Intel 5100 AGN seem slow, please help

I just got a new laptop today and it has a built in intel 5100 AGN wifi card, I tested the download speed and could only get 2000kb/s.

I have a d-link 655 router. With my old laptop I connected to the router via an expresscard adapter and was able to get download speeds of 8000kb/s.

I updated the driver first. Then I made sure that the card had n enabled. The router is setup with wpa-personal AES.

Can anyone help me out with this?

 

I have the 5100AGN with a dlink DIR-825 which is almost the same router you have. I cannot get a stable N connection no matter what. Therefore I have been using wireless G. There is a thread talking about connecting to N with the 5100agn. Do a forum search.

 

Ill do a search.

I don't seem to have any issues getting a stable connection, I just expected faster download speeds.

 

Also it shows that it is connected at 65mbps

 

My search skills must suck, I havent been able to find a whole lot, definitely havent found any solutions.

I messed with the router setting, changed it to wpa2 and changed some other things. It now shows that it is connected at 300mb/s but when I went to dslreports.com/stest and I am still getting a download speed of about 2000kb/s.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php?searchid=3849844

 

Link doesnt work.

 

The 5100 doesn't play well with any D-Link router. You might want to visit the D-Link forums and see what's posted on the DIR-655 board - there is a sticky on the board that explains what settings to use on the router to get the maximum connection strength and speed.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

I know its not a full solution but I was having the same issues. I just did a search of intel 5100 wifi problems and there was way too many. I just yanked it out put a 5300 in and added the 3rd ant and which costed like 50.00$. I havent had the problems like the 5100. I get near 450Mbps with the 5300 and a very very very expensive router.

 

On an Acer 6920G w/ 5100 card to a Linksys WA160N. I was only able to get 12mbps on a speedtest. I normally get 17-19mbps on a wired ethernet.

 

How did you connect the 3rd antenna cuz most laptops only come with 2. I have the DIR-825 which is $200. Doesn't make a difference.

 

5100 comes with 2 antennas
5300 comes with 3 antennas

3rd antenna is needed to achieve increased N speeds. If you upgrade to a 5300 make sure you get an extra antenna.

 

How hard is it to upgrade to a 5300? Are all computers able to do this? If not how do I know if I can upgrade my computer?

 

I wonder if the 5100 just doesnt communicate well with d-link.

 

What are your actual download speeds? My 5100 shows a connection speed of 300Mbps but when I test the actual download speed it never gets over 2000Kbps.

 

If you could get 300Mbps connection to your wirless router/access point, then you don't have any problem with your 5100. Download speed depends on the whole networks. So you have to be a little more specific what kind of download speed that you are comparing in case of your old laptop: from the internet? From you network storage? From shared object in other computer?

 

For my setup my router and wifi card say 430.6Mbps but my throughput is 378Mbps. I dont think that my 3rd ant I installed was really meant for my intel 5300 so I wont get max throughput from my routers three simultaneous streams.

Edit: Here is the place I got mine recommended from flipfire a long time ago....

http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/Wireless-Antennae-/-Aerials-Laptop-Internal-Antennae/c50_38/index.html

 

Yes but where do you install the 3rd antenna?

 

I installed the 3rd ant around the my monitor. I carefully took it apart and not to break the snaps. The 3rd ant took a little bit of time.

 

You can buy an antenna from oxfordtec.com and just thread it through any opening on the laptop, being careful to stay away from hot spots like the video card and processor.

 

Both tests were performed using dslreports.com/stest.

With my new laptop I always get around 2000Kb/s using that test. I hooked up my dlink usb adapter to my new laptop and tested again on that website and got 10000Kb/s. I preformed the test with the 5100 card multiple times, and then I performed it multiple times with the 5100 off and with the dlink usb adapter connected.

 

That is a problem then.

I've also encountered a problem with Intel 5100 in one of my laptops, that is it cannot maintain the top speed connection (in my case is 270Mbps) for long. It tends to fluctuates down to 135Mbps.

Maybe in your case the problem is similar, at one time you could see the pop-up notification (in XP) or Wireless Network Connection Status (in Vista) saying it connects at 300Mbps, but most of times it cannot maintain that max connection speed and lowers it down to much lower speed. That's why your dslreports.com test results show very low speed with 5100. In case with your D-Link USB adapter, it sure can better maintain the max connection speed whole times.

 

I watched the connection status for about 10 minutes (in vista, for the 5100) and it never fluctuated from 300Mbps. My Dlink usb adapter constantly shows a connection speed of 270Mbps.

 

Then could this be that draft N thing...? Same brand between wireless router/access point and client (in your case D-Link) could result in better real transfer speed (not just the reported by windows) than different brands... :confused2:

 

I dont know. I am not all that knowledgeable on all of this.

