On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:00:17 -0800, dotan_ak wrote:

> Fellow networkers,
>
> I have a Cable modem at home with download speeds of 13 - 15Mb/s. I
> love it! Unfortunately, I only measure those speeds on my wired
> computers. The wireless ones (I tried 2 laptops using 2 different
> PCMCIA cards) only get around 6.5-7 Mb/s when downloading from the
> Internet.
>
> NOTE: when transferring a file from my wired computer to the wireless
> one, I did get around 15Mb/s. That's slow but it proves that the
> wireless computer can receive more than 7Mb/s.
>
> I am using my new Linksys WRT54GS. Both laptops are P4, 512MB RAM,
> Win XP SP2. Here is what I tried to eliminate the obvious:
>
> 1. Tried both laptops with the same card. Same results, hence not a
> computer problem.
> 2. Tried both laptops with a wired connection. Got 13Mb/s. Again,
> not a computer issue. Router is capable.
> 3. I tried a different wireless card on both laptops. Back to 7Mb/s.
> I guess that rules out the wireless adapter.
> 4. I changed from WPA to WEP and then to no encryption at all. No
> improvement.
> 5. I tried different wireless channels. No luck.
> 6. I unplugged my only 2.4GHZ cordless phone. Nope. Router is fine.
> 7. I moved to the room where the router resides. No improvement. I
> guess there is no major signal loss.
> 8. Brought a new laptop from work with an internal Mini-PCI card. Same
> speed. Not a PCMCIA limit.
> 9. Switched back to the old router (Netgear MR814v2). Same old, same
> old.
>
> The only thing I am yet to try is using a USB wireless adapter but I
> doubt it will show any better speeds.
>
> Is Wireless Internet severely limited? Am I missing something?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice,
> Dotan

I wouldn't let these guys put you down for "tooting your horn". You should
be proud of your accomplishments. That said, they're right in that a piece
of paper doesn't mean that you can troubleshoot anything. Conversely, not
having that certification and/or education doesn't mean that you can't fix
stuff - it's just that most employers require the certification/education.
OTOH, no one can be expected to fix everything on their own - to believe
otherwise is unrealistic. Anyway, I believe your intent was to inform
others that you have substantial knowledge of networking so that they
don't have to "dumb down" their explaination so that you would understand.