Slow wireless, even after upgrade

Hi,

I just upgraded from Charter's 3mb/sec plan to the 5mb/sec plan, but
I'm having some trouble. I can direct connect to the modem and get a
4.6 mb/s speed, but I'm getting very different speeds with my wireless
connections. My Mac laptop with a Wireless G card can pull around 3.8
mb/s. While my desktop (PC), which is sitting right next to the Mac,
and uses a wireless G USB, only gets around 1.5 mb/s. I tried my other
desktop in the room across the hall, which uses wireless B, and it,
too, gets about 1.5 mb/s. Strangely, I was getting 1.5 mb/s or so on
both the wireless G and the Wireless B desktops BEFORE I upgraded to
higher d/l rate plan through Charter.

My router, a Linksys WRT54G V4, is completely updated. I have it set
to send a mixed signal out, but even when I set it to only transmit
Wireless G (which renders one of my desktops useless), the wireless g
desktop still only gets 1.5 mb/s (Read: No change in speed). I even
tried changing the transmit rate on the router, setting it to "54mbps"
from "auto." Same deal.

I don't understand why the Mac has no problems in the speed tests, but
the desktop, sitting 6 inches from it, also with a Wireless G card,
can't pull in more than 1.5 mbps. What am I doing wrong? The way I
see it, it can't be the modem, since I can direct connect. And it
can't be the router, since the Mac gets 3.8 mb/s. That leaves the
wireless network cards, which are both up-to-date.

Anyway, I hope someone can shed some light on the subject...

Don't mix-and-match wireless standards. Use either G or B, not mixed.

Make sure you don't have other wifi networks overlapping on your channel.

What brand cards are you using in all of them?

And what are you using to determine the speed?

Try setting all the devices to use B, and see if that helps. Also, try
to use a different channel, and enable MAC filtering to ensure that no
one else is connecting to your wireless.

Are you using WEP or WPA? There is some overhead associated with
encryption, but it shouldnt be causing that much difference in speed.

If you disable all the other devices, and only connect one wireless
device does your speed improve?

Try to remove as many external factors as possible to troubleshoot this
connection.

-Luke

"Stockmoose16" <Stockmoose16@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

>I just upgraded from Charter's 3mb/sec plan to the 5mb/sec plan, but
>I'm having some trouble. I can direct connect to the modem and get a
>4.6 mb/s speed, but I'm getting very different speeds with my wireless
>connections. My Mac laptop with a Wireless G card can pull around 3.8
>mb/s.

>While my desktop (PC), which is sitting right next to the Mac,
>and uses a wireless G USB, only gets around 1.5 mb/s.

What model desktop? What maker and model USB device?

>I tried my other
>desktop in the room across the hall, which uses wireless B, and it,
>too, gets about 1.5 mb/s. Strangely, I was getting 1.5 mb/s or so on
>both the wireless G and the Wireless B desktops BEFORE I upgraded to
>higher d/l rate plan through Charter.

What other desktop? What maker and model wireless 802.11b device?

Hint: Try to buy auto parts without specifying the maker, model,
year, engine, etc. Numbers are a good thing.

>My router, a Linksys WRT54G V4, is completely updated.

Stock Linksys firmware or one of the alternative firmware versions?

Incidentally, I just wasted some time with a friend who insisted that
his firmware was updated to the latest version. When I finally pried
the revision number out of him, I found that it nowhere near the
latest. Numbers please.

>I have it set
>to send a mixed signal out, but even when I set it to only transmit
>Wireless G (which renders one of my desktops useless),

You'll get a substantial reduction in maximum theoretical speed when
mixing 802.11b and 802.11g. See table at:
| http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi...ance_and_Speed
However, it should not be as slow as 1.5Mbits/sec.

>the wireless g
>desktop still only gets 1.5 mb/s (Read: No change in speed). I even
>tried changing the transmit rate on the router, setting it to "54mbps"
>from "auto." Same deal.

Try temporarily turning off 802.11b compatibility. Yeah, I know your
802.11b laptop will be comatose. I just want to see if it has an
effect.

>I don't understand why the Mac has no problems in the speed tests, but
>the desktop, sitting 6 inches from it, also with a Wireless G card,
>can't pull in more than 1.5 mbps.

Oh, it happens. Have you tried the speed test to the PC laptop using
a wired ethernet connection instead of wireless. A machine full of
spyware and worms will be REALLY slow.

>What am I doing wrong?

I'm glad you asked. Disorganized troubleshooting and too many
assumptions. We know the WRT54G works because the Mac demonstrates
that it functions. We know almost nothing about the two PC's and
their client radios. It takes two to tango and I'm fairly sure it's a
client radio or PC computah problem. The easiest way to prove it is
to try connecting to a different wireless router. Since the 802.11b
is apparently a desktop, that will require borrowing a different
wireless router. If it does the same thing, then try a different
wireless device. That wouldn't be a bad idea as the 802.11b devices
will slow down your speeds anyway.

