Wireless Networking causing cpu lag

[faridsmith]

Hey there,
I have a D-link DWA-552 network adapter with the latest drivers, wirelessly connected to a D-link DIR-625 router with the latest updates and firmware. It has WEP encryption.

The problem is that the computer witht he network adapter lags when it is connected to the router. As in the videos will have audio/video lagg every 5 seconds, the mouse will freeze then jump around, and even typing will freeze every 20 seconds or so. When the adapter is disabled, the lagg stops, or when we change the router to WPA2 encryption, the lagg stops (but then other problems arise, so we have to use WEP). I know that this adapter works fine with other computers, but not with this one.

I know its my first time on this forum, but I would really appreciate some help because no one on my other forum would help me try to fix this problem. I would really appreciate any kind of response. Thanks!

[johnwill]

First off, I'd try changing the router channel to see if that helps.

WEP is pretty anemic protection, perhaps you could tell us what issues you have with WPA and maybe we can address those.

[faridsmith]

thanks for the response. Well, with WPA, none of our 802.11g laptops will work in the house, and I know that we can buy 802.11n adapters, but they have to be USB type and I heard that those get alot of problems as well.

Also, when we had WPA2 on, the router would simply cut off the wireless signal to all the computers, and even sometimes to the hardwired computers as well. This would happen twice a day, and each time it happened, we would reset the router, and nothing helped. So we had to wait several hours before resetting the router and having it work again.

When we switched back to WEP, all the computers connected fine, and the signal has been steady, and the internet has been fast with WEP. We really aren't worried about the security issues with WEP, just as long as the network stays steady and fast like it should.

Oh, and by the way, the router is on "enable automatic channel scan" and its currently on channel 8.

I hope this helps you help me.

[johnwill]

Are you sure the laptops don't have WPA capability? I can't imagine WPA doing what you describe. Did you try a firmware upgrade for the router? And, for heaven's sake, take it OFF of automatic channel scan and pick the channel! Try channels 1, 6, and 11 to start, they're the non-interfering channels in the US.

I'd REALLY try to solve the WPA puzzle, because WEP is very easily cracked by anyone that wants to invest a few minutes in the effort.

[faridsmith]

after taking it off of auto channel scan, i channels 1,6, and 11, but they all made the problem worse, so i went back to channel 8. Unfortunately the laptops have 802.11g capability only, so the router won't let them connect if it has WPA2 on. The router has been fully updated and so have the adapters.

I wonder, if I upgraded the computer's memory and graphics card, would that fix the problem? I was wondering because the SPU usage in taskmenu goes to like 70-80% when the lag occurs.

(Right now it had 1 GB of memory and an ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series).

[johnwill]

802.11g is capable of WPA and WPA2 in most adapters. I use WPA here, and I have four computers that all use 802.11g to connect, three laptops and a desktop.

[faridsmith]

ok, I set it back to WPA and WPA2, but this computer still has the same problem. Over the last few days, the frequency of the lag has gone way down, but it still happens every 20 minutes or so, especially when running online games and large video files. Does it have to do with the actual hardware (the adapter) or do you think its the settings?

[johnwill]

It's really hard to say where this is coming from, but if it only happens occasionally, I'd be looking for some non-network thing running that is causing the issue. You've pretty much eliminated the adapter, router, and drivers, they all work on other machines, right?

[faridsmith]

yeah, they work fine on other machines. The thing is that when i disable the adapter in "network devices" all the lag stops. So i know it has something to do with the adapter but i don't know what. Could it be some kind of interference with another device? How do i check for that?

[johnwill]

It could be some sort of hardware or driver contention, that can be very difficult to track down. USB is infamous for driver conflicts with other USB devices, so that's a good possibility.

[faridsmith]

unfortunately its a pci adapter =( oh well, thanks for all the help johnwill, I'm gonna try exchanging the adapter and see if that fixes the problem. Thanks again though.

[johnwill]

Try a different make and model.