Windows 7: Internet Connection is very weak for my laptop while others are fine.

My internet connection is very weak and can i can move only 10 meters before connection is gone. Almost everywhere, my signal is only showing 1 bar while the laptop's of others are 3 or 4 bars if not full. I am now forced to use a direct cable from my internet to my laptop. This is good sometimes but it is really annoying when i want to stay in my room.. I guess my network adapter is bad.. I'm not sure..



Here are my network adapters:
Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
Driver Date: 4/21/2010 Driver Version: 1.0.0.29

Atheros AR9285 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
Driver Date: 9/25/2010 Driver Version: 9.1.0.328

(As for this driver, I have tried updating this version to Version: 9.2.0.113, but everytime I try to update it, it says that it can't update cause it my laptop has the latest drivers.)
Is this the cause of the problem? I'm not sure.. Can anyone help?

I also thought that maybe my router is defective but this problem is for every wifi connection i use. Others can see multiple networks while I cant see a thing.. Any advice?

Welcome to Seven Forums,

I'd usually download the driver from the Atheros site then manually install the driver.
This tutorial might be of helped for you to manually install the driver.


Also, please install and run Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector from your computer. Double click the Xirrus Icon on his laptop's desktop, Tap the Printscreen key on your keyboard, open up Paint then choose Edit from the Menu and select Paste, then SAVE it. Upload and attached the file here.

OK. So I followed instructions and I updated the driver manually. It still is the same version :| It doesn't change. I tried it twice, it's still 9.1.0.328... Is this the problem?

Also may I also mention that this laptop used to have a faulty motherboard and hardrive so all the components had to be replaced. Before this, my wi-fi connection was running smoothly. Could the replaced component be at fault?

Here's the pic of the Xirrus thing:

That's a signal issue, it's obvious from the Xirrus snap shot.

You might have to invest on a Wi-Fi adapter with high gain antenna and a higher dBi. I'd suggest >7dBi. I bought 2 of those, one for home and one for work and they work pretty good.

Oh Okay. Thanks A lot. Will check on that wi-fi adapters. Thanks for all the help

Ok. So I have been using a wireless adapter for months now. Realtek 11n USB LAN Utility. When going abroad, I left it at home and when I came back, I used it again. It would stop working suddenly and make my laptop hang. Eventually it came to a point where my laptop is now going Blue screen of death whenever I plug in the USB.

This makes no sense. The blue screen shows bad pool header or at least something like that. Thats all I could make out before it restarted the laptop. I don't wanna risk another blue screen to check what it says

What should I do???

I thought I would point out that TKIP encryption is not made to work with the 802.11n standard. You will want to change that to AES encryption on both your routers set up page and the wireless profile in Windows. You should also be using the WPA2 security.

It also appears that you have channel bonding enabled because you are showing 2 channels there. Channel bonding only works well if you have a very strong signal "5bars". In most cases it's best to turn it off by going into your routers set up page and changing from the 20-40Mhz setting to the 20Mhz setting which is single channel mode.

Ok. So I'm not the best of laptop users out there. How do I change the TKIP encryption to an AES? And the other settings you said..?

You would need to go into the routers set up page to make that change, in fact for wireless N you pretty much have to use AES encryption because it was designed to work at wireless N speeds. You can also take your machine off dual channel mode while you are there.

After that you will want to make the same changes to the network profile in Windows at Manage Wireless connections in the Network and Sharing Center.

Um. I have tried this and my signal ain't boosting. I still have to be in the same room to be able to receive a signal :\