Dell 1390 Wifi - very variable (often slow) speeds

I've got a Dell 1390 mini wifi card (54mbps) in my new Dell Vostro 1500 laptop, typically being used in the kitchen and living room. Upstairs is my Speedtouch 585v6 connected to IDNet 8mb ADSL service. I have my main pc hardwired into the Speedtouch and get 800k per sec download speeds.

The problem I've got is that the Dell seems to be running at slower and slower speeds (sometimes all the way down to 1mbps), though it often connects at the full 54mbps, and I've seen 500k per sec downloads. All the time it's showing the same signal strength (4 or 5 bars out of 5), with only small fluctuations in the signal / noise display. And yet the actual speed fluctuates wildly

I've tried the latest 1390 drivers from the Dell site, and if anything it's even worse.

Is this an inherent problem with 802.11g specification? Should I be looking to move to 11n or is that a waste of time?

Any thoughts much appreciated

can you lock the card at say 24M and see if it holds it better. Is the antenna upstairs horizontal to increase coverage downstairs ?

Hi,

The antenna happens to be horizontal (hadn't realised that might matter!)

I can't find an option to change the settings... someone on another forum suggested forcing 'b' mode as it's at least stable at that speed. But I can't find an option to do that either

can you set the speedtouch to a specific speed ?

Maybe, I'll have a look tonight.

I was using the laptop last night in the kitchen, which is directly under the room where the router is, and the connection alternated between 48 and 54mbps... so I'm guessing my living room must contain some dead spots, or maybe something in there is interfering? I've got a Philips DECT phone and Sky+ in there.

Right, after a bit more fiddling around I've got some more info...

1) the Dell card isn't immnue to sudden falls in speed, even when it's in the kitchen

2) it can be terrible even when it's just 4ft away from the router.. the wifi utility showed the signal strength to be at it's max, and it still only gave me 11mbps

3) I tried a USB wifi dongle - a cheapo TP-Link WN321g (uses a Ralink chipset). The signal strength and connection speed varied on that too, but it never went below 11mbps, and even then it carried on downloading at 500k per sec.


Conclusions:

1) My Speedtouch 585v6 isn't perfect - the coverage around the house is quite variable

but

2) The cheapo usb dongle is better at utilising that signal than the Dell card.

I guess I could buy an extension antenna and so boost the signal coverage downstairs.
Or buy a completely new router (I'd rather not, not exactly 'flush' at the moment).

Are there any software changes I could make though? I logged in and looked through the Administrator web page for the Speedtouch, but couldn't find any way of changing the channel - it's currently on 1. I'm wondering if a change of channel might improve matters?

We found with our Dell laptop, changing from WPA to WEP security on the wireless network solved all the problems.

It's annoying that you have to downgrade the network security just to enable the laptop to cope but it worked.

Ah, I'm already using WEP

Try the channel change again - there must be a way to change it. How many other networks are showing up nearby? Are you broadcasting SSID? I know the 'experts' don't recommend this, but my connection is much more stable when I enable it. You must change the name from the default, of course. Using WEP isn't really the answer - I use WPA-PSK and there's no visible effect on speed. If you must use WEP, enable MAC filtering as a backup.

Thanks for the reply Geoff:

I guess I must be able to change the channel via Telnet / Command line... I'll have a dig around on that. I was sure there was a GUI for it, but damned if I can find it
I've googled for instructions, and people have said channels 6, 12 or 14 might give better stability. Still no clue on how to do it though... maybe edit the user.ini?

Nearby networks... several, I get people's routers and Xboxes It's usually 7 or so. They're all at 50% singnal strength or below.

I'm broadcasting SSID, I'm using WEP, I've got no MAC filter. Apart from the possibility of someone nicking my bandwidth, what am I laying myself open to?



edit: RTFM! I've think I've found how to set the mode (a/b/g) and the channel. I'll try them both tonight!

'On the left menu click "Home Network"
Under "Wireless", click the name of the Access Point you want to view or configure"

No idea how I could've missed that, unless I was being blind and stupid

Edited by deleted (Wed 02-Apr-08 13:46:55)