Another Wireless Adapter Problem

pinksoir

I've been getting terrible wireless speeds from my router (UPC netgear) so I decided to upgrade to wireless N. I bought a Belkin Wireless N 300mbs router from PC World (an experience deserving of it's own rant) and I've run into nothing but problems.

I'm getting incredibly slow wireless speeds when I'm in the same room as the router, max 2mb/s and this is on a 15Mbit connection. As soon as I leave the room my speeds just to about 12-13mb/s. I have no idea why this is happening. I've updated my wireless adapter's driver to the latest, and I've tried running the router on every different channel. I've tried changing the router to dual channel mode (my adapter won't connect but will in another room), I've turned off everything that could be causing a disturbance/interference.

I have no idea what's going on. We have another laptop and that's fine. The only thing I could imagine it being is the wireless adapter, it's an Atheros AR5B93. What should I do?

EDIT: actually, the other laptops wireless is really slow in the room too. Fast in any other room though.

EDIT 2: I plugged back in the old Netgear router, and my wireless speeds are actually much faster with iy. Still not great, but 4.1mb/s compared to 0.6mb/s.

Could it be a compatibility issue with my wireless adapter and the router? The other laptop seems to be alright with the new router, but terrible with the old one.

The hardware is

Laptop 1: Atheros AR5B93
Laptop 2: Realtek RTL8191SE

Modem: Scientific Atlanta
Router (new): Belkin Wireless G 300
Router Old: Netgear WGR614v9

pinksoir

Just to update:

I brought back the router and exchanged it for an Asus one. Everything is working well now. I tested my old router again and it was getting pretty alright speeds of around 5-6mb/s. The new router is getting speeds of 10-12mb/s which is very acceptable.

Razzuh

Hi,
I'm just wondering how you're measuring the speeds? You might find this leaderboard and site in general useful for router spreed information:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/

I've heard that it can help to have an adapter and router with the same chipset manufacturer (e.g. both realtek or both atheros). You can find out what each brand router is using on the link above or just by googling it.

PogMoThoin

Belkin make some utter shíte wifi products, I've had many moments tearing My hair out with them, they just may or may not work and You're lucky if they see out their warranty.

pinksoir

Yah, they're a terrible manufacturer.

I was using speedtest.net to test the speed. I tried it wired and then wirelessly. The Asus router I have now is pretty sweet. I was getting 14mbps last night wirelessly through it.

Razzuh

pinksoir wrote: »

Yah, they're a terrible manufacturer.

I was using speedtest.net to test the speed. I tried it wired and then wirelessly. The Asus router I have now is pretty sweet. I was getting 14mbps last night wirelessly through it.

I think using speedtest.net isn't a good way to test router performance. Its for testing the performance of your Internet service provider really. The results will fluctuate wildly depending on how busy your ISP's network is (evenings are peak times) and how busy the server your testing against is (and that server's ISP). Even if you leave a computer in the same location and test repeatedly the results can vary hugely. You can't fairly attribute the variation to your router. Your router is only the first few feet of a very long journey for your internet traffic.

Any router at all will give you pretty much the same speed for internet traffic (provided you have a strong wifi signal). A router's performance is important for traffic between devices in your own home, like if you stream video to your TV or between computers.

The easiest way to test different routers I could suggest would be to have two computers. Make sure one of them is sharing a folder (easy to do in windows) and then use the other computer to transfer over a large file (say 1GB). Time how long it takes, and then switch in the other router and do the same thing again. You should see a big difference between wireless g and wireless n, or you know the n router is rubbish (both computers must have a wireless n adapter).

pinksoir

Cheers. I know it wasn't the best way to test, but it gave me an idea.

Since I got the Asus router, wireless speeds have increased dramatically. But now there's a new problem! The router will often disconnect from the internet quite regularly (the modem is still connected, as is the router but it says 'no internet access' on the laptop), and other times it will be undetectable by either laptop. This will happen every half hour or so.

So far, the old Netgear router is the only one not giving problems. We've pretty much gone back to using that. It has half the performance wirelessly than the Asus, but at least it's solid. Should I try a Netgear router?