I have a problem with one particular device, a nettop. It has a RTL8821AE adapter (1x1 2.4/5 GHz 802.11ac). Pinging the Wi-Fi router from this nettop often looks like this:
Pinging 192.168.31.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=95ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=209ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=122ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=178ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=197ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=192ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.31.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
And sometimes I see occasional pings of 3000 ms interleaved with packet losses. While occasional, that's destructive enough to prevent me from streaming video from SMB share.
This problematic nettop is running a very fresh installation of Windows 10. I have installed the latest drivers for this Wi-Fi adapter. What can be done about this, other than replacing the Wi-Fi card?
Additional facts:
- A laptop is sitting 20cm away from the nettop, and its 802.11n 2.4G adapter does not exhibit this problem.
- The problem occurs both with a 2.4G and 5G connection.
- I have replaced my previous Xiaomi Mi Mini router (802.11n, 2.4G) with Xiaomi 3G (802.11ac, 2.4G+5G) and there was no noticeable change in the severity of the problem.
- At least three other devices in the home network do not suffer such an issue (all of them 2.4G 802.11n).