Wireless just got real slow

[killer_carlson]

We switched from shaw to telus and everthing was fine on shaw. Everything was fine on Telus for the last 4 months until this week when our internet has become uber slow. It frequently crashes

My wife and I are not computer people, but we believe we set up the firewalls and encryption, but is there a way I can check to see if someone like my neighbours are tapping into my wireless connection?

[Hack&Lube]

Log into your router and in the administration or status section or a local area connection section there should be something like Local Network or DHCP Client table.

You can then see all the computers that have leases on your network via IP address and MAC address. If you are extra paranoid, set up MAC filtering so only the devices you have in your home (each device has a unique MAC address) have access. Unless your neighbors are advanced hackers and can do MAC spoofing, that should prevent any unauthorized devices (computers, phones, etc.) from using your WiFi.

[rd_aaron]

First step, reset router by unplugging it and plugging it back in after 10 seconds. If that doesn't work, move on to other suggestions.

You've probably done this already, but when you say "we're not computer people" I tend to give the most basic advice.

[Hack&Lube]

What brand router is it BTW? I had a few dlinks that did that after time. They just always became unusable after awhile.

[Dirty Mr. Clean]

If your Wifi route support WPS and its turned on it will be hacked within hours. Its very easy.

http://arstechnica.com/business/news...cted-setup.ars

If you have a linksys Wifi router you can shut if off but it remains on. Wifi is very easy to hack right now until this protocol has been removed from the Wifi certification.

[browna]

Been happening to us as well the last two weeks, and just noted recently for a couple reasons.

-Updated to Shaw Broadband 50, so have been checking out the Speedtests to make sure we have been getting the advertised (or close to it) speeds.

-My phone battery was draining 50% overnight, and there is some question as to if the router was to blame (as with wifi on and NOT connected to a network, it didn't drain the battery), although I think it is/was the version on Android I was running (2.3.6) as the culprit. Thus, I was checking the speedtest of the wireless connection as well.

What I was getting on my wifi speeds were brutal on the two or three devices that run off wifi...5mbs down and 3.5 upload, compared to the 46mbs download and 3.5 upload on the computer which is wired into the modem through the same router...and this is sitting right beside the router while doing the tests.

Sometimes it was better, sometimes not...but the odd thing is the upload speed was perfectly fine over wifi when the download speed was 80% less on wifi. Not sure if it was happening before, but as a result of all the checking, it brought the issue to the forefront.

Played around with resetting the router, changing the wifi channel on my router (can't go above 11, just like everyone else in the area), after being able to see the channels the other networks I can pick up were on. Helped a bit I guess, but not a lot.

Plus, I don't think I see any unauthorized devices on the list of addresses in the router settings, so I don't think anyone is stealing bandwidth, but I guess I could be wrong.

Router is a Dlink DIR655 that's just over a year old. It seems to have stabilized (or maybe its just been a busy week and I haven't bothered to check), and not that keen on dropping $$ on a $150 upgraded router.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by browna

Router is a Dlink DIR655 that's just over a year old. It seems to have stabilized (or maybe its just been a busy week and I haven't bothered to check), and not that keen on dropping $$ on a $150 upgraded router.

Why not just try using the Shaw router for a bit, rather than the DLink. This will tell you which of the two devices to focus your troubleshooting on - your router or the shaw stuff.

[flamesfan6]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Why not just try using the Shaw router for a bit, rather than the DLink. This will tell you which of the two devices to focus your troubleshooting on - your router or the shaw stuff.

because the shaw router is incompatible with telus (cable vs phone line)

if the dlink isn't the telus router, i would really suggest using just the telus one as that is actually acts as a router, the way you would have it on a dlink is actually a router behind a router...

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by flamesfan6

because the shaw router is incompatible with telus (cable vs phone line)

if the dlink isn't the telus router, i would really suggest using just the telus one as that is actually acts as a router, the way you would have it on a dlink is actually a router behind a router...

Oh i got it backwards I thought they switched from Telus to Shaw.

My money is on the DLink biting the bullet - it was fine for four months, so if there was a double-NAT in play from day one, they'd likely have seen performance issues from day one.

Still, using only the Telus router for a while would confirm which side of the equation is messing up (their DLink or the Telus stuff)

[flamesfan6]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Oh i got it backwards I thought they switched from Telus to Shaw.

My money is on the DLink biting the bullet - it was fine for four months, so if there was a double-NAT in play from day one, they'd likely have seen performance issues from day one.

Still, using only the Telus router for a while would confirm which side of the equation is messing up (their DLink or the Telus stuff)

i've seen weirder... at work our router was functioning perfectly fine for months, and one day we were having issues (also a DLink) ... disabled the wireless on it and we haven't any issues since then, unfortunately no wireless either (this is on shaw, but the dlink router)