone's suggestion, I changed it to 1 and actually saw in increase in ping timeouts and high pings to the router. So as it stands, I am set at 11 and have found no solution.

Edit: After doing a search to see if my WUSB600N supports received side scaling (trying to tweak Vista net settings), I came across this http://forums.linksys.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=Wireless_Adapters&thread.id=17514. Apparently, Linksys' top-of-the-line wireless adapter (the only one they have that works with Vista x64) has an issue within the drivers as other people running vista get the ping spikes. Apparently every 60 seconds or so the drivers cause Vista and the adapter to scan for new networks, thus causing the ping spikes. The odd thing is FPS' are the only games I don't get these ping spikes in, every other online game I run I get the ping spikes. Either way, I am sufficiently irritated with Linksys as well as they provide the worst support imaginable for their products, and I was irritated enough having to buy that WUSB600N just for Vista x64, now to find out that there's a well known problem that isn't being fixed. Not buying any of their products ever again.

Can anyone recommend a good wireless adapter from an actual reliable company?

Message Edited by ShiftyBW on 01-01-2009 01:10 PM

vhartono

try the windsurfer

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/

you just need aluminum foil from kitchen and paper to boost the connection,

works fine for me.

ShiftyBW

Not only is that asthetically undesirable, It serves zero purpose for my problem, which appeared to be (at the very least) a driver issue from the Linksys drivers (that they conveniently never update) for the Wusb600n

ShiftyBW

Ran out and purchased a Belkin N+ Wireless Adapter, installed...Ping spikes to the router are now limited to 20ms max, but generally are 1-1-1-3-5-7-8-1-1-1-1-20-3-5-1-1-1. Which is infinitely better than the timeouts or spikes to 3000.

Provider7

The optimizer you ran, is it the one from the Verizon site? If so...It isn't compatible with Vista.

Here's a link from Microsoft with their description: Windows Vista-based computer

On a computer that is running Windows Vista, you try to use the Verizon speed optimizer tool to optimize network performance. When you do this, you may notice that the Windows Vista-based computer does not achieve the Internet connection speed improvement that is achieved in Windows XP. Therefore, you cannot use Verizon FiOS products at their full speed.

This problem occurs because of the TCP/IP protocol stack changes that were made in Windows Vista. On a Windows Vista-based computer, the TCP/IP protocol stack changes do not allow for registry key changes in some areas. Additionally, in the source code, the TCPAutoTuning feature is set to "off." These changes cause the problem that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section.

Hotfix Download Available

This Vista update is suppose to be good for

Windows Vista BusinessWindows Vista EnterpriseWindows Vista Home BasicWindows Vista Home PremiumWindows Vista UltimateWindows Vista Business 64-bit EditionWindows Vista Enterprise 64-bit EditionWindows Vista Home Basic 64-bit EditionWindows Vista Home Premium 64-bit EditionWindows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition

Message Edited by Provider7 on 01-01-2009 08:58 PM

ShiftyBW

One step ahead of ya, I did run the optimizer from the Verizon site, but I also did the hotfix (attempting to install the hotfix however simply tells me that it "doesn't apply to my system." This message happens with both x86 and x64 versions of the hotfix), AND the manual registry change for the TcpAutoTuning=1. On top of this, the hotfix was rolled out with SP1 anyway.

Sigh, still getting dropped packets during online games - Likely from the MI424WR's pathetic NAT table.

Either that firmware needs to be upgraded or I am going to raise Hell with Verizon.

Message Edited by ShiftyBW on 01-01-2009 07:12 PM

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