Need some Networking Advice

I'm at a networking crossroads and I could use some guidance.

I currently live in an apartment where my router (Netgear R6300 AC) is approximately 100 feet (+ passing through about 6 walls) away from my office. On my office PC, I currently use a Netgear WN311B wireless adapter (2.4ghz only, wireless N)

For about 9 months this was fine but for the past 2 months I've been experiencing some packet loss and consistent connection drops in my office, whether its on my laptop (wireless n adapter) or my PC. I'm not really sure what is suddenly causing this interference.. I have tried changing the wireless channels on the router but I've had absolutely no success in solving this problem. My ping went from a stead 90 or so to jumping around anywhere between 200 - 3000 every minute or so. When I walk from the office to the router in the living room, my laptop instantly gets better ping.

I've concluded that I can take three steps, yet I'm not sure which would be the best option and can use some advice.

1) Run a cat6 cable from the router to the office. This will be a bit of an eyesore and my wife is probably going to not like it very much. Since I live in an apartment, I can't just drill holes.. so its going to have to be run up near the ceiling. This also wont help me with my laptop usage in the office, but that's not a major concern for now.

2) Buy a new network adapter for my PC. I was looking at the Asus AC68, since it is dual band and I can connect using 5GHZ. I haven't looked into any USB adapters since I'm not sure how they are these days; when I last looked into one a decade ago it was a nightmare

3) Swap out my router? Is this an option? Not even sure

Any advice would be appreciated. Are the USB adapters any good these days? Does anyone have any experience with the AC68? Is there a problem with my 6300 router? Anyway for me to minimize interference?

Thanks!

Edit: The devices on my network:
-Two Laptops
-One PC
-Apple TV
-Two Cellphones
-PS3
-Wii U
-Brother Printer

How new is the electrical in the building would you guess? You could try powerline. It's an easy "fix" over wifi.

The wiring is old, probably about 70+ years old.

Powerline could be tricky in an apartment even if wiring is new - depends how things are done, much easier in a single family home. $30 is a pretty cheap test though for a pair powerline adapters.

Since you're likely in an area with a high density of RF generating sources, wireless is never going to be great. Could try doing a 5 GHz wireless bridge to your office and then wiring your desktop and laptop to it when lower latency is desired.

Any coax runs you could use for MoCA?

Could you move your router?

My landlord is very particular about the wiring in the apartment, and he lives in the building so any movement he will know. I can't move the router, it's in the living room and as close as I can get it. My router is dualband I'm thinking that I will get a dualband PCIE adapter for my PC. If thats a no go, I'm going to try a cheap powerline adapter. I'll report back when I try this all tomorrow but any other feedback or advice is appreciated!

Wait, are you sure your problem is the wireless and not the internet connection itself? How are pings between internal devices? Any dropped packets there?

Depending on your original connection you could go with a wireless repeater of some type. It does half the speed and signal however if the original is solid you won’t tell the difference unless you are doing large downloads. Also to note, 5GHz generally has less interference however it also has a shorter range than 2.4GHz.

kumquat said:

Wait, are you sure your problem is the wireless and not the internet connection itself? How are pings between internal devices? Any dropped packets there?

Click to expand...

I only experience this type of extreme packetloss in my office. The computers and devices around the rest of my house are fine, which leads me to believe that it is my router

Thank you everyone else for your input. Going to attempt a powerline hookup and a 5ghz tomorrow