No. Having the OS automatically make the connection is not what I mean. Does your wireless router have some sort of automated setup? Usually routers come with two different types of automated setup:
Setup the wireless network
Add a wireless client automatically.
I’m saying go through #1. Then go through #2. Use a different network name than what you had previously. Use all the defaults. Let the router drive the show.
If the router doesn’t have a setup that automatically locks down the wireless network, set up the network (temporarily) without any security. See if you can get good throughput, then add security, first to the router, and then match those settings on the client.
Is it possible that the old adapter just had a hell of a lot better antenna than the others? could you look into getting an aftermarket antenna (which would involve and adapter with adjustable/changeable antenna)
Moving the router is on the list of things to do, but it was fine in its current spot earlier so I’m not sure if that is really going to do anything. Worth trying, though.
I’ve done the connect from scratch thing a few times now - resetting the router to factory specs, trying both password and push to connect options, etc. I will give the no security option a try.
Meaning what? If they are both set to auto, then shouldn’t the router find the best combination? Or are you suggesting I play with those combinations manually?
I moved the router about 3 feet from its previous position and closer to the computer we are trying to connect. Net result was only a slight increase in signal strength % as reported by the router. Still not seeing any notable change in speed at the other end. I’ve also played around with manually assigning the 2.4ghz channels. There were slight changes, but nothing notable between them, and nothing above 6 will actually connect. Playing with the bandwidth showed that at 20hz the reported speed drops to 1 at my end compared to 39 on auto/40hz.
I put the adapter in my room and hooked it up. It had no problem connecting, but the connection speeds seem to vary even though its only 3 feet from the router. I’ve seen speeds as high as 100+mbps (though it drops to 27), with a connection % around 50.
With the adapter connected to this computer I was able to run inSSIDer, which says it only sees three other channels in use. Two are the three the adapter sees - they are running on channels 9 and 2, while the router is running on channel 11 at the moment. The other thing it sees is a very weak signal on channel 1. So that seems to rule out inteference.
Well, the previous adapter was having the same issues before it got broken. And that one did work with my roommates new computer for some period of time before it started having the same issues.
More messing around with this. Based on feedback from elsewhere, I locked the channel at 5 so that 9 is totally avoided and 2 is avoided as much as possible on a 20hz band. I also moved the router around and tried aiming the antennas directly towards the adapter. As of this morning the router reports a 65mbps connection with a signal % that varies between 10 and 20. But thats with the router on auto channel width, where its consistently choosing 40hz. If I try and force it to 20 it connects at a slightly higher signal percentage (upper 20s) but shows a 1mbps speed.
I still don’t get why this worked just fine earlier with higher speeds but all of a sudden requires all this messing around since the inSSIDer results show no new interference. The two strongest signals it showed have been around for months and months. Unless one of them changed channels, I don’t see why anything would change.
The way wireless signals are transmitted (in a donut shape out from the antenna), you don’t want the antenna pointed directly at the adapter. I don’t expect this to be the root cause of your problem, but it definitely isn’t improving your signal strength.
The way it was explained to me was that the antenna is the center of a donut around it. So aiming the antennas that way (which is what I did, angling them so the sides are pointing up towards the adapter) should help.
Yes, that should help. When you mentioned aiming the antennas directly toward the adapter it threw me, but the explanation you received is the correct one.
I thought I’d update this issue. From the beginning I wondered if it was simply the router had gone bad, but nobody suggested that either here or anywhere else I was asking for help. But with all the stuff we messed with my roommate still wasn’t happy with the relatively slow connection we were seeing and once I picked up an N7 tablet last week I was disappointed by it as well.
So today I bought a new router (Netgear N600 dual band) and hooked it up instead. Huge improvement, even though its roughly just the same thing as the old router except it does 2.4 and 5 simultaneously. My roommate was easily able to connect on either frequency with speeds much faster then what the old router was giving us.
NEVER do this. Only channels 1, 6, and 11 are valid in the 2.4Ghz band. Every other channel overlaps. If you choose any other channel, you will have worse performance and you will screw over everybody else in range.
As I noted above the problem was that the other two routers in range were on odd channels - a weak one on 2, a strong one on 9. Using 6 would give more overlap on the strong signal, so I was told to try 5. Keep in mind the router was on auto before this started, so I didn’t force the other guys on to odd channels.
