Having internet download/speed issues on Vista desktop (please help)

[AlwaysScrewed]

I've been having strange internet issues on my Windows Vista desktop computer. I have tried to talk to my ISP about it but they haven't given me any help that has resolved the issue.

On the Wireless Network Connection Status window next to "Speed" it fluctuates constantly and the signal also fluctuates constantly when it did not use to do this before and I am getting bad download speeds at times as well which also did not use to occur.

The signal will jump from "Fair" to "Very Good" a lot and will also say "Good" and "Poor" at times. The "Speed" on the Wireless Network Connection Status window used to say 130Mbps and would only fluctuate from 78 to 104 to 117 to 130 Mbps. But now it won't even do that and it will say 13.0, 65, 58.5, 52, 39, and more.

The download speed is being affected. I have tried unplugging my modem for one minute and plugging it back in. My ISP has sent new codes to my modem several times. There are no viruses or anything like that on my Vista desktop as I have scanned with MalwareBytes and SpyBot.

This seemed to start after I installed WinDirStat because my hard drive space was being taken up by nothing and I was trying to see what was going on. My free space used to be 209GB but now it is only 184GB and I have done nothing to it.

The device for the internet I am using on my Vista desktop is a Dell Wireless WLAN Mini Card 802.11n.

I don't want to restore to factory settings again because the computer is too old to be doing something like that again.

This issue does not seem to be occurring on my Windows 7 laptop. It only seems to occur on the Windows Vista desktop.

If someone on here could help me fix this issue I would really appreciate it.

Thank you.

P.S.: I have also searched for an update for my driver and Windows said I had the most up-to-date driver.

[AndyHuang]

The main factor is quite simply, distance. The further away you are from your router, the more problems your wireless card will have holding onto the connection. The range of your router very much depends on the model, the specific 802.11 protocol it uses and whether there are any major obstacles between it and your PC. According to About.com, the average range of a router using the 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g protocols (the three most common) is 150 ft (46m) indoors and 300ft (82m) outdoors. However, as they point out, there are differences between the protocols and the way they react to different obstacles: