Intel wifi link 5100 LAN speed very slow

Hi, I have just bought 2 gateway p-7908u.
The internet connection is fine, I have a 54Mb router, and generaly is that the speed it shows on "Wireless Network Connection Status"( sometimes it drops because distance/obstacles, but is fine, my internet is just 500Kb )

The thing is, when I transfer files from a notebook to other, the transfer speed is about 300KB only(2.4Mb)!! Thats ridiculously slow. If Im right, the documentation on intel site says a maximum of 300Mb for the 5100..

The notes comes with windows 7 home premium 64bits, I alredy downloaded the latest drivers for the intel wireless adapter( witch is 13.00..)..

Thats very frustrating, how can I take the wireless to its full power? Whats going on? Someone have similar problems?

 

The realistic bandwidth of a a/b router is around 18Mbps. It goes down from there. Also, that's essentially for a single wireless device transfering. It drops considerably if you are transferring files between one wireless client to another on the same AP as they have to share the bandwidth. You'll only get 300Mbps if you have equipment with adequate 802.11n technology, and that's only a theoretical max (realistically, it's much lower than that) .

It's doesn't matter with the drivers or the operating system. You lack the equipment for faster speeds and expecting the impossible from what you have now.

 

What are you talking about?
Its LAN connection, the only thing I need is the wireless adapters that both notes have the same..If Im achieving 54Mb connected to the internet, on a LAN the MINIMUM expected is 54Mb..?

"lack the eqipament"? Did you read my post or Im misunderstanding something?

 

54Mbps is MAXIMUM theoretical which is ~ 6MB/sec. So yes you should get more than 300KB/sec. However, are you transferring a large file or lots of little files? Lots of little files can slow your transfer to a crawl, mainly due to your hard drive more than anything else. If that is the case, then try to zip the files into a single file, transfer it, then unzip at the other end.

Also, try to change your wireless channel to 1, 6, or 11 to eliminate interference from other devices.

 

Yes, you are misunderstanding what I'm saying. Your 5100 advertises a MAX of 300Mbps at 802.11n @ 5.0Ghz. That's if all the equipment you own also supports higher speeds and standards. An 11g router/AP obviously cannot support anything above 54Mbps (if running to the standard).

54Mbps/300Mbps is the theoretical max you can obtain with wireless. Typical speeds are considerably less. A typical speed for an 11g wireless connection is around 18Mbps, if only ONE client is transferring in one direction. Also that speed is combined upload/download as it's a shared medium. It goes way down if you are transferring between wireless clients connected to the same AP.

Unless you are leveraging only wired LAN ethernet connections or at least one one instead of wifi between the 2 notebooks, you won't see high speeds with the equipment you currently own. Also wired ethernet can in fact approach very close to the maximum rated speed within layer-3 network (ie. not going through a router). This is definitely true with fast ethernet (100Mbps). You can also see near max speeds between two gigabit connected clients in synthetic speed tests. The same is not true for wireless. You will never see anywhere close to theoretical max speeds in regular usage.

 

How I change the channel of the intel cards?( i know how to change the router channel, but thats NOT what I want, in the case Im not being clear(my english is terrible) )

Im understand that I cant get 300Mb but you didint understand my current speed is ridiculous..

Also, I dont think its an interference problem since the 2 notebooks are less than one feet close...Am I right?

What is considerable a "normal" lan transfer speed? So I can measure..

This card suppose support all kinds of connection (AGBN)..

I tried a lan game, one note as server other as client(duh), The server, of course, got 0 ping, the client got 160-200, again, ridiculous slowly, with dsl and same region server you get better than that..


edit--

I tried a single file( an iso file ), i got 500KB now...
edit again---
hceuterpe, I dont get why you keep talking about AP and eqipment capacity if Im talking about a LAN connection between 2 exactly same wireless card:
"That's if all the equipment you own also supports higher speeds and standards" -> Of course, its the same.

 

In case of connecting to wireless router/AP, you can't change the channel of your Intel card. It's the wireless router's channel that the other poster was referring to. If you change your wireless router's channel, your Intel card will follow to use that same channel.

