Images not loading properly over WiFi

Synode

Hi all,

This has been driving me nuts the last 3 weeks but I've finally narrowed down the issue to the WiFi on my laptop (HP Probook 4720s running Windows 7 64 bit). It's a long one but if anyone can help, please do.

My issues began when I noticed that a few images were not loading properly in Chrome. It started as a bit of an annoyance but progressed to being a total hindrance. Here's a sample of what the images looked like when I opened pages.



I did a load of research and tried everything I could find but no joy (clear browsing data, remove extensions etc etc). I cursed Chrome and moved to Firefox. All was going well for a day or two until the same issue started again. I checked IE and also the same problem. The main sites I was using to check were thejournal.ie and broadsheet.ie.

I then realised that the problems started around the same time that our work computer support guys installed a VPN on my laptop. When they were doing this there were a few issues because I had the drive encrypted (I ended up decrypting it and the VPN was installed). I contacted them to see if the VPN might be causing a problem. They said they doubt it was causing any problems but told me to drop the laptop to them for testing. They tested it in their offices, said they couldn't see any issue and told me to contact UPC as it must be their issue. I then brought the laptop to work and tested it there and again it was fine.

So then I contacted UPC but they said there was no issues with the network. The fact that my Mac was working perfectly at home kind of backed this up. So I decided I'd re-install Windows 7 and hope that would sort the issue. I did this yesterday but when I tested at home, again the same issues.

This evening I copped on that everywhere that the laptop was tested outside of my home, it was connected by wire. So I tried connecting by wire to my router and low and behold, everything was fine. I then went to my neighbours and tested it on his wireless network and the problem re-occurred. So it has to be a wireless problem.

I've run the HP Support Assistant on the laptop but it's come back with nothing. To make matters even more confusing, when I run Chrome, Firefox or IE in private mode, all images on sites are loading perfectly.

If anyone has any suggestions please help. It's driving me nuts. I haven't a clue where to go from here.

Thanks,

Synode.

barbed wire rainbow

Hi Synode,

Did you ever find a solution to this? Having the exact same problem.

Synode

Hi.

No not sorted. I've to give the laptop to our work IT guys but haven't had a chance as need it.

I'm able to sort mine by making sure the VPN is in the system tray (doesn't have to be activated, just running in the background). It's not ideal but when I do this everything loads fine.

No idea what's causing it but suspect it's some conflict between UPC wireless and the VPN as the laptop works perfectly on Eircom wireless.

Are you with UPC? WHat type laptop do you have and have you installed a VPN recently?

Synode

Just to add, I've had my UPC router replaced twice (from Thomson to Cisco and now on to Horizon) so it's not a router problem.

barbed wire rainbow

Yeah, I'm with UPC, have an Asus laptop running Windows 7 (64) and... er, I don't think so. I'll check that out though. Cheers!

Synode

I'm on Windows 7 64 bit aswell. I'll update here if I find any decent information.

barbed wire rainbow

Think I solved this one. I ended up having to reimage my laptop for another reason, but bringing it back to its original configuration seemed to sort out this problem. I remember then that the only driver that had updated was the one for WLAN card. Try rolling back the driver. Has worked for me.

Cheers!

Synode

Windows has been re-installed on my laptop twice, once by me and once by our IT guys in work but the problem is still occurring.

I've pretty much given up at this stage. I can get everything to work fine if I set the VPN program to automatically start when the laptop is turned on (so it will be in the system tray). If I don't do this the images are all over the place, and now I've also noticed that a lot of downloads fail.

IT guys had it for 2 weeks too but they notice no problems when used with Eircom WiFi. It only happens on my UPC WiFi. Very hard for them to fix a problem they cannot see.

Cork24

is your QOS enable on your WiFi,

And what web browser are you using

Synode

What's QOS. Using Chrome mainly but the issue occurs with Firefox and IE, though not as much

I tried tethering my laptop to iPhone earlier (through wifi) and it wouldn't work until I started the VPN. The install of the VPN must have caused this issue

Cork24

Synode wrote: »

What's QOS. Using Chrome mainly but the issue occurs with Firefox and IE, though not as much

I tried tethering my laptop to iPhone earlier (through wifi) and it wouldn't work until I started the VPN. The install of the VPN must have caused this issue

Quality of Service (QoS)

allows better quality of media over the network that bit better by reduction packet loss

Synode

Does it get enabled on my home router or on my laptop?

How do I check?

ZENER

If the images are managing to reach the client via a wired ethernet connection then QoS is irrelevant. QoS gives preferential treatment to packets from a protocol where sequence of packets from a server to the client are important - i.e. VoIP or similar. If they can reach the client via a cabled connection from the router then they have already managed to reach the users network meaning QoS wasn't needed to begin with. Jpeg images aren't "streamed" therefore are not time sensitive thus do not require packet preferencing protocols.

QoS deals with traffic that is time sensitive like VoIP, video chat systems or streaming over UDP where missing a few packets isn't important., e.g. Skype or IP telephony. I don't think jpeg images on a web page constitute time sensitive traffic. Maybe configuring your Maximum Transmission Unit - MTU - might help but I doubt it. Typically it's default setting is 1500 but a more compatible setting is 1492.

Ken

Synode

Do you change the MTU on the router? Or the laptop? Or both?

ZENER

Windows should automatically adjust the MTU to suit the traffic which is why I doubt that this is your issue. Networking can be fickle sometimes but if the images show ok on the wired connection then I'd be looking at settings on your wifi connection, maybe start by disabling your encryption to see if there's a difference, change from WPA to no encryption just to see if it helps.

I'm not too good on Windows networking so can't really help you further, from what I read you can only change the MTU via Netsh which is a whole other OS on its own ! Personally I'd be looking at going back to before the problem started - the VPN connection as you've already suggested yourself.

Hope you get it sorted.

Ken