4 Routers Tried, Mostly Slow ONLY on WIFI. Help...

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats


USB 2.0 has a max of 480 Mbit/s, however due to bus access constraints, the effective throughput of the High Speed signaling rate is limited to 35 MB/s or 280 Mbit/s


I can see you finally checked Wikipedia on USB 2.0. That's right, due to BUS constraints it maxes out at 280Mbit. What's the potential max throughput of that USB 2.0 adapter? 300Mbit. So what would be the benefit of the additional bandwidth offered by the 5Ghz band?

That was my point. There is none. Which was what I said initially.

 

[mattwithcats]

You put a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 tires on the front of the car (at the router).

Makes no sense to put Economy tires on the rear (USB dongle).
Difference was $13.49 verses $19.99

Originally Posted By: Turk
ALL Ethernet cable speeds are 60-65 Mbps on ALL Routers tried! As soon as we go WIFI, it can be anywhere from 0, to 2.5, to 5-15 and up to 65 Mbps! The high speeds are usually on the iPad, but the computer runs 5-9 Mbps. crzy

So, what on earth is going on??
Is something interfering with it and what can interfere?




I would use a 5 GHz frequency and a narrow (20 Mhz) bandwidth.
This has been very reliable for me.
(Thanks for the correction on frequency and bandwidth...)

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
You put a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 tires on the front of the car (at the router).

Makes no sense to put Economy tires on the rear (USB hub).
Difference was $13.49 verses $19.99


1. Why are you pretending that the router and adapter are on the same vehicle? They aren't. The router can talk to a huge array of devices. It is the road to the race track if we want to do car analogies. But that road has a speed limit (his internet connection).

2. His Internet connection is 65Mbit. Keeping with your horrible analogy, it doesn't matter if he's got F1's on the front and Economy tires on the rear when they are going on a Yugo.

3. The analogy makes no sense anyways because the device that CAN benefit from the added speed (his iPad) will! Because it isn't saddled with the BUS limitations that the laptop is.

4. The laptop IS saddled with the BUS limitations, which makes the added bandwidth available on the 5Ghz band irrelevant! And that's above and beyond the fact that either of them are massively above the available bandwidth of his internet connection in the first place!


Originally Posted By: mattwithcats

So, what on earth is going on??
Is something interfering with it and what can interfere?



NO.

He got the new router. It is consistent now. READ THE THREAD. The only issue is it is slow(er) on the laptop than on the iPad. This is due to the limitations of the adapter, which will be resolved with the new USB adapter.

 

[mattwithcats]

I changed hub to dongle. My error.

When installing networking hardware, I usually go straight to simultaneous dual band devices, usually using USB 2.0 if 3.0 is not present. USB 3.0 should downshift, but I am don't have much faith.

This way you get the maximum return on your investment, because while you invest a little more, you get much longer use of the devices, and sometimes a speed increase.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
I changed hub to dongle. My error.


OK, but I changed my point because it didn't matter. The point is, his limit is his internet connection. THAT was what he was concerned about. He's not running a home LAN here, he's got two devices, a laptop and an iPad that he uses on the Internet.

1. He was getting intermittent speeds.
2. He bought a new router
3. Speeds became consistent but are still slower on the laptop than on the iPad.
4. He ordered a new (300Mbit) adapter for the laptop (USB 2.0) to deal with that issue.

Everybody is happy! Problem 1 was solved with the new router, problem 2 will be resolved with the new adapter.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats

When installing networking hardware, I usually go straight to simultaneous dual band devices, usually using USB 2.0 if 3.0 is not present. USB 3.0 should downshift, but I am don't have much faith.

This way you get the maximum return on your investment, because while you invest a little more, you get much longer use of the devices, and sometimes a speed increase.


OK, but ROI in this situation isn't an issue. If he replaces the laptop the adapter won't be recycled and the new laptop will have a built-in (PCI-E) dual-band adapter anyways. So spending the extra $5.00 on something that was of absolutely zero benefit to him made no sense. Follow? If he was buying an integrated adapter, I would have steered him differently, but he wasn't, so I didn't.

And this is ignoring all the previous miss-steps in our conversation, Matt.

Ultimately, just like I wouldn't recommend an aironet cluster for somebody's 2,000 square foot home, or a 3900-series router for their 20Mbit cable connection, I also wouldn't advise somebody to spend the money (even if it is only $5.00) on something that is not going to help them solve their problem nor be of added benefit in the future.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
I changed hub to dongle. My error.


OK, but I changed my point because it didn't matter. The point is, his limit is his internet connection. THAT was what he was concerned about. He's not running a home LAN here, he's got two devices, a laptop and an iPad that he uses on the Internet.

1. He was getting intermittent speeds.
2. He bought a new router
3. Speeds became consistent but are still slower on the laptop than on the iPad.
4. He ordered a new (300Mbit) adapter for the laptop (USB 2.0) to deal with that issue.

Everybody is happy! Problem 1 was solved with the new router, problem 2 will be resolved with the new adapter.

That's Exactly what I was getting at only stated better!

What would he be fixing with a 5ghz wireless N adapter?

Would it be faster? no usb 2.0 tops out below the speed of the 12$ tplink

would it have farther range? no 2.4 has better wall penetration and range than 5.0

 

[mattwithcats]

I have found the narrow 20 MHz band on the 5Ghz frequency to be a little better in speed, and equivalent in range.

