mass confusion, stop hogging it all!

I'm stuck with an interesting predicament. I own a new dell laptop, an e1705 all juiced up, with the draft n internal wireless card. I'm in the navy and frequently take my laptop with me to a wifi cafe that's on base to play World of Warcraft. Now, there's a handfull of other guys who do the same thing, without my problem, and that is getting absolutely sluggish internet speeds...... thus getting disconnected from world of warcraft dozens of times each hour, sometimes more.

now, my wifi signal is reading 54.0Mbps with an excellent signal strength reading, and rarely dips below 54.0Mbps from what I can tell.

so what's the problem? I have no freaking clue.... everything is pointing to a fast connection and fast speeds for gaming right? that's what the other dudes are getting.

so I opened up a command prompt and typed:

ping -t yahoo.com

to see the connection speed as I'm connected to the internet..... what do I get back? well, it'll ping back to me every three or four seconds with a reading of 200-400ms. and every so often it'll say "request timed out". here's an example of what I'm seeing:

Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=458ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=386ms TTL=48
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=221ms TTL=48
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=811ms TTL=48
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.



....and so on.

I kinda noticed that when I get disconnected from World of Warcraft, I'll check the ping to yahoo and it'll start saying "Request timed out" more..... but it's kinda random.

so wtf. any suggestions for a sailor in need?




edit: some things I forgot, I'm not getting sent or received packages lost, that doesn't seem to be a problem.
also, it's saying:

signal(green) -45dBm
noise(red) -82dBm

whatever that means

 

I would for one make sure your WiFi is operating with 802.11 g. At least where I work as an intern (and some of the stuff I do is networking stuff), the pre-n equipment has a LOT of incompatibilities and generally will work very poorly when not paired with the right equipment. We actually abandoned all the N stuff and went back to G until the standard for N is actually approved. Unfortunately, you appear to be a case-in-point for this problem.

If you can't get the card to operate SOLELY in G mode, I would either get a wireless g usb device or call Dell to have them replace the N card for a G card.

But you are right, that ping result is really unusual. Try updating the drivers for your WiFi as well.

 

Yup night is right.
Pre-n isn't really the way to go right now. And from what I hear, it still has a ways to go.

 

sonofa^%@#

why would dell offer it then? wtf that pisses me off

 

Well its something that is going to be around in the coming future, and people like to buy before things come out.

If updating your drivers and switching the operating mode don't work, then the good news is that you can pick up a decent usb wireless or wireless card for pretty cheap. I don't think that they should be any more than around $50 for one of the nicer ones. Good luck sorting it all out man.

 

Exactly. Dell (and others) want to make money, and are getting tired of waiting for the N Standard to pass. Thus, they decided to go ahead with the current draft standard (or the draft standard that was in effect when they decided to go for it)...or at least their implementation of it. Thus all the incompatibilities.

Get a USB WiFi for (I think) about $50 from Best Buy. You can probably get one cheaper online, but I don't know.

 

I agree with the pissed part- I really wish they would have a big popup that said something along the lines of 'this is a new and generally unsupported technology that works tricks and magic with the 802.11 standard and will likely be more trouble than it is worth'. Not your fault, you paid extra for what should be a good wireless card and are definitely not getting a benefit.

When presented as an option in a new computer, draft-N is usually assumed to be an enthusiast's purchase, for use with their fancy new draft-N MIMO x7297863 whatever router. From what I've seen, you'd be better off dragging 500' of cat5 to plug into the hard port in a wireless point. It just doesn't work right with 99% of the stuff out there. (I'm sure I am wrong, but more than one of my clients' N cards were basically slot protectors, with little or no ability to connect to wifi at starbucks, a library, borders, bookstore, etc. That seems to be the norm rather than the exception.)

You could try complaining to dell, see if you can get them to swap out that card for a more sensible one? I don't know if you're stationed overseas or whatnot and that might not be an option.

You could just snag a G card or USB dongle/box. The card would have less antenna than your internal, but the external box-type has its own antenna unit that can make up for it. All three options are sub-$50 purchases just about anywhere.

Good luck, sorry I can't help out any more than that...

 

of course, if they didn't offer it, then they'd get slammed for not offering the latest-and-greatest

damned if you do, damned if you don't

 

I agree with picking up a USB or wireless card would be the way to go. You'll probably get better connections in the long run, anyways.

It's Dell. They're just damned. Period.

 

Wow, this is a useful thread. I was just about to get the Dell n Draft or whatever it was, but now I guess I'll go with the Intel one instead.

By the way, what exactly is a wireless usb?