Fluctuating Internet - WTF

This is by far the most annoying and completely retarded problem I have had with my internet ever. It started around 2 weeks ago. Now, my (wireless) internet always shows itself as connected in the system tray, at 4 bars of strength. The most common things I use my PC for (other than drawing, playing different games or using Photoshop) are Skype calls and Minecraft (an awesome and very affordable video game, google if you have not heard of).
Now, recently, if I am in a Skype call and am playing on my friend's Minecraft server, Skype's little green icon stops being green and turns to grey, meaning it's attempting to reconnect. During this, everything I am saying lags to shit and sounds like hellspawn to my friends. However, I can hear everything they are saying completely fine, unless the call decides to drop, which doesn't happen every time, strangely. Minecraft lags, and everything I do is either undone or doesn't happen.
However, a minute or so later, Skype turns green again and my friends can hear me normally again. Minecraft begins to behave - but this only stays for a minute or so longer until the internet drops again.
When the internet drops, the strength bar in the corner nearly always stays the same - sometimes the bars drop to 3 or 2, and sometimes the little yellow triangle pops up over it momentarily.
If I'm not in a call but am still using the internet, the Skype icon never changes, so I'm assuming that means my internet isn't dropping, although I'm not sure... sometimes, web pages load very slowly or not at all, so that might not be the case.
This problem is not affecting anyone else in my household.

So, why the hell is my PC doing this to me, and how do I fix it? My dad fiddled with my USB ports on the back of my PC to find they were loose, and now he says they aren't anymore - my internet worked for a day or so - but now it's back to being bollocks. I beg all of you, help me!

Have you tried connecting a ethernet cable to your router and trying, if that works it would suggest a router problem. If not try that ....

as786 said:

Have you tried connecting a ethernet cable to your router and trying, if that works it would suggest a router problem. If not try that ....

My router is too far to do that; I'm in a room upstairs and the root is just under the stairs. I'm technically not far away, but I am too far for a cable.

WebMattR said:

inaniloquent said:

Now, recently, if I am in a Skype call and am playing on my friend's Minecraft server, Skype's little green icon stops being green and turns to grey, meaning it's attempting to reconnect.

My belief would be that nobody else in your household is using half the traffic you are. That's a lot of bandwidth to be trying to consume between those two applications. Do you happen to know what speed your connection is?

If not, I suggest you go to SpeedTest.net/ and run their speed test, and report the results.

But Skype often fails even when I'm not using Minecraft... so I'm not sure if that's the problem.
Even so, my internet is crap. https://www.speedtest.net/result/1207050693.png
Yesterday, the download speed was just over 2MB...
Besides, it used to work fine, so I don't understand.

Wireless signal has changed for the worse I reckon. Some wireless setups are pretty poor at getting through a couple of walls. You problem is mainly to do with poor upload performance based on your fault description, not download speed.

WebMattR said:

inaniloquent said:

But Skype often fails even when I'm not using Minecraft... so I'm not sure if that's the problem.
Even so, my internet is crap. https://www.speedtest.net/result/1207050693.png
Yesterday, the download speed was just over 2MB...
Besides, it used to work fine, so I don't understand.

In this situation, I think the problem is your connection speed. If one (Skype/Minecraft) works fine without the other running, then I don't think it's a machine or even a problem with your LAN. Something to remember is that even if you had an insanely fast connection, if you're skyping a friend who has dial up, you'll see dial-up quality.

When you say it used to work fine, is that referring to a previous point in time with the same machine, or a different one?


p.s: if you're using skype to talk to your friends you're playing minecraft with, I'd suggest something like Ventrilo that uses voice only. It'd save you a LOT of bandwidth, and I think saving bandwidth would be ideal for you right now.

The thing is, often one does work by itself without the other running. None of my friends are using dial-up, so I don't think that is the issue.. also, they won't be willing to change their communication platform just because my internet sucks - partly because we use a lot of skype's features (such as pasting screenshots, sharing files, IM) and partly because they're lazy

I meant that it used to work in the past with the same machine. I think. It started a lot longer ago than I realised - I think it was about a month ago; it used to happen maybe 2 or 3 times a week but now it's every day.

sbrads said:

Wireless signal has changed for the worse I reckon. Some wireless setups are pretty poor at getting through a couple of walls. You problem is mainly to do with poor upload performance based on your fault description, not download speed.

My fault description? What do you mean? And also, I have a rangeplus usb dongle so I don't think the 2 walls it has to go through are causing the issue.. especially since my internet used to work just fine (although I only started using minecraft servers about a month and a half ago)