Wireless Connection Speed limited to 54mb/s on Wireless-N equipment

[joelshort]

I have a new dual band wireless-AC router (Linksys EA6300) and just installed an Intel AC 7260 wireless card in my laptop. The wireless network I am connected to indicates that it is a 802.11n connection, but in the Wireless Network Connection Status it only shows a connection speed of 54mb/s. The router is capable of 300mb/s in the 2.4ghz band and 867mb/s in the 5ghz band. Using inSSIDer to examine the networks, it shows that when I'm connected to the 5ghz network it has a max rate of 450mb/s.

I have tried everything I can think of and have searched and searched to no avail. If my router is an AC router, and my wireless card is an AC card, why is my connection speed limited to 54mb/s?

I also have another computer with a wireless-N card and the connection speed is also limited to 54mb/s on that computer too.

I've attached a screenshot showing the connection speed.

 

[matts6887]

Have you tried checking the various setting in the network folder? Also, your router has a configuration web page doesnt it? a page you would go to; in order to change the router settings? If so, log into that page and check the router settings. Also; even though the router is new I believe you mentioned; there might be a firmware upgrade for the router that you should be able to easily check for. Im not familiar with the type of router you have. but you should be able to get into the settings fairly easily.

 

[joelshort]

Thanks for trying, but I've looked at all that already and everything looks set up correctly. The firmware on my router is the latest firmware.

 

[chev65]

I have a new dual band wireless-AC router (Linksys EA6300) and just installed an Intel AC 7260 wireless card in my laptop. The wireless network I am connected to indicates that it is a 802.11n connection, but in the Wireless Network Connection Status it only shows a connection speed of 54mb/s. The router is capable of 300mb/s in the 2.4ghz band and 867mb/s in the 5ghz band. Using inSSIDer to examine the networks, it shows that when I'm connected to the 5ghz network it has a max rate of 450mb/s.

I have tried everything I can think of and have searched and searched to no avail. If my router is an AC router, and my wireless card is an AC card, why is my connection speed limited to 54mb/s?

I also have another computer with a wireless-N card and the connection speed is also limited to 54mb/s on that computer too.

I've attached a screenshot showing the connection speed.

It sometimes helps to use brand matching wireless AC hardware as the final draft is still being worked on and there are some compatibility issues involved. You may have better luck using Linksys AC hardware with that router and there is usually an updated firmware for all these new AC routers that can help. The beam forming antenna can be tricky beast when it comes to mismatched hardware.

For wireless N in general you need to set it to use 802.11n ONLY because the mixed settings will limit to around 54Mbps. Using WPA2 and AES is also required to achieve maximum bandwidth with wireless n.

There are other issues you need to keep in mind when using the 5Ghz frequency, the biggest one being that it's not made to go through walls like 2.4Ghz. Going by the 4 bar signal strength this may be part of the problem.

5Ghz signals typically do not go through more than one wall without serious degradation of signal strength, this also limits potential bandwidth which then shows up as a slow wireless status speed.

You could try posting the output from inSSIDer to check the signal strength etc.

http://files.metageek.net/downloads/...r-3.0.7.48.msi

Ideally you should be seeing something similar to the status speed in the picture when using 5Ghz AC, this is 35 feet from access point to antenna but it's open space which is how the 5Ghz frequency is meant to be used.

 

[joelshort]

Thanks for the reply. The signal strength remains the same whether the laptop is right beside the router or on the other side of the house, always 54mb/s.

Earlier I had tried to set my router to wireless-n only, but for some reason when I did that (in either the 2.4ghz or 5ghz band) I couldn't connect at all to the network.

Right now the security type is WPA2-PSK. I didn't see a setting to change it to WPA2-AES.

Here's a screenshot of inSSIDer showing the signal connection etc.

 

[chev65]

Thanks for the reply. The signal strength remains the same whether the laptop is right beside the router or on the other side of the house, always 54mb/s.

Earlier I had tried to set my router to wireless-n only, but for some reason when I did that (in either the 2.4ghz or 5ghz band) I couldn't connect at all to the network.

Right now the security type is WPA2-PSK. I didn't see a setting to change it to WPA2-AES.

Here's a screenshot of inSSIDer showing the signal connection etc.

That signal line is supposed to be arrow straight and with the signal strength at -60 I would not expect much from this connection at all. I know this because I've helped on many AC router problems including the learning experience from my own AC hardware.

If you can't use the N only setting then there is zero chance you will see any improvement in status speed.

