It's a tiny bit unrelated to this thread but my Wi-Fi speeds on my Acer Aspire 2920 laptop (3-4 years old) were terrible near my router and I discovered I'd forgotten to download the latest Wi-Fi driver.

I've just installed it and I'm now getting 600 kB/sec in downloads - compared to 100 kB/sec.

I just wanted to remind people that sometimes an outdated Wi-Fi driver can impact on internet speeds on a laptop or PC.

Edited by paul_liverpoolfc (Fri 23-Dec-11 15:53:44)

I posted the following over on the general forum.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/t/4076556-r...

My sync with a brand new and rather pricey Billion kit is approximately 1 Mbps lower than with my ZyXEL router. SNR is 6 dB on ZyXEL and 6.3 dB on Billio. (My downsream margin is hard capped at 6dB) Downstream line attenuation is measured at 22 dB by the ZyXEL router and 23 dB by the Billion.

I have an ADSL2+ connection. My router (any router) is plugged into a filtered faceplate on the master socket.

Any explanation as to why sync and therefore download speed should be so different?

Edited by ARD (Sat 24-Dec-11 17:22:27)

ZyXEL make good routers

Router firmware and then chipset compatibility with the equipment in the exchange can make a connection faster/slower and then there is maybe the mode (ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+) in use to muddy the waters a bit more.

I know ZyXEL make super routers- wish I'd bought a second. Well, you live and learn.

Yes. I guess it's just the diferent chipset. I'd never used Billion before- except for micro-filters. I fell for the hype...

Old numbers http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4144-how-fast-is-... but shows the potential variation you can get

No Billions in that list would be interesting to see how they fair.

In reply to a post by ARD:

I know ZyXEL make super routers..........

Interestingly the majority of Zyxel routers use the much maligned AR7 rather than Broadcom.

Edited by Tacitus (Tue 27-Dec-11 08:52:34)

A router that does well or bad in that test, may fair better with another line/MSAN combination of course. Which is the point if chasing the ultimate last few kbps then figuring out best match for a specific line is possible.

Another problem can be a router that squeezes the last once of performance, might actually be more prone the uncorrectable errors, resulting in a lower real world data transfer rate.

Lots and lots of variables.