Problem with wireless adapter or access point

Wammer

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Yes they are for the router, and you should probably get 85% of the downstream rate i.e. circa 5mb

Thanks. Is that 5Mb as measured by a speedtester?

I understand that they are not reliable, but is that the only way of measuring speed?

I have just got 5.7Mbps on the desktop. The netbook isn't on at the moment.

debitcardmayhem

Wammer wrote: »

Thanks. Is that 5Mb as measured by a speedtester?

I understand that they are not reliable, but is that the only way of measuring speed?

I have just got 5.7Mbps on the desktop. The netbook isn't on at the moment.

The actual speed you get is based on your line attenuation , so your downstream attenuation is 45.5 if you look at http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php that will tell you approximately what you can expect. Your sync rate is actually is 6141kbps.
What you really get depends on your ISP , the contention on your line(others using the same ISP), and time of day, and whether your ISP throttles certain things eg iPlayer/Peer-to-Peer.
Do you regularly switch off/reboot your router? that can also affect your speed , since it can cause re-training which may take several hours/days to reach peak stable speeds.

Wammer

I am on Sky Unlimited LLU and never switch off my router, not even when I go on holiday. It has been through a couple of DLM training periods since I joined Sky a year ago when the speed dropped significantly and they reconfigured the line. Apart from that I have been happy enough with the speed on the desktop as 6Mbps is far better than the 2Mbps I got with my previous 3 ISP's - Pipex, Newnet and Plusnet.

The laptop seems to get around 5Mbps, but the netbook significantly less in the same location.

I checked back my notes and the netbook wouldn't connect at all at home about a month ago wirelessly, although it got 5.5Mbps with the ethernet and wirelessly next to the router.

It just a pain that I don't get a reliable wireless signal all the time.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. I appreciate your time and patience.

GunJack

Wifi homeplugs ?? Wifi access point configured as a range extender ?? There are several ways to extend your wifi network.

HOWEVER, is your netbook running XP perchance ?? and the desktop vista/7 ?? If so, the answer to your fluctuating speeds on the netbook may be easier to sort. ON XP you need to tweak RWIN manually for it to produce best/consistent results, whereas vista and 7 do it automatically for you.

Edit:- skip that last bit, just checked back and it's 7.... it may just be down to the poxy small wifi antennas in the netbook

Wammer

I have considered homeplugs in the past, but the netbook is rarely used at home. The main problem is it working intermittently away from home.

Yes the netbook is W7 and the desktop Vista.

I tend to agree with you that it is the wifi antenna that is probably the problem, but I would have expected the USB wifi dongle to have improved the speed and it was much the same.

I bought the netbook as it had excellent battery life, and it does as it lasts for hours.

Is there any way of checking the wifi connectivity before purchase just in case I ever buy another one?

Wammer

I unplugged the wireless mouse dongle as I was about to download this month's Windows Updates and the Firefox update. I did 3 consecutive speed tests and got 13Mbps(!), 7.9MB and 3.7MB.

I was using a wired mouse and had it connected to the mains charging.

I would be happy to get those speeds all the time (especially 13MB which I haven't even managed on the desktop).

Will be able to try it out again abroad in about 6 weeks time so hoping that the wireless mouse had been the main culprit.

GunJack

Wammer wrote: »

I did 3 consecutive speed tests and got 13Mbps(!), 7.9MB and 3.7MB.

There's something wrong with the speedtest site you were using - your line stats show you synced with the exchange around 6 meg (which was about right for your line attenuation IIRC) so you CANNOT achieve a download speed of either 13 or 7.9megs...I have seen speedtest site glitches like this before...always go on line attenuation...oh, and use the thinkbroadband speed tester, generally accepted as probably the most accurate one around for the UK

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

Wammer

I did think those results were a bit out.

I used the Thinkbroadband tester for years, but started using the BB Max one a couple of months ago after seeing it recommended on here.

Will to back to Thinkbroadband, thanks.

Wammer

Still having problems.

I have been using the netbook at home this morning as the power is off to get some work done.

Gmail in Opera is practically unusable. It won't even scroll up or down and is extremely slow if I am trying to send an email.

I am using a wired mouse to get rid of the wireless mouse conflicting. I have run CCleaner and also cleared the Private data directly in Opera.

Other sites seem better, but the main problem today is with Gmail.

Lum

Your wireless networking issues will have no effect on how fast you can scroll up or down a page, unless gmail actually loads in fresh data when you scroll (unlikely. some sites do that when you scroll down but I don't think gmail does)

It's possible that gmail itself is having a slow day today?