Why Your Wi-Fi is Slow (And How You Can Fix It)

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    Why Your Wi-Fi is Slow (And How You Can Fix It)


    Posted: 11 May 2012
    The first 801.11ac chipsets are coming soon, but 802.11n is likely to stick around for many years to come -- both in the business world and our homes. Unfortunately, the 300Mbps (megabits per second) that the n-standard promises rarely delivers anything even close and proves to be a massive bottleneck in the days of 50/100Mbps (or more?) broadband connections, 1080p video streaming, massive backups and so forth. On the business side of things, even menial tasks such as remote desktop or real-time collaboration suffer from a poor Wi-Fi-connection.
    Read more at:
    Why Your Wi-Fi is Slow (And How You Can Fix It) | PCWorld
    Brink's Avatar Posted By: Brink
    11 May 2012



  1. Posts : 8,870
    Windows 7 Ult, Windows 8.1 Pro,
       #1

    Nice read Shawn.

    People need to understand that WIFI isn't magic. Going through two or three walls and expecting a perfect signal isn't reality. My tests indicate that anything more than two walls will give you average signal strength but it will be far from optimum, three walls will be marginal at best but there are other factors involved like the density of the walls and many other factors.

    Installing access points in the ideal locations is what makes WIFI work best. Expecting to have a good signal at the other end of the house after going through a bunch of walls is pure fantasy but people still seem to think it's possible.

    Another important point I'd like to make that the article didn't mention. Using the 802.11n Only setting with AES encryption is the only way to achieve full wireless N speed of 300Mbps. Using the mixed settings or using the older and slower TKIP encryption you can't achieve full wireless N speeds because the router needs to slow down it's signal in order to talk to slower wireless standards. Of course you can only do this if all the clients are using wireless N.

    Even with this strong signal strength and high speed of this connection if you don't look around for a clean channel you may notice dropped packets and skipping video streaming so channel selection is very important.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Why Your Wi-Fi is Slow (And How You Can Fix It)-300mbps-aes.png  
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  2. Posts : 1
    windows 7 ultimate x32
       #2

    amazing , it is good topic
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  3. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #3

    I only use wireless on laptops which are being used almost exclusively for surfing the web. My current 54g wireless router can supply more bandwidth that my ISP can provide...so the wireless is NOT a bottleneck for me. For any other computer in my house, my 360 and my PS3 it's hardwired into the network. I realize not everybody has the luxury or ability to run network cables around the house/apartment...but for those who do, it's by far the best and most reliable way to go.
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  4. Posts : 137
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 / OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8
       #4

    The router may not be an issue when it comes to bandwidth throughput but it can affect your connection quality if the router's not top notch.

    For example I've analyzed connection quality on top of bandwidth throughput tests. I found that a lot of people don't use proper settings on their AP's (access points/routers) and rely too much on default settings to achieve good performance. Some routers are plain junk while others can be very buggy. Some try to use better firmware on their routers (i.e. DD-WRT) but the router's hardware is plain terrible (there's a reason why I don't like using any Cisco-Linksys product).

    The article does seem to cover the basics but even the best software apps out there to help you plan a wireless scheme still falls short to plain trial and error. Even with router choices it's often a guessing game since what I need to know about the router is the stuff not written on the box.
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  5. Posts : 8,870
    Windows 7 Ult, Windows 8.1 Pro,
       #5

    Stratos said:
    The router may not be an issue when it comes to bandwidth throughput but it can affect your connection quality if the router's not top notch.

    For example I've analyzed connection quality on top of bandwidth throughput tests. I found that a lot of people don't use proper settings on their AP's (access points/routers) and rely too much on default settings to achieve good performance. Some routers are plain junk while others can be very buggy. Some try to use better firmware on their routers (i.e. DD-WRT) but the router's hardware is plain terrible (there's a reason why I don't like using any Cisco-Linksys product).

    The article does seem to cover the basics but even the best software apps out there to help you plan a wireless scheme still falls short to plain trial and error. Even with router choices it's often a guessing game since what I need to know about the router is the stuff not written on the box.
    Good point, that is why I mentioned the settings required to achieve true wireless N speeds which most people aren't even aware of. I agree about the trial and error part.

