Limited connection wifi

Hi,

i am having a very frustrating problem with my internet. I recently moved and have had wifi issues since. My old apt i lived by myself and had a modem and linksys wireless router. My Desktop PC was hard wired and my laptop used wifi. I never had an issue. I moved to my buddies place and now rent a granny flat. I am having to just use his wifi for my internet connection since he already has a modem and wireless router hooked up. When i first moved in i would have terrible signal strength and would drop often. I bought a belkin wifi extender and the signal is great now. Download speeds of 20mbps and upload of 12mbps, the only problem is every 20 minutes i get a limited connection message and i lose connection for 10-15 seconds then it reconnects automatically. It really wouldnt be that big of an issue but i do alot of real time gaming/poker and also watch netflix movies, so when i lose connection it affects me greatly. I have spoken to my friend and he refuses to believe its his router since everything works for him so Im stuck trying to figure it out myself. Any help with trying to fix my problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

 

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Of course, at this point, I cannot say anything for fact but your poker sites just might be the issue. In my opinion the major causes of system infections are, in order...

1) Porn sites
2) Peer to peer file sharing
3) gambling sites
4) FaceBook

What security are you running?

You might also ask your friend to change the channel on which the wireless is broadcast.

Networking is NOT my forte but it would seem to me that you should be able to connect your old router to your friend's via a cable and then connect via wireless to your own proven router. Not positive but I think that setup would work.

If your friend will not go as far as trying the above options there is not really a lot that we can do as it is his setup, not yours. Your friend has final say so as to what can be done.

 

@ Jaylach
Unless I'm missing something Jay, Pspangler08 has not said that he believes he has any sort of infection, but you may have some information that I don't..

@pspangler08
Could you give us a bit more information regarding the distance and geography of the building/buildings. And also can you tell us the make and model of both your friends router and which model of Belkin WiFi extender you have.

I assume you already have tried moving your computers or the extender to a new position within your flat. If not...give that a try.

 

@ PSEFrank; I agree that there has been no indication of infection but any time that a person states that they are involved with gambling sites I am forced to look at the possibility of infection. A LOT of these sites just plain are non cool.

I could be totally off base as I can't even say that I know for fact that the configuration would work but I think the easiest solution would be to wire from an out on the friend's router to the in on Pspangler08's router and then use the wireless that was already in place and working. I really think that this configuration could work but my concern is conflicting IP addresses between the routers. Even with that I would think that as long as the SIDs were different there should be no conflict.

Always keep in mind that I fully admit and accept that networking is not my forte.

 

I'm thinking Granny flats (here) are quite often detached dwellings and you wouldn't be able to hide cable, Jay.
Just a thought.

 

Can't really say that I know what 'Granny flats' are but don't see an issue with cables. If... and it is a BIG if... what I suggested would work, the only cable would be between the two routers. The actual connection to the system would still be wireless.

I have done this, piggy-backing two routers, but only in a short term experimental situation. I have no idea as to how it would hold up in the long term.

Like I've said before... networking is not my strong suite.

 

Thank you for the responses. I will try and elaborate more and maybe that can help. I do not have a virus, all the sites i go to are sites i have been using for years and have never had an issue. I have windows 8 on my laptop so i use windows defender as my security. My studio is basically a detached garage that he built into a studio. I am approximately 75ft from the router, but the signal does have to go thru 2 walls. Being that I am detached from the main house, i do not have access to his router at this time to get the exact model, i do believe it is a netgear n900 wireless router. I am using a Belkin F9K1106 range extender. When i first moved in I never experienced a limited connection, i would just lose the signal. I took my laptop into his house to be closer to the router and had perfect signal strength sitting next to it and thats when i decided to by the extender. The extender has worked great, i always have full bars on my network status icon. The issue is every 20 minutes or so i get a yellow triangle over that status icon and it says limited connection, all applications connected to the internet disconnect, that last for about 5-10 seconds then it reconnects and refreshes all my applications i have running on my laptop. problem is when running real time applications or netflix movies it will occasionally make me close and reopen the site thus losing my place in the game/movie. I have connected an ethernet cable from the extender to my laptop to make sure it wasnt a wifi issue with my laptop. I still got the limited warning after about 20 minutes. The interesting issue with this is, I ran my laptop and my desktop pc at the same time using my wifi on my laptop and an ethernet cable from extender into the back of my pc. They both experience the limited connection issue but they do not happen simultaneously. Its almost as if it starts 20 minutes after logging on with that computer and then happens every 20 minutes after that. I have used my laptop at many other locations connecting with wifi and have never gotten the limited connection message before. Its hard for me to do alot of testing of the netgear router being that it is not mine and my buddy is not wanting me to mess with it since he does not experience any issues on his end. I may just have to get my own internet access in here and pay to have another line put in so i can use my modem and router, was just hoping to find a solution to my problem to save the money.

 

I think I have determined it is the extender. I sat outside where i get a perfect signal direct from the main router and never had an issue. Hard to believe going thru just one more wall makes it that much harder for the signal to reach my computer. I may try a different extender and see if that works. I appreciate the help and will be relying on this forum for any other issues i may have.

 

Dragnet,
I think you are assuming the power for the apartment comes from the main house. If it were my rental, I'd want the apartment on a separate account, in which case the EOP system wouldn't work.

 

I will look into an EOP. I am on the same electrical source as the main house. Thanks again, I will post later with results of my experiments.