Wireless N connecting at only 54mps?

I just upgraded to a new linksys 610 Dual Band N router. I also just upgraded to a new laptop with Vista 64bit with an intel 5100 wireless card.

For whatever reason when I connect that new laptop to either 2.4 or 5.0 wireless N and go under the card properties it says my connection is 54mps. What am I doing incorrect here, the Linksys says it can do up to 270mps but it doesn't seem that my card is taking advantage of it?

Any help getting my up to speed would be greatly appreciated....



***Also this really only effects inter network transmissions correct? Not the actual speeds at which I do things on the actual internet because that would be controlled by the weekest link which I believe is my 10mps or 16mps cable internet provider. Correct?

 

On the second point, you're correct, the slowest link sets the speed for the rest of the linkage, so your ISP will limit your overall effective speed.

 

Thats what I thought, so really the speeds in mps > than what my service provider can do ala 10mps or 16mps is just mostly for intra network (computer to computer) file transferring/streaming stuff?

If im playing online games etc it wouldn't really matter if my card was running at 54mps or 54000000mps if my service provider is only giving me 10mps?

That aside, shouldn't I still be able to see speeds greater than 54mps for my inter network stuff and how can I get it there. I read about people talking about 108mps, 150mps, 300mps etc. I don't want to be the slow kid on the block, especially given I got all this new $$$ stuff

 

With Intel you have to enable the 11n mode in the device properties.
Intel disables 40Mhz channel bonding by default for 2.4Ghz.
It uses 2 channels and can cause congestion (or so it reckons)

I have a i5300 but cannot get the drivers to start on my machine.
But do remember seeing the 11n setting in the control panel for it, before I took it out of my laptop in disgust

 

I believe you have to pair the router and card to run at 'N'. The speed is when the router is broadcasting and communicating with the laptop. It's true that the more people log in the system the slower the connection will be.

 

A matched pair of WLAN devices will connect at 300Mbps.
An odd chipset pair will connect at 270Mbps.
I've trialed this with various chipsets.

The more people that hook up will still mean 300Mbps connection but the actual through put will lower as more devices log in.