Using skype on one computer slows the other

dhlunar

We have the 15/5 plan. Currently we have two laptops connected to the network by wireless. We also have other things connected to the network wireless (such as a Wii and a wireless printer). However, when ever my wife uses Skype on her laptop and makes a video call, I notice that the internet speeds on my laptop decrease that it takes a long time for me to load websites.

Is this common especially with Skype? Is there anything that I can do on the router to better regulate resources so one computer doesn't slow down the other?

jmw1950

Several points.

First of all the issue is unlikely to be Skype per se. The issue is far more likely to be related to the type of wireless connection you have, or the type of encryption you are using on your wireless network.

The fastest connections are always going to be hardwired, so if you can, connect either or both computers via Ethernet cable instead of wireless. There is much less overhead in the router in supporting hardwired connections, especially if you wireless network runs with encryption.

Is either computer by chance running 802.11b? That will seriously limit the performance of your wireless network.

Are you using encryption on your wireless network? On low end routers like the ones most ISP's supply, some or all of the encryption is done in software. The result is high volumes wireless data (like Video chat can create) can in fact saturate the processor in the router, and that in turn limits the throughput on the router to something considerably lower than your connection speed.

If you want to run strong encryption such as WPA2 with high volumes of data, you probably want to get a better wireless access point that than the one built into Verizon's routers.

MAC filtering would probably keep 99.9% of the 'tourists' out of your wireless network, and avoids the software overheads in encrypted protocols.