One wireless connection to network only receiving 50% of bandwith

[J Doe]

There are three PC?s in the household connected to the same network. One wired, the other two wirelessly.

We recently upgraded our bandwidth through a number of phased increases. We upgraded our contract from 10 Mb/s to 20 Mb/s. This was then increased to 30 Mb/s and to 60 Mb/s shortly after as the ISP rolled out a doubling of the bandwidth.

However, for some reason only the PC that was wired got all incremental increases upto 60 Mb/s.

The other two PC?s using the wireless network received the additional speed increases from 10 to 20 to 30 Mb/s successfully . However, we did not receive the increase to 60 Mb/s. Only when they were temporarily wired directly to the router did both PC?s receive the additional bandwidth of 60 Mb/s. We thought it was to do with the router or the router?s software.

However, within the last few days one of the wireless PC?s upgraded to an SSD drive and did a fresh reinstall of windows 7 on their system. Upon completion of the reinstall of the operating system the speed increased to 60 Mb/s. There were no manual adjustments made to the router?s settings or anything else as far as we could tell. Both PC's have similar hardware specs, the only difference is the USB adapter, however, both are capable of receiving the speed of 60 Mb/s.

I have a very busy schedule at the minute and need my computer for work, so a fresh reinstall is not an option for the next few weeks, but I was beginning to wonder if there might be a simple explanation that a windows setting that could be responsible for the non-increase in speed.

Thanks in advance

[sc302 Veteran]

What wireless do you have. You need to understand the absolute limits of wireless technology. 802.11G only supports up to 54Mb/s theroetical total output and 22Mb/s what people are seeing on average. Everytime that you have another device connected it cuts that by half. So 2 devices you will only see about 10-20Mb/s on each computer that is connected wirelessly. To see that speed gain from your ips wirelessly, you would have to upgrade your wireless network to N. The router or access point needs to be on the N standard and all of the network cards need to be on N as well. Any network cards not on N the wireless network will "slow down" to that standard, and slow down your wireless network.

[+BudMan MVC]

So you are running a N router, with N cards? 60Mbps is not possible with G. And to be honest not very common on N either if your talking real world download speed. Vs what your connection shows.

My G shows me 54Mb connection, does not mean that is what it does in the real world.. Wireless bandwidth is all pretty much marketing hype on what the overall RAW bandwidth is, etc. Not what you actually see.

For example 54Mbps is what is stated for G, but even in when wired on one have of the connection, best your going to see real world is 21-23Mbps.

Keep in mind wireless is SHARED! So even if they say you have 300, that is shared between all clients! Like I said its not real world. I would say /2 for rough estimate then /number of clients, etc.

What router do you have? What wireless cards do you have?

[mduren2445]

also remember your network will only run at the speed of the slowest device so if you have 2 g cards and one n card then the g cards win

[J Doe]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I had another look based on your questions, I think the issue now is whether my usb adapter supports n-network

The two other PC's are able to download at 6.6. MB/s (downloading separately) whereas I am limited to 3.3 MB/s (downloading separately)

I hover over my wireless network status and noticed that the speed connection was 54 Mbps whereas the other wireless PC is 64 Mbps.

It states that my radio type is 802.11g; the other wireless network has radio type 802.11n

My USB adapter is USR5421 Wireless MAXg USB Adapter

http://www.usr.com/s...e.asp?prod=5421

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B000ANH00K

If it does support the N network, how can I switch the settings in Windows 7?

The other PC which receives the max speed has the following adapter

TP-Link 150Mbps High Gain Wireless-N USB Adapter

edit: meant MB/s not Mb/s with regards to download speed

[sc302 Veteran]

that USB adapter in question is G only which is slowing down your wireless network to 54Mb/s max and bottle necking you. The issue with that adapter is that is was an inbetween adapter (inbetween g and n) and you would need the proprietary maxg usr router to get those speeds. just get a N usb card and you will be fine.

there are lots and fairly inexpensive

http://www.amazon.co...s+n+usb&x=0&y=0

if you want to test take the g usb off line. the wireless should see that it is no longer connected and speeds should return to as expected.

[J Doe]

Okay, at least I've gotten to the bottom of it.

Many thanks for your help guys, will try and get a new USB adapter tomorrow!

My limited knowledge wasn't aware of the g vs n network distinction

[sc302 Veteran]

also on the wireless router/access point set it to n only when you get that card. It should help tremendously.