Is this normal?

Charlie

Hi I have eircom broadband (2 meg) with the netopia wireless gateway modem. We use the wireless for my laptop and the house pc. The house pc uses the usb wifi adapter and when tested on irishisptest, gets a consistent speed of 1.8 megs, low pings and 99% line quality. However my laptop only gets 1.2 speeds, high pings and line quality in an around 55%. The laptop is a relatively new inspiron 9300 with centrino. The problem isn't distance as I have regularly tested the laptop while right beside the modem. Is this normal, and why is it that a usb wifi adapter on a pc works perfectly, yet the expensive centrino notebook gives average results. This is pretty frustrating and I would appreciate any help/advice. Thanks in advance

Judt

charlie mchugh wrote:

Hi I have eircom broadband (2 meg) with the netopia wireless gateway modem. We use the wireless for my laptop and the house pc. The house pc uses the usb wifi adapter and when tested on irishisptest, gets a consistent speed of 1.8 megs, low pings and 99% line quality. However my laptop only gets 1.2 speeds, high pings and line quality in an around 55%. The laptop is a relatively new inspiron 9300 with centrino. The problem isn't distance as I have regularly tested the laptop while right beside the modem. Is this normal, and why is it that a usb wifi adapter on a pc works perfectly, yet the expensive centrino notebook gives average results. This is pretty frustrating and I would appreciate any help/advice. Thanks in advance

It depends on signal strength. I would presume that the PC is static, and usually always close to the modem, whilst the laptop moves around? Signal will drop off and you'll see lower speeds.

astrofool

bigger antennae? better written drivers? Having worked in wireless drivers myself, Intel's are one of the worst there is (which is surprising given Centrino's success).

Karoma

In fairness, it's not the meansof judging anything.
Try a few tests; better: try iperf before being concerned.

Also, have you tested with the laptop connected via ethernet?

Charlie

I have tried the laptop with ethernet plugged in and the results are perfect. The pc is further away than the laptop is and like I said I worked with the laptop right beside the modem and improvements. It must be a driver/intel thing, but it bothers me that a cheap ass usb adapter in a cheap ass p.c can pick up wifi perfectly, yet my expensive centrino laptop can pick up sweet FA. Cheers for the input guys, I think i'm just going to buy a really long ethernet cable and run it upto my bedroom and run the laptop of that.

dub45

charlie mchugh wrote:

I have tried the laptop with ethernet plugged in and the results are perfect. The pc is further away than the laptop is and like I said I worked with the laptop right beside the modem and improvements. It must be a driver/intel thing, but it bothers me that a cheap ass usb adapter in a cheap ass p.c can pick up wifi perfectly, yet my expensive centrino laptop can pick up sweet FA. Cheers for the input guys, I think i'm just going to buy a really long ethernet cable and run it upto my bedroom and run the laptop of that.

have you any opportunity to disable the centrino wireless in the laptop and try the usb from the pc just to see if it improves performance? or could you borrow a wireless pcmcia card and try that? long ethernet cables are a nuisance:)

also in my experience some wireless equipment just does not work well together and maybe you have an unfortunate combination in this case.

8T8

The Dell laptops WiFi network card is Intel based & all I can say is I have had terrible performance with those 2xxx units which was surprising as I had held Intel WiFi gear in high regard previously (I've comes across a few posts on the net with others who have had a similar experience).

As to a solution I have not come across any you can always try the latest drivers from Intels website if you know the model number like a 2200BG etc you could try using Intels own configuration utility as well.

Karoma

Disable power saving on router + laptop (Ensure the power mode is set to CAM)
Check for updated firmware + drivers.