Why do the Internet connections periodically suck in coffee shops?

Question

Nearly all of the coffee shops that I frequent tend to dip down to a pathetic crawl at certain times of the day. Despite the number of people using the connection in question, it almost always gets better after resetting their network equipment (modem and/or router).

I would normally assume that the problem is caused either by lots of users sending high-packet requests at the same time or someone hogging all of the band-width with a torrent download or World of Warcraft, but this even seems to happen with myself another a few other people on the connection in the places I frequent. I would assume that it was just my computer, but my iPhone is also effected when I try the connection using that and during these times, other patrons tend to be in the same situation when I ask.

Answer 1

could be anything. You might try running WireShark to see what kind of traffic is streaming over the wifi during these times.



It's most like someone streaming video or someone using a bittorrent client.



Go around and look at everyone's screen and when you see streaming media or bittorrent point your finger and hiss really loud.

Answer 2

Is there a microwave in the coffee shop? Cordless phones used by the employees? Bluetooth headsets? There are all sorts of variables that will cripple wireless network connections, not the least of which being usage. Could just be that too many people are on, or a few people are using very bandwidth-demanding programs.

Answer 3

If they have wireless, then the users are not limited to sitting at the shoppe....anyone in the area that can log on will...then they will start their torrent downloads....resetting the hardware temporarily kicks these users off and you experience full bandwidth....it is a common problem with wireless using public/open security.

Answer 4

i'm at my mothers and fathers domicile staggering now and that i'm especially jealous of you because of the fact my dad's internet is especially sluggish...yet once you have 3 computers all doing a tonne of stuff it fairly slows it down..... i does no longer pay for internet, that's high priced!