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I'm having a strange problem with wifi in a new house. It only seems to work while its highly active like while downloading or uploading.

For example, when I go on a new website or refresh the page, it takes a minute to load it up.

Then lets say I start a download for some big file or start a speed test (I found out while downloading video drivers), it takes a minute to actually start the download/test but once its going, the speed is good.

Further more, while the download is going, the whole internet functions good, pages open instantly.

Then the download is complete and everything returns to its sluggish state.

I set up a ping -t to my router and while I'm not downloading, the ping consistently returns like this

1ms, 998ms, 1ms, 1003ms, 1ms, 1001ms and so on (so basically alternating between 1ms and 1s)

when the download is active though it looks like this

1ms, 2ms, 1ms, 1ms, etc (so consistently low)

I used the same router/wifi adapter in my previous home and had no issues there, I'm guessing I'm getting some crazy interference in this place. The channels are pretty packed, I'm currently on channel 3, there are still 2 other overlapping channels but its the best I could do here. Anyways, I tried various different channels but that didn't affect the behavior of my wifi.

As for the ping, I think while the download is active, the router or the wifi adapter boosts the signal somehow and while its not it goes in some power saving mode?

Problem is though, its totally crap in the power saving mode. Is there perhaps a way I can force it to always be in this boosted state?

Technical specs:

router - Cisco EPC3940ADL
wifi adapter - TP Link TL-WN725N
OS - windows 7 pro

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  • That ping timing is interesting to me because ICMP echo requests are typically sent about 1 second apart, which means that you are seeing 2-second pauses, then two packets right after one another. Feb 3, 2018 at 21:09

1 Answer 1

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Yes, 802.11 PowerSave is causing your issue. This mechanism allows the TP Link TL-WN725N to indicate to the Cisco EPC3940ADL that it is going to sleep until the next beacon or several beacon intervals. The Cisco EPC3940ADL buffers frames while asleep, then lets the client know that frames are buffered via an advertisement in the beacon. To resolve this, the TP Link TL-WN725N has a driver application you can install on your PC, open the application goto advanced and set Power Save Mode to OFF.

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  • the TL-WN725N has its power saving features OFF by default. (TP-LINKS driver Software). you can check under advanced tab for your wireless adapter in device manager to see if U-APSD support is available with the drivers you are using. (no idea if windows default driver has it enabled) but i do know that its not enabled by default. so unless the OP activated it, that shouldn't be the answer. Feb 8, 2018 at 22:11

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