Trying to deal with random wireless latency when streaming
At random intervals, I will experience the "slow network, lower your bitrate" error for a period of seconds when streaming from Sunshine to Moonlight.
This appears across both clients I use wirelessly:
- Thinkpad P14s Gen 2 (11th gen intel + nvidia t500)
- Steam Deck OLED
The host is a Cachy OS (KDE) machine running Sunshine, with a 9800X3D and RTX 5080, streaming at 1440p 120fps (however, this behaviour manifested even on a lower spec machine, 7700 / 9060 XT + at lower resolution) which is connected to the router (EE WiFI 7) via Cat6 ethernet. Ping testing to the router is sub1ms response times as well. I also have an EE Smart WiFi Pro "mesh extender" wired to a switch (all backhaul cat6) in another room to extend coverage in the house.
The laptop gets it worse, but I experience it also on the Steam Deck. Connecting the laptop via wired ethernet to the router does seem to alleviate this but I haven't been able to test on the Steam Deck. And it's not really a viable solution.
Sometimes it disappears in a few seconds, others I the only way to fix this has been to disable wifi then re-enable, or restart my Steam Deck. And this is without anything being downloaded in the background.
This is even happening when I am sat no more than 3m away from the router with no objects blocking the path
Are there any suggestions on things I can try out here? I'm seriously considering picking up a proper mesh system later in the year when I have the money + time to set it up.