    People mentioned here ISP bottle necks but what about wireless video streaming on the LAN and file transfers on the LAN, huge different there between old standard wireless G which is stuck at 54Mbps and N at 300Mbps. Reliability is more related to proper hardware selection, signal strength and channel selection. I can move 8GB a minute through my wireless connection.

    My wireless connection is darn near as fast and just as reliable as my wired connection, it really depends on proper set up and choosing good compatible hardware. It helps to read the reviews at places like Newegg to make an educated choice. I can save people some trouble here,... go with D-link DIR-655 for a router and use the DAP-1522 for an access point or bridge. Or wait for the new standard 802.11ac at 5.0Ghz.
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  6. Posts : 7,538
    Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit
       #6

    My Wi-Fi isn't too bad, the two main computers are both Ethernet connect to an n capable router but the laptop is used via wireless and that is at the opposite end of the bungalow to the router. The signal is usually just one bar below the full set but that's only surfing the web.
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  7. Posts : 1,653
    Windows 10 Pro. EFI boot partition, full EFI boot
       #7

    When I switched from G to N my bandwidth increased significantly, even though the G bandwidth should have been enough for my ISP. I went from 14 Mb/s to 21.
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  8. Kha
    Posts : 9
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #8

    chev65 said:
    Nice read Shawn.

    People need to understand that WIFI isn't magic. Going through two or three walls and expecting a perfect signal isn't reality. My tests indicate that anything more than two walls will give you average signal strength but it will be far from optimum, three walls will be marginal at best but there are other factors involved like the density of the walls and many other factors.

    Installing access points in the ideal locations is what makes WIFI work best. Expecting to have a good signal at the other end of the house after going through a bunch of walls is pure fantasy but people still seem to think it's possible.

    Another important point I'd like to make that the article didn't mention. Using the 802.11n Only setting with AES encryption is the only way to achieve full wireless N speed of 300Mbps. Using the mixed settings or using the older and slower TKIP encryption you can't achieve full wireless N speeds because the router needs to slow down it's signal in order to talk to slower wireless standards. Of course you can only do this if all the clients are using wireless N.

    Even with this strong signal strength and high speed of this connection if you don't look around for a clean channel you may notice dropped packets and skipping video streaming so channel selection is very important.
    Omg! 300 mbps! do you know that i'm have only 7.2 mbps
    And all my money in it, but silly Telecom Company!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 3,168
    Windows 10 64bit
       #9

    Kha said:
    chev65 said:
    Nice read Shawn.

    People need to understand that WIFI isn't magic. Going through two or three walls and expecting a perfect signal isn't reality. My tests indicate that anything more than two walls will give you average signal strength but it will be far from optimum, three walls will be marginal at best but there are other factors involved like the density of the walls and many other factors.

    Installing access points in the ideal locations is what makes WIFI work best. Expecting to have a good signal at the other end of the house after going through a bunch of walls is pure fantasy but people still seem to think it's possible.

    Another important point I'd like to make that the article didn't mention. Using the 802.11n Only setting with AES encryption is the only way to achieve full wireless N speed of 300Mbps. Using the mixed settings or using the older and slower TKIP encryption you can't achieve full wireless N speeds because the router needs to slow down it's signal in order to talk to slower wireless standards. Of course you can only do this if all the clients are using wireless N.

    Even with this strong signal strength and high speed of this connection if you don't look around for a clean channel you may notice dropped packets and skipping video streaming so channel selection is very important.
    Omg! 300 mbps! do you know that i'm have only 7.2 mbps
    And all my money in it, but silly Telecom Company!
    You should be happy i get 5.6mbps download and 0.55mbps upload with at&t and pay around $40 usd for dsl and the phone in a bundle a month but it's what we can afford because the only other internet provider in our area is comcast but they charge like around $80usd and make you sign a contract for 6 months were you only pay around 35$ but it goes up later to like 80-90$usd a month.
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