Wi-Fi much slower on laptop than phone in one area of house
CC121
Newbie

Hello, I'm new to Verizon Fios. I have the G1100 router at one end of the house. I still get decent speeds at the other end of the house (about 50 feet from the router, straight down the hallway in front of my room). However, when I enter my room and go to my bed (about 10 feet perpendicular), the speeds take a significant decline.

For instance, on my phone on the 5Ghz band, it goes from about 300 to 180. On the 2.4 band, it goes from about 50 to 20. On my laptop, it goes from 120 to 50 on the 5Ghz and 50 to nothing on the 2.4Ghz. If I go into the adjacent room about 10 feet further down the hallway, the speeds remain strong.

I encountered this problem a couple days ago, but resolved it by using the Wi-Fi Analyzer app and changing the channel in the router settings. However, earlier tonight, the speeds dipped so low that I couldn't do anything. I rebooted the router and ONT and tried changing channels, but that didn't fix the issue. It seems to have recovered now to a reasonable speed.

What could be causing this and why is there such a difference between the phone and the laptop? My computer's Wi-Fi drivers are up to date and I tried turning off Windows Firewall, but that doesn't help.  If you take a diagonal path through the walls from my bed to the router, there is a kitchen and bathroom. There's also a circuit breaker panel and thermostat in the hallway, but being near those don't seem to slow it down.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

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Re: Wi-Fi much slower on laptop than phone in one area of house
jonjones1
Legend

WiFi is affected by numerous things. House or apartment construction (steel,brick, wood) number of feet from base unit. WiFi antenna being external or internal, the band used 2.4 or 5 Ghz, the devices capabilities itself. You may think the computers drivers are up to date but the radios in the devices may be inferior or positioned to block signal.

cell phones have a limit of around half the general speeds over a direct ethernet connection. WiFi is also never guaranteed in your service. 

Then you may have interference from other electronic devices, tv, radios, alarm clocks, microwave ovens, cordless phones, cell booster or even your neighbors.

like I said too many factors.

Re: Wi-Fi much slower on laptop than phone in one area of house
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Which phone are you testing on? Also, what is the Wi-Fi card in the laptop in question? Those two bits of information can help us figure out if there's a major difference between the chipsets. Antennas and other factors as jon mentioned will also cause different types of behavior.