 

guys for all those hitting atleast 150, could you post the settings in your wireless LAN 5100's, also if you can get the router's WLAN settings as well

i know this is all too much but i have been afflicted by these slow speeds as well , since the first day of purchase of the 5100 in the dv5, paired to a belkin N1...i know...i know....it is useless, but well some one recommended it, and frankly i am not VERy knowlegeable in router and networking stuff

 

Don't know much about Belkin N1, especially whether it is a single, dual band, or simultaneous dual band wireless router. But since from its website it is mentioned that N1 support 40MHz channel mode, so with 5100 you should be able to get up to 270 or 300Mbps.

Using the wireless router latest firmware, set the wireless security mode to WPA2 Personal, encryption to AES, and enable Wide 40MHz Channel. Using 5100 latest driver available on intel's website, open its Advanced Properties through Device Manager, change the "802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4" from "20MHz Only" to "Auto" and leave the rests in default.

With this settings I could get up to 270Mbps with 5100 and Linksys WRT310N, but I couldn't get that top speed for long. It tends to vary between 135 to 270Mbps.

 

There was a thread about this issue somewhere but I can't seem to find it. I found it once and followed the instructions. Got connected at 150mbs with wireless N.

It had something to do with setting your router security to wpa/2 something and changing your 5100agn settings from auto to N only.

It works but I'd loose connection once a day and the laptop could not even find a new network until I rebooted. I have 10 networks around me.

I found in a google search that lenovo owners with the 5100agn are having the same issues too. I think this card just sucks.

 

I also have the Intel 5100 agn and just recently got the D Link 655 router. The wireless connection speed at the bottom right corner is showing 54.0 Mbps speed. When I do a Dslreports modem test it shows download speed of 2073 kb/s. My signal strength is showing excellent.

When I sign onto the D Link routing setting I have it set to use both n and g, however it appears to be using g only. I looked at the setting under the 5100 and it is set to n only. Everytime I try to change the setting on the 5100 card to use both g and n it keeps defaulting back to n only. So my router seems to be connecting to g only (when looking under d link who is connected to this router it shows me as using g only. When I tried to change the Dlink setting to use n only it wont communicate to the 5100 card and terminates my connection.

So it appears I'm only connecting using the g. That bugs me cause I paid more for this router thinking I would connect using n.

 

Have you visited the D-Link forum? If you have not, you might want to swing by and check out the DIR-655 board, as it has a sticky on how to get the best possible connection/speed.

As it stands, the best connection with a D-Link router is had by using a Gigabyte or Atheros based wifi card.

 

Hi, yes I saw someone on this post mentioned to go over there, I saw the stickey and read it, for me it didn't change anything for me. It's probably like you mention that you need to use those cards or D link has their own card they say they recomend to achieve those kinds of speed. Had I had known this I would have opted for a cheaper g router, it's a shame I have an expensive router but can't get the speeds I should unless I spend more money for their wifi card.

 

Thanks for the advice about visiting the dlink forum. I too am pissed cuz I paid for a $200 router and a $3200 laptop which are both capable of connecting to wireless N in theory but can't! I will see the dlink forum or switch out the card.

 

So far the dlink forum isnt very helpful and they have told me to try intel's forums.

 

If you want to keep your D-Link router, and you want to connect with anything other than 54G speed (if you can connect at all), then you should consider replacing your Intel wifi card with something compatible, like a wifi card with an Atheros or Gigabyte chipset. Or, replace the router with something that works with your Intel card, and then sell the D-Link on eBay. It's not a pleasant answer, but it's the one that will resolve the situation.

 

My 5100 shows a 300Mbps connection to my dlink router, but I cant seem to get the download speed over 2000Kbps, although testing from dslreports.com/stest may not be the most accurate way to test it.

 

Yeah I am only able to connect at 54 with the D-Link, I will probably take it back to the local store I bought it from as I'm still within the 14 days.

Does anyone know what other router will work with the Intel 5100 so I can connect at N speeds. So I can replace this one?

 

Are you using WEP or WPA2/AES? I've read that (besides being a pain in the rear card) the 5100 will default to 54Mbps if you are not using WPA2. I haven't read any posts about routers that work well with the 5100.

 

I'm using WPA2. Even though it says I'm connecting at 54 with excellent signal strength it feels alot faster being wireless, I don't really have much lag wirelessly, I'm just wondering if I'm really connecting at that speed it says or is it faster. My wired PC LAN with the same D Link router is connecting at 100.0 Mbps. So my wireless is 54 Mbps so that is about 1/2 of what my LAN is showing.