From what I see, everyone else who have commented in this thread understand about the 300Mbps max capability of Intel 5100 card. OTOH, you are the one who don't understand that this max capability is obtainable only if that Intel card is connected to wireless router which has the standard of wireless N (or draft N). Hence, since your wireless router only has the standard of wireless G, which is maxed at 54Mbps, your 5100 card will follow to use that standard and capped at 54Mbps.

Again... No, your equipments are not supporting the same standard. It's true that your Intel 5100 wireless card supports AGN standards, but your wireless router/AP is not. It only supports BG standards.

So... Replace your wireless router/AP with the one which has wireless N standard. By then your equipments will support the same standard and you will have that max speed of 300Mbps.

 

Wait a moment, so what you are sayng is that I need a router to connect 2 wireless cards on a LAN? The cards cant connect by itself?

 

If you are talking about LAN, then yes, you need to use wireless router to connect the 2 wireless cards. But if you are talking about Ad Hoc connection, then no, you don't need the wireless router.

AFAIK, by design, the Intel WiFi Link 5xxx cards can only use 802.11b/g (wireless b/g standards) in Ad Hoc connection. Thus maximum connection speed will be limited to 54Mbps.

In order for your Intel 5100 cards to have 300Mbps max connection speed, they need to be connected through a wireless N router. But even so, when you transfer files between your notebooks, it's not going to be at 300Mbps, because by design Intel 5100 can only transfer at max 150Mbps. Its receiving side is the one which can have max speed of 300Mbps.

 

I was misunderstanding everything, I always tough LAN was computer to computer, I will try ad hoc later and see what speed I get( should I get this time 54Mb transfer speed?)

 

2.20MB transfer speed, way better, is this right or I should be able to get more?

 

Taking into consideration that one card claims a max of 300Mbps doesn't matter if you are connecting to a 802.11g AP (or 802.11a for that matter). If you are connecting to a 802.11g AP, it also doesn't matter if one of your cards can do A or N. That's what I'm trying to say. Because your AP is 802.11g, your connection will result in the least common denominator of all 3.

If you are connecting 2 wireless clients to the same infrastructure wireless network (which consists of an access point), all traffic has to go back and forth to the AP. Wireless clients connected to this network are unable to communicate with each other directly. Also all traffic must share the same 54Mbps-wide channel. This is unlike modern ethernet which is duplex with switching.

When you connect two clients to an infrastructure 802.11g wireless network, the absolute max you will see in a file transfer is 27Mbps. Realistic max is a third of that. Also you have to take into to consideration the overhead of simultaneous clients transferring over shared bandwidth to avoid collision. Also if even one client is connecting at a speed lower than 54Mbps, this will also drop the overall speed between the two. Furthermore, chances are you have 802.11b/g mixed mode enabled on your AP by default as most manufacturers use settings that are most compatible. While this lets older b clients connect, IIRC, it uses an older slower CMSA/CA (which is what allows more than one client to communicate). This significantly drops speed.

With all of this taken into consideration, I'm really not surprised you are only seeing 500KB/s between two WiFi clients. an Ad-Hoc connection between the two is best for speed with a single transfer in one direction, but you still won't see worthwhile speeds. 2.2MB/s sounds about right and you shouldn't reasonably expect more.


The 5100 can connect at 300Mbps on the receiver end in 802.11n, but I think needs to be done over the 5Ghz spectrum. This is understandable because trying to operate at 300Mbps over the 2.4Ghz spectrum is incredibly detrimental to EVERY 802.11b and 802.11g client and wireless network within range of the 802.11n card's radio. This is so much so that if either the 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz bands were licensed, the FCC would most likely make this transfer scheme illegal.

If you want higher speeds between two computers, especially on a regular basis, your best bet is to connect both laptops to the same switch, or use an ethernet crossover cable to connect the two (these are NOT typical straight through network cables, crossover cables are unique). Otherwise if you're lucky one of the LAN chips in your laptops may support auto sensing. You really should consider wireless networks (yes, even 802.11n) to be more of a convenience over no network connection and not your primary network connection if speed is important to you.

 

I was in the same boat as you several months ago. I ended up upgrading my router to support N and got a intel 5300. Now my transfer speed between my notebook (Windows 7) to my Desktop (XP) is aboult 7-9MB transfer speed. With your setup the best you could do is 2-3MB. If I transfer from Xp to Windows I get about 11mb.

 

Thanks a lot for the info, now I feel more confortable.