Slow wireless

March 11, 2008 2:09 PM

I'm getting slow wireless speeds with the Intel 4965AGN and a Linksys Wireless-b router (BEFW11S4). Do I need to buy a new router?

Just got my new laptop today (Fujitsu S6510) and I'm getting relatively slow wireless speeds. There's nothing wrong with the router, because my old laptop connects at the same speed that it did before (downloading at approximately 150KB/s). However, I only get speeds of 35KB/s - 80KB/s max with the new laptop. I already disabled 802.11n on the new laptop, which brought speeds up from 12KB/s to 35KB/s, but haven't found a way to get it any faster.

I installed the latest drivers for the Intel card, downloaded the latest PROSet software, and flashed my router the latest firmware. Google searches seem to turn up other people with this problem, and the only advice that I haven't tried is to buy a new router (this router is about 3-4 years old and only supports 802.11b).

I noticed that Intel PROSet has a "g" next to my wireless connection even though it only supports 802.11b. Could this be the problem? I've tried to force it to connect on b but can't find anything to do this. Or should I just save myself the hassle and buy a new router?

posted by pravit to computers & internet (4 answers total)

the only advice that I haven't tried

OK, guess I was wrong about that. I did this:

try changing channel on router to 11,9, or 1. Try tweaking these advanced wireless settings: change beacon interval to 50, fragmentation threshold to 2306, RTS threshold to 2307, DTIM to 2 (found here)

and it sped up magically.

So that my question this week isn't a complete waste, can any wireless router experts tell me why that fixed the problem?
posted by pravit at 2:25 PM on March 11, 2008

Could be that changing the channel removed interference from some other source.
posted by dosterm at 2:33 PM on March 11, 2008

By the way, new routers that support 802.11G are about $40-$50. The Linksys WRT-54G can be found anywhere for about that price.

It's worth the upgrade if you're concerned about speed.
posted by dosterm at 2:35 PM on March 11, 2008

Hmm, don't know about interference - my old laptop and my other wireless devices used that channel just fine. There is Bluetooth in my new laptop, but I disabled it.
posted by pravit at 4:04 PM on March 11, 2008