Upgraded 10MB to 30MB but speed is slower on Wireless?

[MrB]

Dear All

I hope that someone can help. I upgraded from 10MB to 30MB recently and also paid 30MB to upgrade to a Superhub (I was told I had to and was charged £30 for the privilege). I had been happy with 10MB as it was consistent and reliable, accessed through a blue modem attached to a Linksys wireless router - I thought the combined router/modem provided by VM would save electricity as one unit rather than two, it looks smart (though a little on the large size ...) and with the new speed I would be flying.

However, on wireless (currently sitting next to the Superhub) the speedtest above fluctuates from 0.5MB to 32MB, mainly settling at the lower end of the scale. Wired, it is consistently around/above 30MB.

I tried Speedtest.net but it comes up with an Upload Test Error before the test finishes (wired or wireless).

this cannot be normal? Last night it was bordering on unusuable on wireless due to pages lagging whenever you clicked on a link - I know that wireless is affected by buildings etc and can fluctuate but surely I should be expecting faster than this (and faster/more consistent than my old 10MB modem/Linksys set up)?

Many thanks

MrB

[Mick Fisher]

If your linksys router is capable then switch the superhub to modem mode and connect it back up.
If your linksys router is not capable then buy a new N router.

If you want to persevere with the superhub try:
Install InSSider and use it to manually optimise your wireless channel selection. The auto setting is useless IMO.
Set the 802.11 mode to 145mbps and make sure the 802 band is 2.4ghz

Good luck.

[Nicosia]

probably the wifi adaptor on your laptop is not capable of faster speeds

[MrB]

Thank you for the replies - my laptop is brand new, Windows 7 and can take speeds up to N so I know it isn't that.

Plug in cable, 30MB+ consistently, use wireless and it ranges from nothing, to 0.5 to 32MB - this while physically sitting next to the Superhub. Will try fixing the wireless channel manually and the other changes suggested, though you would think this would work out of the box and would be consistently faster than my old 10MB set up (and paid £30 activation and more per month to get a slower/more inconsistent connection!).

MrB

[Zee]

Try switching different channels, and see which one works best for you

[thenry]

my laptop is brand new, Windows 7 and can take speeds up to N so I know it isn't that.

which wireless chip have you got within your laptop?

Click Start > type devmgmt.msc in search > expand Network Adapters

[kgollop]

I've had good success with the TCP Optimiser tool in the past: http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Back in the day I was on 10Mbps I was only getting 5Mbps over wireless. Ran the Optimiser and started getting full speeds.

[Technical Vault]

You say your laptop is new? It could be that, some laptops have more capable wireless chipsets than others. Also antennas aren't all the same.

The other potential problem is that the 2.4GHz is quite a crowded frequency and not all wireless N adaptors are made equal. A baby monitor, tv repeater or an old style cordless phone can cause nightmarish interference. Some of the better N routers support the less crowded 5GHz frequency and allow use of one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz channel. Also MIMO support is a must. One good example is Apple's Airport Express which are the some of the most pricey consumer grade kit but you get a good router.

One other possible fix might be to turn on the interference robustness on your router, it'll hit the overall speed, but as your operating nowhere near the top speed of N I wouldn't worry.