Weird Wi-Fi speed

Troublesome

So I got a wireless router today, and I have my network all set up. Odd thing is, data speeds are supposed to be "up to 54 mbps", which is dial up speed, but I am browsing the internet at by-far broadband speeds. In fact, on a "Very Good" (rather than "Excellent") connection, I am getting arguably faster speeds than on the family PC which is wired to a modem.

bushy...

The "m" in the "up to 54 mbps" stands for mega ( 1000 ish) , your broadband connection to the outside world be something like 2mb , 3mb etc

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

So I got a wireless router today, and I have my network all set up. Odd thing is, data speeds are supposed to be "up to 54 mbps", which is dial up speed, but I am browsing the internet at by-far broadband speeds. In fact, on a "Very Good" (rather than "Excellent") connection, I am getting arguably faster speeds than on the family PC which is wired to a modem.

54 Kbps is modem speed. 54 Mbps is MUCH faster. However, you will never reach that speed. I'd say, from my testing, the max speed you will reach for copying a file from one pc to the other over WI-FI would be aroun 2MBps [not Mbps] to about 4MBps.

Troublesome

IrishTLR wrote:

54 Kbps is modem speed. 54 Mbps is MUCH faster. However, you will never reach that speed. I'd say, from my testing, the max speed you will reach for copying a file from one pc to the other over WI-FI would be aroun 2MBps [not Mbps] to about 4MBps.

why does it take Windows so long to identify/fully connect to the network? Like, 10-15 minutes long.

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

why does it take Windows so long to identify/fully connect to the network? Like, 10-15 minutes long.

Something is wrong with your setup. It shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to connect to a wi-fi network

Are there any other wireless networks in your immediate area? Make sure you are not on the same channel as another wifi network.

dub45

If you download netstumbler it will show you what other networks are close to you and what channel they are using.

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads

Troublesome

IrishTLR wrote:

Something is wrong with your setup. It shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to connect to a wi-fi network

Are there any other wireless networks in your immediate area? Make sure you are not on the same channel as another wifi network.

I get faint reception from 7 different networks. I saw this when setting it up but I was looking at the networks and couldn't tell what channel they were on, so I just left it on auto.

When I restarted the comp after it hibernated overnight due to the battery's critical power level, it connected almost instantly. But this is the first time it has happened so quickly.

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

so I just left it on auto.

I'm not talking about the channel on your laptop. Rather, the channel that your wireless router is set to. You can use Netstumbler, as noted above, to find out what channels other access points are set to. Just set yours to something different.

Troublesome

Netstumber does not support my computer's Wi-Fi device.

Troublesome

I need to find this out asap

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

I need to find this out asap

If netstumbler won't work and you can only see about 7 access points in your wireless list, configure your wireless access point/router with channel 1. Then test.

If still problems, configure it to channel 2, then test. Repeat until channel 11 or 13, whatever the last channel is.

I know it's a pain, but should get you working within 30 minutes.

Troublesome

It connects immediately on startup; only when coming out of sleep or hibernation will it be unable to connect. A simple case of flipping the Wi-Fi switch on my laptop before I put it to sleep.

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

It connects immediately on startup; only when coming out of sleep or hibernation will it be unable to connect. A simple case of flipping the Wi-Fi switch on my laptop before I put it to sleep.

Windows Vista?

I have no problems on my Windows XP LapJobby

Troublesome

IrishTLR wrote:

Windows Vista?

I have no problems on my Windows XP LapJobby

Vista (Home Basic).

watty

Upgrade to XP pro, or even XP Home. Far more advanced than "Vista Home Basic" Only the higher versions of Vista do stuff that XP doesn't and most of that questionable. MS has been forced by market pressure to extend the date they stop shipping XP as it is outselling Vista on aftermarket "retail packs".

RangeR

Troublesome wrote:

Vista (Home Basic).

I've had problems with Vista a wireless. Most notably, I can't enable security. I just have to do MAC filtering. Not secure but better than nothing.

Before anyone starts, I know the short comings.

Troublesome

watty wrote:

Upgrade to XP pro, or even XP Home. Far more advanced than "Vista Home Basic" Only the higher versions of Vista do stuff that XP doesn't and most of that questionable. MS has been forced by market pressure to extend the date they stop shipping XP as it is outselling Vista on aftermarket "retail packs".

Don't you mean downgrade to XP?

Troublesome

watty wrote:

Upgrade to XP pro, or even XP Home. Far more advanced than "Vista Home Basic" Only the higher versions of Vista do stuff that XP doesn't and most of that questionable. MS has been forced by market pressure to extend the date they stop shipping XP as it is outselling Vista on aftermarket "retail packs".

I kinda need a rational before downgrading my op system..

I like Vista anyways.

mathias

I've had problems with Vista a wireless. Most notably, I can't enable security. I just have to do MAC filtering. Not secure but better than nothing.

Before anyone starts, I know the short comings.

I have 5 computers in the house , two laptops , one htpc , one main big ass pc , and a linux pc in a shuttle case , besides the linux box all the others are using flavours of Vista and not one of them has ever given trouble with wireless , the only wireless trouble I had was with a crappy Belkin USB dongle which has since been binned in favour of a linksys.

There is absolutely no need to downgrade from Vista , it works fine for wireless and is easier to set up than XP ever was.

With regards to the quote above , security is primarily set up via your browser accessing the routers internal software , usually by typing 192.168.1.1 or something similar in your browsers address bar , it is a function of the router hardware and is normally not dependant on whether you have XP , Vista , OSX , Linux or any other recent OS. The OS does not provide secure wireless networking , rather it supports devices that do, like your router.

All the OS has to do is support WPA and WEP ( they all do these days ) and provide you with a box to enter in the key that you set up in your router !

Vista has had its quirks in the beginning , most of them fixed by now , wireless connection capability though was never an issue with Vista that I came across.

RangeR

mathias wrote:

wireless connection capability though was never an issue with Vista that I came across.

IF AND ONLY IF, your Vista Ready computer comes with a Wireless NIC that doesn't have proper drivers.

mathias

IF AND ONLY IF, your Vista Ready computer comes with a Wireless NIC that doesn't have proper drivers.

Which , to be fair , is no fault of Vista's or Microsoft !