Wireless Efficiency
Excellent advice from Samuria re moving the two devices close together. The fact that you're only establishing a 54 Mbps connection would sugest that your link is not ideal.
A few other things to try - switch off wireless on your laptop, and repeat your tests with a wired connection - i.e. eliminate anything in your laptop which may be slowing down internet traffic. Check (if you've not already done so) that your security is switched on - you may be sharing your broadband connection with a neighbour
In theory, even a 54 Mbps connection should outpace your ADSL connection - after all, it can't get above 8 Mbps. We use a lot of Netgear routers in work, and as you say, they are generally not problematic (which is more than I can say for a few other brands we tested).
As pierre_pierre says, signals don't like brick walls (or thick stacks of books as we discovered), but you still should get good signal at distances well in excess of 20 feet. The height issue is just because that the higher you raise things in a house, the less likely you are to have obstacles between router and PC.
A few other things to try - switch off wireless on your laptop, and repeat your tests with a wired connection - i.e. eliminate anything in your laptop which may be slowing down internet traffic. Check (if you've not already done so) that your security is switched on - you may be sharing your broadband connection with a neighbour
In theory, even a 54 Mbps connection should outpace your ADSL connection - after all, it can't get above 8 Mbps. We use a lot of Netgear routers in work, and as you say, they are generally not problematic (which is more than I can say for a few other brands we tested).
As pierre_pierre says, signals don't like brick walls (or thick stacks of books as we discovered), but you still should get good signal at distances well in excess of 20 feet. The height issue is just because that the higher you raise things in a house, the less likely you are to have obstacles between router and PC.
Hi all,
Thanks for tips and sorry for the delay but I gave up and reset the whole lot back to factory default settings
and started again!
Now, in no particular order;
- I think the netgear to Intel Wifi card is actually a decent connection throughout the house, as it's small, and I get 80-99% signal strength on average, though it is still only 'G' standard. Being 1 metre away, 1 room away, or 1 floor down doesn't affect the poor average speed tester ratings I get.
- I plugged in the ethernet cable to set up (-again!) the Netgear router, and remembered to check the speed at the same time, and had ratings from 1.0 to 2.25Mbps over the course of an hour or so!
- Although Plusnet has had 'green-light status' for its ADSL for 52 days, I guess they are the likely culprit? Nothing obvious has changed at my end over the last week and 'speed testers' give ratings between 0.5-2.5MBps still.
- I am wary of trying the 'Netstumbler' software as it doesn't mention Vista compatible? I'm finding a lot of my existing software and drivers that I tranferred over form my old trusty desktop will not work easily, so i'm trying not to mess and twiddle too much. Do you have experience of it definately working on Vista32 without interfering with anything else? Does it uninstall easily? I pick-up between 3-8 other networks at home so it would be interesting to see any conflicts.
- There is a Windows update for the Intel WiFi card, but the Intel website says to stick with the manufacturer's own drivers, which are older but at least today I am getting a 2.5MB connection. Given that I tried these drivers prior to last weeks factory default reset, and rolledback too thinking they might have caused the consistant 0.5MBps of last month, should I try them again now? Is the rollback option foolproof if it makes thing worse again? I don't have the time or patience to factory default again!?!?
- Should I be able to 'force' the Intel Wifi card to detect draft-n networks? Or perhaps I need to 'force' the router to broadcast on 'draft-n?' Any ideas how, as I can't see anything obvious in the settings for either?
- I guess for the moment I am stuck with a random connection between 0.5-2.5MBps, and assume that it is out of my control (BT or Plusnet?) and is not necessarily due to my new WiFi setup after all? Do you all have such wildly varying BT/Plusnet connection speeds for MaxDSL?
- To be honest I don't understand the MTU tweeking links Chilly
let alone have the confidence to mess and potentially make this soddin' notebook any worse to use, and again the first few I looked at don't mention Vista even. Is it a REALLY good idea?
Thanks in advance, any and all further help appreciated,
DJY007.
Thanks for tips and sorry for the delay but I gave up and reset the whole lot back to factory default settings
and started again!Now, in no particular order;
- I think the netgear to Intel Wifi card is actually a decent connection throughout the house, as it's small, and I get 80-99% signal strength on average, though it is still only 'G' standard. Being 1 metre away, 1 room away, or 1 floor down doesn't affect the poor average speed tester ratings I get.
- I plugged in the ethernet cable to set up (-again!) the Netgear router, and remembered to check the speed at the same time, and had ratings from 1.0 to 2.25Mbps over the course of an hour or so!
- Although Plusnet has had 'green-light status' for its ADSL for 52 days, I guess they are the likely culprit? Nothing obvious has changed at my end over the last week and 'speed testers' give ratings between 0.5-2.5MBps still.
- I am wary of trying the 'Netstumbler' software as it doesn't mention Vista compatible? I'm finding a lot of my existing software and drivers that I tranferred over form my old trusty desktop will not work easily, so i'm trying not to mess and twiddle too much. Do you have experience of it definately working on Vista32 without interfering with anything else? Does it uninstall easily? I pick-up between 3-8 other networks at home so it would be interesting to see any conflicts.
- There is a Windows update for the Intel WiFi card, but the Intel website says to stick with the manufacturer's own drivers, which are older but at least today I am getting a 2.5MB connection. Given that I tried these drivers prior to last weeks factory default reset, and rolledback too thinking they might have caused the consistant 0.5MBps of last month, should I try them again now? Is the rollback option foolproof if it makes thing worse again? I don't have the time or patience to factory default again!?!?
- Should I be able to 'force' the Intel Wifi card to detect draft-n networks? Or perhaps I need to 'force' the router to broadcast on 'draft-n?' Any ideas how, as I can't see anything obvious in the settings for either?
- I guess for the moment I am stuck with a random connection between 0.5-2.5MBps, and assume that it is out of my control (BT or Plusnet?) and is not necessarily due to my new WiFi setup after all? Do you all have such wildly varying BT/Plusnet connection speeds for MaxDSL?
- To be honest I don't understand the MTU tweeking links Chilly
let alone have the confidence to mess and potentially make this soddin' notebook any worse to use, and again the first few I looked at don't mention Vista even. Is it a REALLY good idea?Thanks in advance, any and all further help appreciated,
DJY007.