It's like I said with the different hardware vendors, with AC hardware you really need to match vendors, and the 2.4Ghz AC may or may not work with older wireless N hardware, there are major compatibility issues in many cases. I bet they didn't mention this when you purchased the router...

You didn't mention if you updated the firmware as was advised earlier but this is a required step for any AC router as they all have compatibility issues.

 

[joelshort]

So if I understand you correctly there is a compatibility issue between my Linksys AC router and the Intel AC wireless card in the laptop? The signal strength remains pretty constant at around -56, even with the computer right beside the router. I have updated the firmware and drivers for all components.

At this point I don't even care about getting the AC working. If I could just get N-only working and get closer to 100mb/s speed I'd be happy with that. As I said, if I set the router to wireless-N only then no computers in the network can connect to the router, even though all of them have N wireless cards.

 

[chev65]

So if I understand you correctly there is a compatibility issue between my Linksys AC router and the Intel AC wireless card in the laptop? The signal strength remains pretty constant at around -56, even with the computer right beside the router. I have updated the firmware and drivers for all components.

At this point I don't even care about getting the AC working. If I could just get N-only working and get closer to 100mb/s speed I'd be happy with that. As I said, if I set the router to wireless-N only then no computers in the network can connect to the router, even though all of them have N wireless cards.

Yes with AC hardware compatibility with older hardware has been a problem.

I've had the same problem myself when trying to use older N USB adaptors with my Asus AC router but no problems at all using the Asus PCI-e AC adaptor with the Asus router. Newer devices like phones connect without issue but older hardware on PC's have been problematic.

I'd like to blow smoke and say that everything will be ok, but in reality it won't be.

Easiest way to fix the problem is to purchase Linksys AC USB or PCI/e adaptors for all of your machines.

I realize this is not the answer you wanted to hear but it's the truth non the less.

You can thank me later when you realize that I'm correct and have just saved you weeks of frustration trying to figure out what is wrong.

 

[joelshort]

OK, thanks. I guess I'll have to see if Linksys makes a wireless card, or if Intel makes a AC router. I still don't understand why if I set the router to wireless-N only nothing will connect. Something else to throw into the mix, I have another wireless-N router and when I connect to that router I still only get 54mb/s speed. There doesn't appear to be an option in that router's settings to go to wireless-N only.

Pulling my hair out...
Thanks again for the help.

 

[chev65]

OK, thanks. I guess I'll have to see if Linksys makes a wireless card, or if Intel makes a AC router. I still don't understand why if I set the router to wireless-N only nothing will connect. Something else to throw into the mix, I have another wireless-N router and when I connect to that router I still only get 54mb/s speed. There doesn't appear to be an option in that router's settings to go to wireless-N only.

Pulling my hair out...
Thanks again for the help.

With my AC router, when I connected using an older Wireless Dlink DWA-140 N USB NIC, it showed decent connection speed but the connection dropped out in a certain amount of time so it was completely unstable. Although my wife's newer wireless N IPad connects to the same AC access point without issue.

Obviously if you went to matching hardware I would expect the numbers to be much higher and if not then it's on the manufacture to have their own matching hardware working up to specs.

That is a pretty strange coincidence with both routers stuck at 54Mbps.

All routers that I've seen have the 802.11 N Only setting though it may appear as something else, or it may not show up unless you change the security to WPA2/AES, it's hard to give exact directions because there are so many different routers/firmware's etc. With N working you should see between 100Mbps up to 450Mbps but only the best N routers using 3 antenna PCI NIC's can obtain that type of speed.

 

[joelshort]

Good news!!! In the router settings I turned on "Media Prioritization" and enabled WMM Support, and changed the 5ghz band to "AC-Only" and "80ghz" and I am now getting consistent connections speeds of 500+mb/s and I've seen it go close to the max of 867mb/s!

 

[joelshort]

One more question..even though the router is set to broadcast wireless-AC Only, and I am getting connection speeds consistent with wireless-A, Windows and inSSIDer still identifies the network at being wireless-N. Any idea why?

 

[matts6887]

OK, thanks. I guess I'll have to see if Linksys makes a wireless card, or if Intel makes a AC router. I still don't understand why if I set the router to wireless-N only nothing will connect. Something else to throw into the mix, I have another wireless-N router and when I connect to that router I still only get 54mb/s speed. There doesn't appear to be an option in that router's settings to go to wireless-N only.

Pulling my hair out...
Thanks again for the help.

Pulling your hair out you say?...trust me when i say been there done that!. Thats why we "geeks" are here to help