Speed difference is just barely noticeable on USB 2.0 devices,
but there are so many more channels.

40 Mhz (wide) has given me nothing but problems, except with Apple devices.
Not sure what the issue is, it does not seem to be range.
Perhaps the devices do not support 40 MHz?
Anyhoo, when configuring, turn off the 40 MHz, 20 only...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
I don't have a home LAN either,
I have the FiOS modem, an "N" router" a "G" router for legacy non WPA-2 devices, a Magic-jack VOIP, a 16 port gigabit switch, three wireless flatbed inkjet printers, four non wireless inkjet printers, seven computers, and twelve laptops.
Stacked in the corner are 20 or so EA2700's for my job as a home network installer,
and a Linksys WET11 and another Magic-jack for my Dad's nursing home.
They want $75 for his phone a month, but they offer free wireless.
Ethernet cable from the WET11 to the Magic-jack, presto.


Well, I do have a home LAN. I have a ASA 5510 broken off into three separate VLAN's, serving three separate subnets, which are trunked to my AP541N, on which each has their own SSID. It is fed by a Catalyst 2960, which provides Ethernet connectivity for each of those networks.

And this has nothing to do with my job as a Network Engineer, which ties into more complex things like VRF's, VPN's and Aironet clusters, along with SIP trunks and QoS.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats

40 Mhz (wide) has given me nothing but problems, except with Apple devices.
Not sure what the issue is, it does not seem to be range.
Perhaps the devices do not support 40 MHz?
Anyhoo, when configuring, turn off the 40 MHz, 20 only...


Perhaps it is your equipment? I've had no problems with 40Mhz on Aironet AP's.

I've found the implementation of things that are supposed to be "standards" are sometimes lacking, often significantly, on Consumer-grade hardware. You often find the Enterprise version with the same support to have none of the same issues, FWIW.

 

[mattwithcats]

I did this stuff in the Navy for 23 years,
Started with 10Base5 thicknet, vampire taps, and AUI connectors.
Was doing fiber optic cables at 10 gigabit when I left.

Times they are a changing....

Stuff got way too esoteric for me, I try to keep it simple and straightforward...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
I did this stuff in the Navy for 23 years,
Started with 10Base5 thicknet, vampire taps, and AUI connectors.
Was doing fiber optic cables at 10 gigabit when I left.


Those were the good old days! Token Ring and Coax, LOL! I still have a pile of that junk the basement. Remember the old IBM BlueLightning cards?

I swear I still have an old ISA 10-baseT Ethernet card with an AMD Chipset on it here somewhere!

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
Times they are a changing....

Stuff got way too esoteric for me, I try to keep it simple and straightforward...


Yes, yes they are. I'm lucky that I was born (1980) when computers were just starting to become "a thing". I got into it early (when I was 8) and just ran with it from there. Got heavy into network gear in University (was taking CS) and did a career change (Network Engineering). Got into Cisco stuff from that point forward.

Now work in Healthcare doing it, and thoroughly enjoying it

Bet you had a lot of fun in the Navy eh?

 

[mattwithcats]

5 deployments, 4 combat.
Shrapnel in the lower legs, it bounced off the bottom of the seat I was sitting in, and zinged me.

I think some of those old frigates still have 10 base/100 base T and Cat 3 or 5 cable on board...
Last one just went one final deployment...
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/us/us-navy-frigates/

I still have an Black Box mini 10 AUI transceiver in my desk drawer....

 

[OVERKILL]

That wasn't the kind of fun I was talking about, LOL! I was thinking more the networking side but I guess it all counts

Wouldn't surprise me about the old cabling. It is pretty common in some of the old buildings too.

We recently decomm'd a healthcare centre that was 10-baseT with Nortel switches and a mix of CAT3 and CAT5 cable throughout. The stuff was so old the jacketing would split when you touched it

 

[Quattro Pete]

OK, now that Turk's problems are solved, maybe you guys can chime in on my issue... I've got an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (2.4 GHz) adapter with the latest drivers that should theoretically be capable of speeds up to 300 Mbps. However, it never connects at anything faster than 54 Mbps. Why is that?

The router is Asus RT-N66U running Tomato. Other devices connected to the router are achieving higher speeds.

 

[OVERKILL]

If you read the subnote on Intel's site for your adapter:

Originally Posted By: Intel

1. Based on the theoretical maximum bandwidth enabled by 1x1 802.11n implementations with 1 spatial stream. Actual wireless throughput and/or range will vary depending on your specific operating system, hardware, and software configurations. Check with your PC manufacturer for details.


http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/centrino-wireless-n-2200.html

Based on that, if you are using 40Mhz, you'd have the potential for higher speeds. Are you? Keep in mind, as was pointed out earlier by mattwithcats, there can be issues with enabling 40Mhz on some devices.

Also, 40Mhz works best in less congested areas. So if you have a lot of neighbours with WiFi you may not benefit by enabling it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

I am.

 

[Rand]

QP are the other devices 2.4ghz?

and what OS on the notebook.. sometimes linux does odd stuff like that.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
I am.


Have you tried turning it off? (silly question, I know but worth asking).

Also, opening the properties of the adapter, under the Advanced tab, you should have channel width options, at least they are present on the Centrino adapter I have here. Have you checked those?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Rand
QP are the other devices 2.4ghz?

Yes.

Quote:

and what OS on the notebook.. sometimes linux does odd stuff like that.

W7.