Differing Transfer Speeds

So, anyway, I was one of the early adopters for the Asus RT-N56U router. I've been quite happy with performance. Connected to the 5GHz band, I'm moving files in the 8-11 MB/s range.

I've noticed recently that I'm averaging in the 7 MB/s range for transfers with my MSI (Win7 x64, Intel 6200 with latest drivers). I also notice that the Windows Connection Status thingy is bobbing about between 240 mbps and 300 mbps, whereas last week it was rock-solid at 300 mbps. InSSIDer is showing a fairly solid -50DB.

Fearing that my router might be dying I ran some comparison downloads from my server (which is hooked in via gigabit Cat5e).

On my MSI, 4 .mkv files totaling 2.2GB transfered at an average of 6.9 MB/s, as told by Teracopy. (Which I find completely icky).

I then copied the exact same files to my Dellienware (Win7 x64, Dell 1520 WLAN card with latest Dell drivers, connected via 5GHz band) and hit something like 9.7 MB/s, again as told by Teracopy. The Connection Status is giving me a consistent 300 mbps.

Both laptops are very close to each other, so distance isn't a factor..

So, long story short, I'm puzzled as to why my Dellienware is outperforming my MSI on these file transfers, and even more puzzled as it appears to be random and so sudden. I'm sure there are a dozen things I should try to nail down this problem, but any quick pointers as to what could cause this behavior? Could a dying WLAN card be the culprit, or am I looking at some weird software issues?

 

When doing these test are both notebooks on the same time?

 

Hmm, not same time, not. One after the other. Let me try that.

Or do you mean are they both on? When doing the MSI, the Dellienware was off. When testing the Dellienware, the MSI was also on.

Anyway, when transfering both sets of files simultaneously, the download is slowed down noticeably, but the Dellienware is noticeabley faster (~6 MB/s vs ~4.5 MB/s)

 

Reinstalled my 6200 drivers. No change in throughput.

I'll swap my 6200 into my Dellienware and see what I get there.

EDIT: So, putting the 6200 into the m11x and installing drivers gave me just about the same throughput as my MSI. Average of 6-7 MB/s. Reinstated the 1520 Dell card into the Dellienware, and boom, average of 9.5 MB/s (with a couple of 11 MB/s spikes) for my test files.

I think this points to a hardware issue, but I want second opinions, haha.

EDIT2: I'll try to find the stock Intel 1000 that came with my MSI and see if that gives me some good speeds. God, this is annoying.

 

One more bump before I start pursuing an RMA for the Intel card.

Is it possible that my router might have throttled uplink/downlink to the MAC ID of my card? I'm clutching at straws here.

 

Not on its own- no. You wouldn't forget doing something like that.
Is your 6200 an upgrade or was it a standard card that came with as notebook?
I'm asking because there are a lot of less- then genuine 6200 on sale these days.

EDIT: I see it didn't come as standard.

 

Not stock--stock card was an Intel 1000.

However, the card was bought from a reputable reseller, so I don't think the authenticity of the Intel card is in question.

 

Hard to tell if it's genuine.
Try older drivers and change advanced driver options- especially those that have anything to do with power-saving.

Also if you have a chance test it with another router.
It would be rather hard to RMA it- imagine how would an explanation look like- "it works but it's slower than my other card".

 

The odd part is that it's so sudden. I was chugging along at 9.5+ MB/s a week ago, and suddenly it's 6-7 MB/s. I didn't change any router settings or settings on my computer.

The real kicker is that it performs the same when put into my Dellienware.


EDIT: I think my wireless card is somehow psychic. It sensed my displeasure with it and now it's chugging at the usual 9.5+ rates. Haha.

 

So, something weird I noticed.

So, let's say I shut down my laptop--but not my router or my server--at night. In the morning I turn on my laptop to check email and news and whatever.

File transfers are the relatively slow 6-7 MB/s.

Log off, go to work, come back home eight hours later.

Speeds are now in the 9.5 MB/s range.

Any explanation for that?

 

Uh, moody computer?

Do you have any sort of QoS going on? I'm not sure if you have your comp setup to drop and reacquire an ip when you logoff/on, but even then I'm not really aware of proper networking hardware that requires "warming up" like it's a damn car.

Are there other people in the 5ghz spectrum around you? Even if they are on ch11 and you are on ch1, if you don't have the entire band to yourself it can in theory affect throughput, which might explain the weird apparantly time-based speeds (neighbor wakes up and does his online thing like you, but doesn't turn on the comp at night?)

 

I have the 5GHz band all to myself as far as I know.

For QoS, the router has an "EzQoS" thing with presets. Right now I have the gaming and video/VoIP streaming profiles enabled. For giggles I'll shut them off tonight and see if I see an improvement in throughput tomorrow morning.

Anyway, in a short while I'll borrow a 6200 from a friend and see if that solves anything.

 

So... yeah. Disabled QoS on the router, shut down laptop, went to sleep.

Woke up, tested file transfers. 6-7 MB/s.

Came home eight hours later, 9.5+ MB/s.

Needless to say, I'm utterly baffled by this behavior.

 

Background transfers of some sort, or maybe a power saving of some kind?

 

I'll give that a look. I'm off tomorrow so I can play around on the laptop for while to rule power-saving out. The weird thing is that when I log on in the morning and start a file transfer, it's slow. Whe I log on later in the day, I spend the same amount of time starting the test transfer, so I'm not sure if it's a case of waking up slow or what. And remember, only my MSI is exhibiting this behavior; on morning bootup my Dellienware is a-ok.

I'm fairly sure I don't have background transfers running, but I'll check the logs to be sure.