Wifi transfer drops every 20 sec

[Eet_46]

Hi guys.
I am having some trouble with my wifi on the 5Ghz band, which I can't seem to fix myself. Not that technical with all the router settings, so was hoping for some pointers on what to try out to maybe fix it..

I'm using an AC-87U with Merlin 380.58 and trying to use PS4 Remote Play for PC on Windows 10 x64. My adapter in the PC is Intel AC 7260. I'm connecting the PS4 to the router directly with cable and then connecting remote play on 5G wifi. It's more or less working, but I get these drops in the transfer, every 20 sec or so, as the topic title says. (see attached pic)

My question is, what are my options to minimize these drops? And can I somehow analyze or log the connection, to see what's going on and perhaps figure out the cause? Not sure how to do that exactly..
External app maybe?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Your screenshot doesn't necessarily show a problem. You would see the same kind of behaviour with a lot of streaming services (Netflix, amazon, etc.).

What is the actual problem you are experiencing?

 

[Eet_46]

Well, every time the flow drops, i get stuttering, lag, pixelation and audio corruption in the Remote Play app.. It seems like it "chokes" or something. It doesn't directly disconnect, just grinds to a halt for a few secs, then comes back up. But as said, I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it

 

[ColinTaylor]

The Wi-Fi link looks good so I doubt it's a network problem per se. Presumably you can transfer files to and from that PC normally without seeing the dips in throughput?

I would start by looking at Windows. Can you have the task manager running whilst the remote play session is going? Are there any spikes in CPU activity that correlate to the stuttering. Windows 10 has so many things going on in the background nowadays, any of which might be interfering.

Update: I'm not sure how the remote play function works, but the Sony site implies that the traffic between the PS4 and PC is sent across the internet. Whether that is still true for devices on the LAN I don't know. If it is then your internet upload speed could be a limiting factor. What is your internet upload speed?

 

[john9527]

A couple of things I would do, just to get them out of the way of any debug
(1) on the router, if you have hidden SSID broadcasts, re-enable them. There are some strange things that have been reported with it disabled.
(2) on the router, make sure you have set a fixed channel for the 5GHz band. I'd suggest something in the lower channels, 36-48.
(3) on Windows, under advanced properties for the AC7260, make sure that the 'Throughput Booster' option is disabled. Again, some users have reported problems with this option.

 

[Eet_46]

Remote Play can work over the internet, but in my case it's only on my LAN, so internet speed isn't the issue. (But its a 50/50Mbit fiber line)

Currently trying out some of your suggestions, hoping for good results. Also investigating my Windows environment to see if anything could interfere here.. I'll report back later when I've gotten some results.

Thanks for your tips guys!

 

[Eet_46]

After a couple of days of testing, I still have no exact reason/solution to my problem. Some days the connection seems fine, others it seems completely bottlenecked somewhere.. Anyways, thanks for your tips guys, I think I'll do some testing with different router firmware and Windows setup.

 

[Reinvented]

After a couple of days of testing, I still have no exact reason/solution to my problem. Some days the connection seems fine, others it seems completely bottlenecked somewhere.. Anyways, thanks for your tips guys, I think I'll do some testing with different router firmware and Windows setup.

Post up a screenshot of your general wireless settings, and the professional settings.

 

[sfx2000]

My question is, what are my options to minimize these drops? And can I somehow analyze or log the connection, to see what's going on and perhaps figure out the cause? Not sure how to do that exactly..
External app maybe?

Check your client drivers - the 7260 has been rather interesting there... and Win10 doesn't help much..

 

[Eet_46]

Post up a screenshot of your general wireless settings, and the professional settings.

 

[Eet_46]

Check your client drivers - the 7260 has been rather interesting there... and Win10 doesn't help much..

You mean simply check that I have the latest one? And could you elaborate a little? Not sure I follow entirely..

 

[Reinvented]

View attachment 7136 View attachment 7137

I am not sure why you have most of your stuff set to auto. Auto causes settings to change based on current conditions. If theres too many and a channel gets crowded it will change. You need to manually change some of that.
Read up on what settings do and change accordingly.

 

[Reinvented]

You mean simply check that I have the latest one? And could you elaborate a little? Not sure I follow entirely..

Update your drivers by checking on Intels website, or use updated ones provided by your computer manufacturer.

 

[ColinTaylor]

View attachment 7136 View attachment 7137

Those settings look fine (including the Auto ones ). The only thing I have that is set differently is the IGMP snooping which is disabled. It might be worth disabling that and seeing if it makes a difference.

 

[RMerlin]

The RT-AC87U wifi is very picky. Try doing a complete power reset to see if it helps:

1) Turn off the router
2) Unplug the AC adapter
3) Turn it back on for about 5 seconds, to drain any residential power.
4) Turn it back off
5) Plug AC adaptor back
6) Turn it back on, then test it again once it's done booting.

 

[tsunami2311]

is it just your machine are other machines doing it to?, I recently hooked a new router up at my friends house just to find out the 2ghz range is spotty at best, it worked when it wanted to most the time it would not connect and IF it did connect chances were that speeds were so slow on the devices it didnt even see it as connected, but 5ghz ran perfectly, I came to the conclusion something on her property is playing havoc where 2ghz signal, which explained why she couldnt pick up anyone else 2ghz for that mater.

You say some days it fine others it not, and if happen on other devices something is interfering with the signal at random.

 

[Eet_46]

The RT-AC87U wifi is very picky. Try doing a complete power reset to see if it helps:

1) Turn off the router
2) Unplug the AC adapter
3) Turn it back on for about 5 seconds, to drain any residential power.
4) Turn it back off
5) Plug AC adaptor back
6) Turn it back on, then test it again once it's done booting.

Wow. This actually worked. This might be my go-to solution for now, until I find the perfect combination of router firmware and computer OS + wifi drivers.

is it just your machine are other machines doing it to?, I recently hooked a new router up at my friends house just to find out the 2ghz range is spotty at best, it worked when it wanted to most the time it would not connect and IF it did connect chances were that speeds were so slow on the devices it didnt even see it as connected, but 5ghz ran perfectly, I came to the conclusion something on her property is playing havoc where 2ghz signal, which explained why she couldnt pick up anyone else 2ghz for that mater.

You say some days it fine others it not, and if happen on other devices something is interfering with the signal at random.

I only have one computer at the house to test with, the rest is tablets and phones. But we havn't noticed anything on those, when we stream stuff on/from them, it seems to be working fine.. I guess it comes down to the PC using a lot of traffic on the LAN which might be "stressing" the connection..

 

[octopus]

What i have noticed with my GF laptop is Intel 1030 don't have any driver to Windows 10 i had to upgrade to Intel 7260 and there is drivers to.
And I get 5.0 Ghz, question is if the antenna of the laptop supports it? I have good signal from it.

 

[tsunami2311]

well I can tell you this when I let STEAM download with "unlimited" speed it will hose the whole connection trying to browser webpages will result in no interent connection error in the browser, if I pause the download it will work again, as result I limited steam download speeds, I would think anything that staturate the connect that much will cause it

 

[tsunami2311]

Well is your connection actual disconnecting? or is it just stopping working while still connected??

I know if I let steam download at "unlimited" speed it will hose the connection to the point nothing will work till download is done anything saturating connection will cause this.

As for 5gh question try and find out, I actual have 2 laptops that see 5ghz but cant connect to it. one is 8 + year old laptop another is 2 years old both see it both wont connect to it.