Extremely Slow WLAN Speed

If the router isn't set to use the 802.11n Only setting then you can't get more than 54Mbps, the mixed wireless settings can really slow things down. You would also need to use WPA2 with AES encryption to achieve full wireless N speeds.

You can also try using the channel bonding feature which should show up in the routers wireless settings as 20Mhz-40Mhz, this setting can double your bandwidth.

It's possible for wireless N to achieve 450Mbps "status speed" but you need the right router and correct 3 antenna PCI NIC for this.

Besides those adjustments the signal strength etc. looks good here.

amsgator said:

chev65 said:

If the router isn't set to use the 802.11n Only setting then you can't get more than 54Mbps, the mixed wireless settings can really slow things down. You would also need to use WPA2 with AES encryption to achieve full wireless N speeds.

You can also try using the channel bonding feature which should show up in the routers wireless settings as 20Mhz-40Mhz, this setting can double your bandwidth.

It's possible for wireless N to achieve 450Mbps "status speed" but you need the right router and correct 3 antenna PCI NIC for this.

Besides those adjustments the signal strength etc. looks good here.

Thanks. It looks like my router only offers mixed mode, no N only. I'll look into a new one. I am also already using the channel bonding.

If I take my two laptops to Starbucks, get on their wifi and set a unique workgroup so I'm not visible to anyone else, can I run a LAN test there? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm being limited by my cards, the router, something in my house, etc without buying and swapping things. If I can get a good speed over another Wifi network, I can eliminate my cards as the problem. This is a lot easier for me to do than borrow a friend.

If there is no N only option then you have found the source of the problem. In fact you are limiting every wireless NIC on your network to 54Mbps "status speed" unless this setting is enabled.

Maybe a firmware update would help in this regard but any router without this option would definitely cause the problems you are describing.

For connection at Starbucks just turn off Network Discovery in the Advanced Sharing settings at the Network and Sharing Center. This will prevent others from seeing your machine or accessing it. Testing at Starbucks probably won't help as they are most likely using the mixed wireless settings to accommodate the mix of clients.

amsgator said:

chev65 said:

If there is no N only option then you have found the source of the problem. In fact you are limiting every wireless NIC on your network to 54Mbps "status speed" unless this setting is enabled.

Maybe a firmware update would help in this regard but any router without this option would definitely cause the problems you are describing.

For connection at Starbucks just turn off Network Discovery in the Advanced Sharing settings at the Network and Sharing Center. This will prevent others from seeing your machine or accessing it. Testing at Starbucks probably won't help as they are most likely using the mixed wireless settings to accommodate the mix of clients.

One of the routers (actually a DSL wireless gateway) I tested previously has N only mode. I enable that and when connected I get ~20Mbps. That still seems awfully slow. Makes me wonder if something's wrong with my computers. I tried all three which seems farfetched for all three cards to be shot. They aren't dual band so maybe I'm expecting unrealistic throughput.

The original router, unfortunately, is discontinued and no longer updated so the firmware it's got is the last it'll get. Maybe it's time to get a new router.

That is twice as fast compared to the first router on your original post so it looks like we are getting somewhere.

I'm not completely sure what you are using to measure the WLAN speed with?

If you can post the wireless status speed it would give me a better idea of how this is working.

I might be able to help more if you could post the read out from inSSIDer rather than Xirrus.

I should add that I only get approx. 40Mbps when sending files from my Gb wired connection to my wireless AC connection which runs at 877.5Mbps "status speed" so I'd say that 20Mbps is about what you should expect for your current wireless connection.

The good thing is that your wireless connection speed has now doubled since you changed to the N only setting as was advised earlier.

I am using a program called LAN Speed Test and am also timing it with a stop watch and dividing the time it takes to transfer a file of a given size, such as 20 MB. And when I ran it when I got home this morning I was getting an upload speed of ~3Mbps and a download speed ~15Mbps. So I have no clue what's going on.

What are you needing from inSSIDer? I'm running the free one so it might not have what you're looking for. If that image is windows file transfer, how do I view the histogram?

On your picture there you are getting about 40MB/s, which is 240 Mbps (40 x 8 bits per byte). I am getting about (2.5MB/s 20Mbps/8 bits per byte).

EDIT: I have a status speed of 300Mbps on my destop and 130Mbps on my laptop.