My girlfriend keeps blaming FFXIV on slow internet

[NegativeS]

We use the same internet, myself an ethernet connection and her over WiFi.

I often play or sit in queue while she's doing something else on her computer, and she complains constantly about internet problems when it's open. I open task manager to look at its network usage, keep it open while I'm playing, and it never goes above 0.3 Mbps.

I tell and show her this, but she doesn't believe me because it's an MMO.

Is FFXIV the cause of our slow internet, or is it just because our internet is spotty garbage?

[Vahlnir]

Wi-fi can be pretty spotty depending on where you live. It can also depend on one's location in your household as well. Does your gf's connection have anything to do with her distance from the source perhaps? Personally, I use 2 different connections. 1 for my PC and the other for my console(s), a wired and wireless connection respectively. They never really conflict in any way, at least for me. I'll be browsing the internet and watching videos on my PC while waiting for queues on my PS5 a fair amount of the time. Works out pretty well, honestly.

[Lunalepsy]

Are you for real? :O

[Myrany]

Caveate the hubby and I both use some heavy bandwidth on a regular basis.

I have seen situations where a program is just one too many and causes one person in the house to have net slowdowns when the other is not seeing it. In our household We have my gaming PC which is on most all night. ALso my hubbys ancient Mac. We also 100% stream for TV (ie Youtube TV, netflix, Hulu etc no cable tv). Sometimes one or the other of us boots up 1 program too many and things start to chug for the other one. It can happen.

I would suspect the OP's wife's wifi first though. That can be notoriously sensitive.

[Penthea]

I notice zero difference on our wifi when two people are running FFXIV. FFXIV isn't the problem. The problem could be your isp, the router, the wifi signal, your wife's network card, the place you're living in blocking signal from one room to another or someone wardriving. Wardriving is when someone outside of your home is using your internet without your permission.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

MMOs in general require a consistent, but not heavy internet connection. I have run FFXIV off of a phone hotspot before and used less than 5GB of data for the month I did it.

A quick Google search tells me that FFXIV uses a little less than 20 MB per hour. That would be 44.4 kilobits per second. You could literally run this game off of an old 56K modem. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could.

[Bixillarla]

Me and my sister both play MMOs in the evening at the same and have no issues with slow internet, not to mention my mom is on WiFi in the evening when she is home and has not had any issues with us playing and her speed.

WiFi can be spotty depending on various factors. Strength of the signal to her device. Distance from the router to her. Anything obstructing the signal, metal walls, etc.

You sitting in Que waiting is not the issue.

[technole]

My partner would always complain about the Wifi in our bedroom. One day I decided to replace the router with Google Wifi mesh, and put one of them in the bedroom which would ultimately boost the signal so her laptop didn't have to connect to the living room router. It's good enough to play even FFXIV in-bed. I think we were getting slight channel interference sometimes from the house next door, since our bedroom is at the corner of the house. Just some things to think about, you can always run one of those wifi signal apps on a notebook and test how things are normally.

[Triphex]

We use the same internet, myself an ethernet connection and her over WiFi.

I often play or sit in queue while she's doing something else on her computer, and she complains constantly about internet problems when it's open. I open task manager to look at its network usage, keep it open while I'm playing, and it never goes above 0.3 Mbps.

I tell and show her this, but she doesn't believe me because it's an MMO.

Is FFXIV the cause of our slow internet, or is it just because our internet is spotty garbage?

I'm no expert on girlfriends, but it sounds like she is trying to say "stop playing that game and pay attention to me." In my experience, they don't ever just say what they want, but drop hints and see if you get it.

[Dancingweapon]

I'm honestly surprised WiFi is still as crap as it is. It hasn't been good since day 1 and doesn't seem to have improved much since the early 2000s. I've ended up using powerline adapters and wire connecting all my devices (excusing mobile and tablet). As long as the wiring in your house is good, you'll get significantly better and more reliable speed/connection. You do need to be near a plug socket, but depending on where your girlfriend likes to sit on her laptop, that might not be an issue. Powerline adapters are pretty cheap too.

I highly doubt it's FFXIV for all the reasons people above have mentioned. Outside of trying the above, you could look at upgrading your WiFi box and checking out how old her laptop is and if the issue is her hardware being dated. That would likely end up being pretty expensive however.

Edit: To clarify I'm talking specifically about the powerline adapters that have ethernet slots to wire connect devices