TR Forums

So I'm at my fiance's house with my new laptop (Lenovo Ideapad Y700), and I'm having an issue I've never had before. I tried connecting to his WiFi so we could stream some shows, but the connection seemed awfully slow. I know my phone (T-Mobile LG V20) gets good reception here, so I turn on the mobile hotspot and connect to that. It's just as slow.

I updated all my drivers for my network card and whatnot, and it didn't seem to help. The only thing that got me somewhat better speeds is using the USB tethering on my phone but that was barely an improvement. So I did a few tests. First, I did a speedtest on my phone to make sure it's got a good 4G connection. Here's the result:


More than fast enough. So I looked at the connection speed in the Windows network properties for the connection:


Again, checks out. With these two bits of info, I shouldn't be having a problem right? Well here's the speedtest result for the laptop (using Chrome):


Now idk about ya'll, but that don't make no sense to me. It's the same results on my fiance's WiFi. I've had this laptop connected to the internet before, both wired and through WiFi, without issues. What could be causing this? Is it possible the networking card is somehow damaged all of a sudden? I do have the creator's update installed, but I've used WiFi since installing it without problems. Even played Overwatch on it. Please help, I just wanna watch some dang Rick and Morty.

The most likely answer is that some other program on your laptop is using the Internet. A second possible answer is that something is wrong with the built-in WiFi card, and you could test with a USB wireless adapter (or check using a wired connection).

When not running a speed test, open Task Manager (select more details on the bottom left if needed), and check the Performance tab to see if there is data transfers going on in the background.

Or there is something else splatting interference across the WiFi bands. You may get good signal strength, but if there is something interfering then all the packets you are getting may be corrupted.

I'd do simple stuff first. Change all wifi access keys, unplug any wired connections to router/AP, reboot router and wifi AP.

I've done everything mentioned here (except for using a USB adapter which I don't have available right now) to no avail. There are a couple services using a couple Kb on the network here and there but nothing that would warrant this heavy of a slowdown.

One thing worth mentioning is that his WiFi is itself basically one of those standalone mobile hotspots from Verizon. Could there be some sort of issue where my laptop just doesn't like mobile networks, or some setting that is preventing it from using one correctly? I've searched through all the settings and couldn't find one that would be a clear culprit.

Verizon could be throttling traffic, although that's pretty extreme from the numbers given.

I guess the best way to check for that is to configure a VPN service and test again.

Making sure I understand - using an Ethernet cable didn't help, or was it not an option?

Have you checked to see what channel the router is broadcasting over and compare it to channel congestion using an app like WiFi Analyzer?

Definitely best to check via wired connection (Ethernet) to make sure the problem is just the WiFi broadcast. Although mobile hotspots may not even offer a wired connection.

DPete27 wrote:

Definitely best to check via wired connection (Ethernet) to make sure the problem is just the WiFi broadcast. Although mobile hotspots may not even offer a wired connection.

IME many of them will show up as a wired network adapter if you just plug it into a USB port.

OP: have you tried a full TCP/IP reset? Details from the Microsoft KB here, but the basic command sequence is:



Some of these commands may only work within an elevated command prompt. Fastest way to get there is to search "cmd" in the Start Menu (Win7) or Taskbar Search (Win10) and when it suggests "Cmd.exe" (Win7) or "Command Prompt" (Win10), right-click on that suggestion and select "Run as administrator..." and then select "Yes" if User Account Control pops up to request confirmation.

Run those commands in order, then reboot. Give Windows a couple minutes to rebuild the data that you just flushed out before attempting Internet access again.

I gave that a try, nothing

For the record, using USB tethering with my phone does show up as an ethernet connection.

I guess I'll just wait until I get back home tomorrow and see if the problems persist. If they do, I'll know there's something wrong with the laptop and I'll have to send it into Lenovo. Otherwise, it's gotta just be some weird issue with this apartment.

What happens if you connect your phone to his wifi and do a speed test? That would eliminate / narrow down the laptop as the problem.

Also if that bears no success, then on your phone, from the screenshot it looks like you're using an Android device, go to the Google Play Store and download Wifi Analyzer by farproc.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... i.analyzer

Check how congested the band / frequency is. If possible switch the wifi to an open frequency (1, 6 or 11). Don't put it on any other frequency.

Hope that helps!

Do you use anything like cfosspeed that might be tuned to your normal internet connection?

Okay so, I'm back home now. Wired internet is working fine. WiFi on my home internet is working fine.

WiFi connected to my phone as a hotspot is still giving the same issues though, so the problem seems to be that my laptop just doesn't like mobile networks. Any way I can fix this? Is this perhaps just a bug in the Creator's Update that needs fixing on Microsoft's end? I have a basic working knowledge of networking and I don't see any settings that stick out to me as causing a problem.

I did try that WiFi analyzer test btw. Even the least congested channel (which was 11) was just as slow as the rest.

So connecting your laptop to a proper router for WiFi it works just fine?

It doesn't surprise me that connecting to a phone as a hotspot would result in sub-par speeds. I'd expect a dedicated mobile hotspot device to be better than a phone, but still nowhere near what an actual router would accomplish.

DPete27 wrote:

So connecting your laptop to a proper router for WiFi it works just fine?

It doesn't surprise me that connecting to a phone as a hotspot would result in sub-par speeds. I'd expect a dedicated mobile hotspot device to be better than a phone, but still nowhere near what an actual router would accomplish.

I don't think that's the issue. The OP was getting 38mbps+ running Speedtest on the phone, but only ~0.4mbps when hotspotting that same phone with LTE service (T-Mobile) to the laptop OR using the mobile hotspot (Verizon). I've used Verizon JetPack hotspots on jobsites halfway out in the boonies and as long as it's getting any LTE, it's pretty rare to get less than 3-4mbps, and 10+ is possible with good signal.

Something is buggy in the laptop's WiFi drivers or networking stack, it appears.

Delete and reinstall your wif device on your laptop, and download multiple version of the drivers for it and have them handy.
The delete and reinstall of the device usually works for me, but some drivers work better then others

Dposcorp wrote:

Delete and reinstall your wif device on your laptop, and download multiple version of the drivers for it and have them handy.
The delete and reinstall of the device usually works for me, but some drivers work better then others

That's one of the first things I tried. Latest Intel drivers, the most recent drivers on Lenovo's website which were from 2015, several Intel versions in between, generic Windows drivers, nothing showed any improvement.

ALiLPinkMonster wrote:

Dposcorp wrote:

Delete and reinstall your wif device on your laptop, and download multiple version of the drivers for it and have them handy.
The delete and reinstall of the device usually works for me, but some drivers work better then others

That's one of the first things I tried. Latest Intel drivers, the most recent drivers on Lenovo's website which were from 2015, several Intel versions in between, generic Windows drivers, nothing showed any improvement.

Do you have any firewall or antivirus software installed that might be reacting badly to a mobile data provider?

Another thing that comes to mind is that the mobile network devices might be serving 2.4 GHz, while the other WiFi devices could be operating at 5 GHz. Perhaps one of the WiFi antennas in your laptop is damaged or has a loose connection?

ludi wrote:

Do you have any firewall or antivirus software installed that might be reacting badly to a mobile data provider?

Another thing that comes to mind is that the mobile network devices might be serving 2.4 GHz, while the other WiFi devices could be operating at 5 GHz. Perhaps one of the WiFi antennas in your laptop is damaged or has a loose connection?

My phone's hotspot feature can broadcast at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, I tried both. Only firewall/AV I have is what comes with Windows 10, and I had tried disabling both.