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    Speed bouncing around

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by richarddd, Mar 15, 2008.

  1. richarddd

    richarddd Notebook Consultant

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    The connection speed between my Thinkpad x61s with Intel 4965agn and home router keeps bouncing around, anywhere from 28Mbps to 54Mbps. Signal strength always shows as excellent. Every other notebook with wifi I've had has shown a constant 54Mbps, including an x31 with Atheros wifi card I have at the moment and another x61s with 4965ag I was borrowing for a while.

    In all tested notebooks, OS has been XP Pro SP2 and Windows to manage wifi.

    Any ideas why or how to fix?

    EDIT: I'm using only one router and have tried running the notebooks next to each other at the same time
     
    richarddd, Mar 15, 2008
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  2. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    It could be that you have interference from external sources such as neighbors wifi, microwaves, wireless mice/keyboards, wireless telephones etc. What you can try is changing the channel of the routers to a different channel which might help eliminate this.
     
    nizzy1115, Mar 15, 2008
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  3. richarddd

    richarddd Notebook Consultant

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    I have two notebooks running next to each other connecting to the same router. Only one channel is active. One notebook is showing a constant speed, while the other is not. Signal strength is excellent on both. I'm not clear how external interference can cause this?
     
    richarddd, Mar 15, 2008
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  4. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Internal noise, clocks, fans ... can also induce noise. It could be a bad connection, may want to take the access panel off and check them.
     
    blue68f100, Mar 15, 2008
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  5. richarddd

    richarddd Notebook Consultant

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    The access panel? Not sure what you mean.
     
    richarddd, Mar 15, 2008
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  6. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    I think he means on the bottom of the laptop you can physically see the card (usually). The card has a few antenna cables attached to it.

    How far away from the router are you? It could be just that your particular laptop does not get good signal. Try putting the laptop right next to the router and see if it changes any.

    I had a desktop that was like this. It was just poor signal. I bought a booster antenna for it and it kept it at a solid 54g...laptops, however, don't usually have the luxury of replacing to a bigger antenna.
     
    nizzy1115, Mar 15, 2008
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  7. richarddd

    richarddd Notebook Consultant

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    Windows is reporting signal strength as "Excellent," it's just that speed is changing. An almost identical notebook, in almost exactly the same spot or further away, show a constant 54.0 Mbps.

    For an x61s, I have to disassemble the keyboard and cover, but all three antenna connections are firm.
     
    richarddd, Mar 15, 2008
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  8. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    It sounds more and more like a driver problem. Intel is very picky. Check the card properties between the 2 NB and see if you can see a setting that is not set the same. Since it's a dual band card, may try G only.
     
    blue68f100, Mar 16, 2008
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  9. richarddd

    richarddd Notebook Consultant

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    The only difference in settings is that one card is AG, the other AGN. All other settings are the same.

    I changed performance settings on the AGN to maximum - so far I have not seen it drop below 48, which is an improvement. It does seem a bit hotter, which is somewhat expected.
     
    richarddd, Mar 16, 2008
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  10. c24

    c24 Newbie

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    richarddd,

    How are you measuring the speeds?

    Thanks / c24
     
    c24, Apr 15, 2008
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