Sudden slowdown over wireless?

Phaser

Phaser

Phaser

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Joined
17 Mar 2004
Posts
1,562
Hi all.

Currently have a PC and a laptop connected to a Netgear cable router. The PC is connected via an ethernet cable and the laptop via a Netgear MA111 wireless USB dongle.

All has been fine for months but there has been a sudden slowdown with the wireless connection - you don't really notice it in web browsing but transferring data is awful - it is taking around 25 mins to transfer a 3mb mp3 over to my computers shared docs. Downloads are noticeably slow too - it took me nearly an hour to get the latest Windows Live Messenger update.

Any ideas whats up?

I'm getting a new MacBook later on in the week and was planning on using the wireless on that so need to get it sorted ASAP.
 
My connection went haywire when I moved the router in my house. Turned out to be interference from neighbouring routers on the same channel. Changed the channel and all was fine.
Maybe your neighbours just went wireless?
 
You could try disabling your firewalls/antivirus temporarily to see if they are causing problems. Updating the wireless adapters drivers and the routers firmware would be my next step (assuming you have already tried moving to a different channel as suggested above).

Another trick that I find improves the performance of USB wireless adapters is using a USB extension lead and getting the adapter away from the back of the PC. Personally, I find that PCI wireless cards are much better then the USB adapters.
 
shocking said:
You could try disabling your firewalls/antivirus temporarily to see if they are causing problems. Updating the wireless adapters drivers and the routers firmware would be my next step (assuming you have already tried moving to a different channel as suggested above).

Another trick that I find improves the performance of USB wireless adapters is using a USB extension lead and getting the adapter away from the back of the PC. Personally, I find that PCI wireless cards are much better then the USB adapters.
Click to expand...

The wireless is actually on the laptop mate, PC is connected via ethernet.

Tried the antivirus/firewall thing, not a problem.

Will look into changing the channel when I get in tonight and see how that goes. :)
 
Anyone? My MacBook will be here tomorrow and obviously it's going to be a pain if i'm still getting these sorta speeds. :(
 
*slaps head*

Didn't think of that at all mate.

I've changed the channel and positioned the router on top of my desk, instead of laying on my computer underneath the desk. (even though I was getting an excellent signal before)

Seems a little bit faster with the downloads, haven't been able to try transferring a file yet.
 
Dunno how accurate it is but I ran www.speedtest.net and got the following results:

Wired:

3938 kb/s down
357 kb/s up


Wireless: (Excellent connection sat 5 foot from the router)

2565 kb/s down
355 kb/s up


Is the wireless supposed to affect the download that much? Especially with the signal strength marked as excellent?
 
Dunno if you're being sarcastic or not, but you didn't say you'd tried a cable rather than wireless - it wouldn't be the first time the problem was with the machine/router rather than the connection between them.

Rather than using an internet speedtester (and introducing a million other variables), try shifting files across the network.
 
Just a very long shot, but if your using WEP encryption try switching to WPA. Probably allready are but made a difference to me and packet loss etc.

- Pea0n
 
Not sure if you have resolved this now but will add my 2p worth.

Have you considered that someone might be high jacking your bandwidth?
It would cause these issues and would effect ethernet also.

Change your password on the router and check your logs.
See if it clears up. If so, give your neighbours the eye ;)
 
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