Wireless Network Connection Speed/Signal Strength Unsteady

I have a laptop on a wireless network to a PC and status normally reads Speed: 54Mbps, Signal Strength: Excellent. Recently I've noticed these values changing instantaneously and drastically for no apparent reason (i.e. 36Mbps for example and signal strengths from low, to good, to very good). The other day I ran into problems while streaming music and found the speed had dropped to 1Mbps. Clicking "Repair" fixed the problem but the status values continue to jump around. Any ideas what's going on?

 

first thing - are you varying your distance greatly from the router
speed drops off like a stone after about 30 feet
if distance is not the issue - could well be neighbor's signals drifting in
They can drift in huge distances out of nowhere and you cannot even see them in the scaled down windows wireless utility
Change the channel from the default 6 to anything else ( there are 12 channels)
Channels 1 and 11 are the first two picks as they are the two other distinct non overlapping channels
Change the ssid from defaults even if to add a single digit
You may want to turn on encryption if not on
Router should be high and the area around it not cluttered
Try moving the router over even a foot

PortForward.com - Free Help Setting up Your Router or Firewall

it never hurts to run a spyware scan as well
a utility to scan for rogue signals - more sensitive than the windows wireless utility
is netstumbler

 

Hi visionof, thanks for the reply.

The problem just cropped up recently and everything's where it always has been, so location's probably not the problem. I run spyware scans regularly so it's unlikely that's the problem either.

I'll try changing channels and the ssid trick as well.

Thanks again.