I wonder if the Linksys N router would give me higher speed with this Intel 5100 card.

 

A wired lan connection will always say 100mbps not matter what. It doesn't mean that its getting that thou.

 

In case anyone is still watching this thread, I wanted to advise I ended up returning my D-Link router I had mentioned earlier in this thread. I took it back and bought the Linksys WRT160N Router. I used the CD included to let it set it up auto, then I ended up connecting at at 65 Mbps, on the D-Link I could not get higher than 54Mbps.

So I then went into the Linksys set up and hit manual set up, that is where you can set your configurations to connect at N mode only (for some reason when you let it default with the CD it sets you up on mixed mode and I was only getting 65 Mbps) so I changed it to N mode only. I am still using WPA2 security. As soon as I changed the router to use N mode only it connected my laptop to 135 Mbps speed and let me tell you I could tell a big difference. I've been at 135 for the past several hours.

So I am very happy I changed my router, it appears the Linksys model worked better for me that the D-Link using this Intel 5100 card. In case you were wondering, yes I played around forever on the D-Link settings and no matter what I did I could not connect any higher than 54 Mbps so I sent it back and bought the Linksys.

I hope this helps someone.

 

Which D-Link router did you have?

 

See post 30

 

Grats on the improvement with some tweaking you could get up to 150Mbps per stream. The intel 5100 wifi has 2 streams available which you can get close to 300Mbps.

After reading the small print at intel website at the intel 5100 read below...stand corrected

Here just one article for example....

http://www.wirevolution.com/2007/09/07/how-does-80211n-get-to-600mbps/

 

I have a Sony laptop with the Intel 5100 and a Dlink 615. I can only get 150Mbps with this setup. I have another Sony laptop that has an Atheros WiFi card, and it consistently reports 300Mbps on the same network. The issue appears to be with the Intel 5100.

 

Yeah I had no luck with my intel 5100 and swapped it out with a intel 5300. I had too many problems with the 5100. I have had less troubles with the 5300 and finding a right driver version to install. I did install the 3rd ant and works great for a 50.00$ upgrade. Not too say that the 5300 is perfect because every computer is different.

Actual throughput is less than 300Mbps or 450Mbps never 100%. The intel 5100 only has 1x2 so like that link says its 300Mbps recieve and 150Mbps upload.

The intel 5100 wifi - "300 Mbps of Receive Bandwidth based on the theoretical maximum receive bandwidth enabled by 1x2 Draft-N implementations with 1 transmit spatial stream and 2 receive spatial streams." - Intel website fine print

 

With the Intel 5100, my reported WiFi connection speed is mostly at 150Mbps, but there are times when it's higher, and even reaches 300Mbps, but it just cannot maintain this level consistently. But then again, the figures may be simply the upload vs. the download speeds. Oh well...

 

Most of 5100 users could not get max speed for long. I just swapped 5100 in my Dell Mini 9 to 5300 with adding 3rd antenna. Glad to say that now I can enjoy stable top speed of 270Mbps to my Linksys WRT310N router.

 

I got the Intel 5100 card. I never thought it would be this difficult connecting wirelessly.

First I bought the D-Link 655, connecting was no problem, Lan worked as usual no drops, wireless worked good no drops, my only problem it would never connect higher than 54 Mbps, found out alot of other users same boat, D-Link forums confirmed others with same problem with this Intel 5100 card.

Then I bought the Linksys WRT160N, ver 2.0.02 build Oct 11 2008, set up great, wireless alot better, finally got connected at 150 Mbps sometimes would see it go over 200 Mbps. However, the major problem with this model is the DNS issues on the LAN, this has been confirmed with over 25 pages with people having the same issue. The LAN will sporatically give you DNS cannot connect, page cannot be displayed. Linksys has known about this issue for many many months, they finally put on their downloads page the backwards firmware of version 8, mine has vers 11. However with that there is possible DNS compromising issues where someone could gain access to your LAN something the ver 11 was suppose to correct however it left this new problem of DNS dropping or not connecting. How weird to tell your custimer to go backwards in firmware?? I find that strange.

Feel free to read about it here
http://forums.linksysbycisco.com/li...hread.id=119107&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Here is another link to confirm this issue:
http://audipages.com/router/

So know I am going to take this one back. Thining of going back to the D-Link at least it was stable and working. Not really sure what to do. This is really discouraging, can't even enjoy my new laptop without all these issues. I wonder if the Dual Band Linksys models would work? It almost seems like a hit or miss especially with your particular wireless card.

 

Its definitely hit or miss because of the Draft-Ns out there. I use intel 5300 and DIR-855x and works awesome. Setup was a pain and distance isnt as far as most but the network transfer speeds are great.