Wireless Speeds

Hi all last week i upgraded from 30mbps to 50mbps from UPC and got a new wireless cisco modem but am only getting 19 to 20mbps wireless but 40 to 50mbps directly connected to modem,my previous wireless router was a Netgear 108 mbps roeter wgt624 v4 and i was getting 10 to 12mbs download speed,i rang UPC about this but said it could be the wireless card in my laptop which is a Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20) he said if i have a G class ill only get 20mbps or so but with a N class ill get much better speeds
Is this true and if anyone can tell me is my wireless card a G class or a N class,Im running windows 7 aceir aspire 5739g,4gb ram,500gb hardrive,intel (r) croe(tm)2 duo cpu
T660 @2.20ghz,64 bit system.

Have you tried changing the channel that the router broadcasts its signal on?

Also how far or close are you from the router when performing the above test?

From what I can tell:

Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)

seems to look like an Ethernet network interface card.

thanks for reply I'm 3 feet from the router,how do i change the channel,its a cisco router from UPC.
Would it be worth buying a wireless n adapter

This should explain the difference between both



If you have not already changed the settings to your router then the following should apply.

Look through the routers config page to find the channel it is broadcasting on. The widely used channels are channel 1, 6, and 11. You could try changing them and then inspecting performance to see if it makes any difference.

If it does not then it may be worth investing in a wireless N adapter. It will help increase performance and speed.

Hope that clears things up for you.

Dont forget to change your default settings to the router through the routers config page if you have not already done so.

Default Settings

Login URL: http://192.168.1.1
Username: <blank>
Password: <blank>

There is an “Advanced” tab which will ask for another Username & Password:
Username: admin
Password: W2402

ok i just got a new wireless N adapter but speed is still the same,Here are some screen shots.

Paddy will you go to device manager and extend the Network adapters selection and let us know the results their.
Post the full name of the wireless card and the driver provider, version and date.
Get a screenshot of the properties/advanced tab of the wireless card, not the ethernet one.

You should also change your encryption, WEP can be hacked in minutes.

Have a read through these about your wireless channel

inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner
Change Your Wi-Fi Router Channel to Optimize Your Wireless Signal

Paddy i have similar problems at time with my vm usually fixed by me changing the channel to something that suits. Problem is sometimes you have to go thro each channel and see how it goes. I was told by Vm that channel 4 is a good channel and depends on how far you need the signal to go and via what route ie windows bricks wood etc to get the signal to where ever its needed.

Originally Posted by axxxo

Paddy will you go to device manager and extend the Network adapters selection and let us know the results their.
Post the full name of the wireless card and the driver provider, version and date.
Get a screenshot of the properties/advanced tab of the wireless card, not the ethernet one.

You should also change your encryption, WEP can be hacked in minutes.

Have a read through these about your wireless channel

inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner
Change Your Wi-Fi Router Channel to Optimize Your Wireless Signal

I forgot to ask, where are you checking to see what wireless speeds you have? Is it the likes of speedtest or are you checking the connection speed from the computer?
Using different servers from speedtest can give different results.
This speed test will give more accurate results for UPC ireland connections anyway.

Code:

http://speedtest.magnet.ie/

Open network and sharing center, click start and type network and sharing center and the click on your wireless connection, a new window will open up showing you the status of your connection, signal quality and speed.

Your wireless card, intel 5100 AGN is capable of connecting to the N band so there's no need for the usb N stick that you bought.

Im not sure about the wireless cisco modem you got from UPC, is there a model number with it that we can look up connecting to it to change settings or does it itself support the wireless N band? And if it does is it 2.4 or 5ghz...

Have you used inssider to see if you any interference from other networks in your area?
Even if you are only 3 feet away from the router, interference can play a big part in washing out your signal, any wireless phones next to the router? (if you have the phone with upc than the answer is yes )

Your drivers, windows supported ones at least, are pretty much recent, you could check out intels site to see if there are any updated drivers, just do a checkpoint before installing any new drivers or if it fails you can select the option to roll back the driver.

In the advanced tab for your intel wireless card, where it says 20mhz only, is there an option for 40 or auto? In fact you could change most of the settings to auto to see if it will make any improvements and then vary the settings as you go to see if the results change.

OK lads thanks for all the help,been onto UPC about this problem but they all say the same s,,,t,that its maxing out at 20mph and cant do anything about it,could be interference from outside or that but no one could help until today that is,a lovely girl called Diane from UPC sorted it very quickly by changing the security encryption from wep to wep personal and i am now getting between 44mph and 49mph and that test is with UPC speed test and magnet speed test,Wireless