What I can't see is why BOTH your wireless desktops are getting slow
download speeds. Try the speed test with a wired connection. That
might mean dragging them to some place near the router, or borrowing a
long CAT5 cable. If it's still slow, then there's something wrong
with BOTH computahs. If you get normal spedds on both machines, then
there's something wrong with the respective client radios or drivers.

It's unlikely to have BOTH wireless desktops simultaneously exhibit
essentially the same problem. So, a 3rd PC client is needed to
determine if this is the case. Borrow a wireless PC laptop and try
the speed test again. If that works, then both your PC computahs are
having a bad day. If it also goes slow, then I don't have a clue
what's broken.

>The way I
>see it, it can't be the modem, since I can direct connect.

True. It also can't be the CAT5 cable between the modem and the
WRT54G v4 because it works on the Mac.

>And it
>can't be the router, since the Mac gets 3.8 mb/s.

I would expect a slightly faster download from a 5MBit/sec cable
connection. Charter Cable is showing about 4.5MBits/sec on the
DSLReports speed tests:
http://www.dslreports.com/archive/charter.com
Something is still wrong with the Mac or possibly whatever speed test
you're using.

>That leaves the
>wireless network cards, which are both up-to-date.

"Assumption. The mother of all screwups."

>Anyway, I hope someone can shed some light on the subject...

Let there be light. Hmmmm.... nothing happened.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Stockmoose16 wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just upgraded from Charter's 3mb/sec plan to the 5mb/sec plan, but
> I'm having some trouble. I can direct connect to the modem and get a
> 4.6 mb/s speed, but I'm getting very different speeds with my wireless
> connections. My Mac laptop with a Wireless G card can pull around 3.8
> mb/s. While my desktop (PC), which is sitting right next to the Mac,
> and uses a wireless G USB, only gets around 1.5 mb/s.

Are there othere devices (like a USB harddrive) stealing USB bandwidth?
If it is only USB 1.1 you only have 12mb/s of bandwidth to hsare with
all the devices on that root hub. If you have other USB devices, try
unplugging them and retest. If that solves your problem you want to
stay away from USB wireless adapters.

>
> What model desktop? What maker and model USB device?

***Homemade PC. Intel 3 ghz processor. 512 mb ram. Has no problem
getting 4.6mb/sec when hard wired to modem. USB Device: Microsoft
MN-510 (wireless B)
\

What other desktop? What maker and model wireless 802.11b device?

Homemade PC. Netgear USB-G



>
> Stock Linksys firmware or one of the alternative firmware versions?
***Updated to most recent firmware off the Linksys site. V 4.30.5

>
> You'll get a substantial reduction in maximum theoretical speed when
> mixing 802.11b and 802.11g. See table at:
> | http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi...ance_and_Speed
> However, it should not be as slow as 1.5Mbits/sec.

**I switched it to Wireless B only, still get about 1.5 mb/s average.
I even got a laptop with a D-link wireless B PCMCIA card, and literally
sat it next to the router, and got top speeds of about 2mb/s.

> Oh, it happens. Have you tried the speed test to the PC laptop using
> a wired ethernet connection instead of wireless. A machine full of
> spyware and worms will be REALLY slow.

***Yes, I hard-wired my desktop with the MN-510 directly to the cable
modem and got 4+GB/s

>
> I'm glad you asked. Disorganized troubleshooting and too many
> assumptions. We know the WRT54G works because the Mac demonstrates
> that it functions. We know almost nothing about the two PC's and
> their client radios. It takes two to tango and I'm fairly sure it's a
> client radio or PC computah problem. The easiest way to prove it is
> to try connecting to a different wireless router. Since the 802.11b
> is apparently a desktop, that will require borrowing a different
> wireless router. If it does the same thing, then try a different
> wireless device. That wouldn't be a bad idea as the 802.11b devices
> will slow down your speeds anyway.
>
> What I can't see is why BOTH your wireless desktops are getting slow
> download speeds. Try the speed test with a wired connection. That
> might mean dragging them to some place near the router, or borrowing a
> long CAT5 cable. If it's still slow, then there's something wrong
> with BOTH computahs. If you get normal spedds on both machines, then
> there's something wrong with the respective client radios or drivers.
>
> It's unlikely to have BOTH wireless desktops simultaneously exhibit
> essentially the same problem. So, a 3rd PC client is needed to
> determine if this is the case. Borrow a wireless PC laptop and try
> the speed test again. If that works, then both your PC computahs are
> having a bad day. If it also goes slow, then I don't have a clue
> what's broken.
>
> >The way I
> >see it, it can't be the modem, since I can direct connect.
>
> True. It also can't be the CAT5 cable between the modem and the
> WRT54G v4 because it works on the Mac.
>
> >And it
> >can't be the router, since the Mac gets 3.8 mb/s.
>
***One more thing: I used Frontier's speed test (and a couple of
others) and I get very different readings on each one. Frontier lets
you pick where the site is test site is located. When I do a speed
test in the Cali area, I get ~3.5mb/s (I live in CA). As I start to
move toward the East Coast test sites, I top out at 1.5mb/s. Is this
normal?