Resolving an unusual WiFi issue (blog.ando.fyi)

Article summary

The author experienced intermittent WiFi connection issues with high latency spikes, which were resolved after discovering that the digital painting software MediBang Paint Pro was causing the issue due to a bug in the Qt5 network library. The bug causes the software to query registry keys for network interfaces, resulting in WiFi lag spikes. The issue was fixed by setting an environment variable to disable the problematic behavior. The author had tried various other solutions, including changing WiFi adapters and channels, before discovering the root cause.

Main themes

• WiFi issues
• Qt5 network library bug
• Network hardware and software
• Wired Ethernet vs WiFi
• Network troubleshooting
• UniFi and Omada comparison

What commenters say

• Some WiFi issues may be caused by physical layer problems, such as a broken transmit antenna, rather than software or configuration issues.
• The lack of a mechanism for the link peer to report SNR to the sender can lead to issues with WiFi connectivity.
• Enumerating WiFi networks can degrade network performance, and some operating systems may not provide adequate warnings or feedback about this issue.
• Using wired Ethernet can often resolve WiFi-related issues, and some users prefer to use it as a more reliable alternative.
• The Qt5 network library bug that caused the issue is a known problem that can affect other applications as well.
• Some network hardware and software solutions, such as UniFi, have been criticized for their performance and stability issues.
• Omada has been suggested as a potential alternative to UniFi for managing network hardware.