Help with wireless network speed

cjgurluk · 15-10-2006, 11:53

Hello, I thought i would post a message just in case anyone could help, i have searched the forum and couldnt find anything to answer it. I got a new laptop yesterday with a wireless thing in it called RT73 USB wireless LAN card, and i bought with the pc a belkin wireless router which i think is F5D7230uk4. it says in windows its connected at 54mbps and the signal is full up because im right near it etc. I never lose connection or anything but the problem i have i speed. im on ntl 10 meg one and with wire connection to the router i get the full speed etc, but on wireless i get a max of about 6-7mbits. so when i download stuff its taking longer. i was wondering if this is normal for the wireless stuff or if maybe i have something not set right. anyway help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

janipewter · 15-10-2006, 13:21

802.11x drops significantly more packets that Ethernet does. I have a Linksys WRT54GL and a laptop with wireless and even when I'm sitting directly next to the router, full signal strength and speed, I can never download at my full Internet speed, whereas my desktop can easily download at 1MB/s+ because it's wired to the router rather than wireless.

If you have another machine on wired network, try copying a file to it from the laptop via wireless and see what kind of data rate you get.

cjgurluk · 15-10-2006, 13:28

Okay, thanks for that, there is the main family pc which is desktop and connected with wire so ill try that and see what speed comes. i was thinking to go back to pcworld and see what they say but if its normal i wont coz its far too.

janipewter · 15-10-2006, 13:36

PC Word - argh.

cjgurluk · 15-10-2006, 13:59

We always have this problem and cant get the 2 computers to work together to send files even though both can access the internet. They just say the other computer is not accessible. Not sure what else to do. Maybe its just normal speed then for wireless.

MovedGoalPosts · 15-10-2006, 15:52

Connecting wired and wireless computers on the same network requires you to have setup the wireless network settings in the router correctly - I think you need infrastructure mode enabled.

janipewter · 18-10-2006, 22:26

Also, software firewalls like ZoneAlarm and NIS can block network sharing.

cjgurluk · 19-10-2006, 19:28

Thanks for replies, I cant get it working between 2 pc's to test but i found that i can download from ntl news groups things at full speed about 1.2 megs per second, but it seems in general all the other internet downloads etc are generally much slower on the wireless connection than wired. Not sure what that means, perhaps its all fine and thats the speed it gives.

---------- Post added at 19:28 ---------- Previous post was at 19:19 ----------

Oh yea also, do you think if i change my router from the 54 to one of those 108 ones it will be as fast as wired etc. thanks.

DocDutch · 19-10-2006, 19:31

okay to get your to computers to share files etc do the following on both machines.

go to START --- > RUN ---> here type in "CMD" you should have a black dos box now. type here "ipconfig" you should get an ip address on both computers like 192.168.2.*. so lets say your lappy got ip 192.168.2.3 so from your desktop you do a "ping 192.168.2.3" all still in the dos box.

if you get replies then you should be fine to get unto the other computer, if its time-outs then you still have a firewall active.

if all replies then go to start ---> run ---> this time type in "\\192.168.2.3" so thats for your laptop and with a bit of luck about a minute later you should see the folders of the lappy

reverse it for the desktop and voila windows networking done.

---------- Post added at 19:31 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

Cj, just keep this router...or if you got too much dosh go for a N1 router...but to get the high speeds of N1 you need the cards for both desktop and laptop.

cjgurluk · 19-10-2006, 19:52

Hi thanks for that, i tried it and i got the ip thing for them both and i did ping thing and that worked fine too. then i tried the \\ part and it didnt work, it says the filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect, that doesnt mean much to me.

Its the same when click on my network places and do a search fr the other pc, it comes up and then i click it and it say not accesible etc. Its not too important really, i just wanted to mae sure the wireless is working right coz i just bought it.

I dont have money for the N one, i saw on pcworld website it costs lots and i dont have the card in my pc so i guess ill just keep this one.

thanks again.

DocDutch · 19-10-2006, 19:56

your wireless is working fine..

are both the machines running on XP or is 1 on XP the other on ???

cjgurluk · 19-10-2006, 20:23

both are on xp pack 2 it came like this when i bought it last week the other says pack 2 as well. when i tried the network thing first of all it came up with a log in box saying guest and to type password, although there is no passowrd set. i went to the windows accounts things and guest was not even turned on, so i turned on guest account and then it didnt come up with password box, just says the not accesible thing.

DocDutch · 19-10-2006, 20:26

is 1 of the machines on Pro or not...as I have seen this on pro before trying it from a home machine.

I couldnt figure it out tbh why this happend.

cjgurluk · 19-10-2006, 20:44

yea they are both on home version for sure, im tired of it really, dont think its gonna work, the main thing for me is the wireless is working correctly so thats good. thanks for help.