Laptop wifi problem

[speedwrench]

New Dell Latitude E5500, Win7, Wifi shows good signal strength but is slow, hard to connect, and looses connection often with built in antenna.
I use TP-Link 620G wireless adapter connected with USB cord to my PC (XP) with no problems , so I loaded drivers from it on laptop and connected USB cord to laptop without moving antenna , no change.
I assume it's connecting thru the adapter since it looses connection when unplug USB from it.
Dell's only suggestion was move closer to the router, yeah, sure.

Any way to improve wifi service on this???

Dave

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Which do you want to connect from?

The built in Wireless card? Or your external?

I'll assume you want the built in wireless.
1st thing, Run windows update. Check to see if MS doesn't have a wireless driver for you to use. If not, Then check Dell support for your model laptop. See if there is a Win7 driver for you to use.

How far away are you from the router/antenna? Upstairs/downstairs?

If you are close by Check a few things. On the router, see if there are any power cords laying over the router, and by the antennas.
I once got a call from a family that had poor wireless. At first I didn't see a router, but I seen the faint blinking lights beneath all the cables and wires behind the TV/Entertainment system.

If none. Pull the power cord to the router and let is sit for about 10 seconds then plug in. See if it's any better.. Next enter the router's control panel and change the channel the wireless is on. The router could just be in a bad spot, move the router a few feet in either direction to see if the signal helps.

 

[eavega]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Make sure you are not operating any other wireless equipment that may be transmitting on the same frequency band (2.4 GHz, I believe). I had in intermittent problem in my home until I tracked it down to a set of wireless speakers I had.

-Eric

 

[speedwrench]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Guess I wasn't too clear. Computers sitting side by side. Good siginal on PC, 11Mbps. Unplug antenna USB from PC and plug into laptop without moving antenna. Laptop is now slow to connect and showing 1Mbps, slow downloads. Unplug from laptop, loose connect, PC connects at 11 Mbps as soon as plug back in.

Don't care which I connect with as long is faster and dependable.

Haven't been able to run updates, won't stay connected long enough to finish.

Dave

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Where is your wireless router located? Why not just hardwire into your router to get the updates?

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

I see what you mean..

As said above me.. Where is the router located.

Also another side note with the 2.5Ghz.

On our land line we have a 2.4ghz cordless phone, When ever you hit the talk button it cuts the signal for our router... Took me like 3 months to figure that out.. Actually found the cause of that while on the phone talking with a parts guy for some outboard parts.

 

[dolluper]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Make a parabolic reflector cheap out of tin foil template below link
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

 

[j_martin]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

How does it work wired to the router? I'm betting you got a trojan on it that's shipping everything to a proxy in Kenya. The local connection speed would not be a factor.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Make sure the laptop is not infected with anything before doing anything else. I have to run PC doctor in Asia every other day to clean mine out.
My 2 cents.

 

[speedwrench]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Thanks for the suggestions. Wiring it in directly is doable but not practical due to router location(attic). Will try running virus scans, didn't consider that since haven't been able to stay on line long enough to catch anything more serious than a common cold.

Dave

 

[j_martin]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Thanks for the suggestions. Wiring it in directly is doable but not practical due to router location(attic). Will try running virus scans, didn't consider that since haven't been able to stay on line long enough to catch anything more serious than a common cold.

Dave

The suggestion to directly wire it was for testing purposes. If it still acts up, it isn't a wireless issue.

hope it helps
john

 

[generator12]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

I made up one of those parabolic reflectors for my USB wifi. Thing actually worked, but positioning was very touchy. Had to experiment with distance from the antenna and keep it at the proper distance.

Can't say how much the signal increased, but the drop-outs decreased markedly.

 

[speedwrench]

UPDATE!!! Laptop wifi problem

UPDATE!!! Laptop wifi problem

One of my pet peeves is no feedback when people try to help someone, so:

Without going into all the stuff I tried in the last month the problem is solved by changing the channel on the wireless TV transmitter.
eavega wins the contest. Don't know why it just affected the laptop but not the other two PC's but it's fixed.

Thanks everyone. Just hit me with a 2X4, I'll figure it out.

Dave

 

[jlinder]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

One suggestion is to unplug the power from the wifi router and see what signals you still have. I suspect you will find some from other people.

Note what channels they are on, then power your router and see what channel it is set for (use the wired connection during this test). Make sure to set you system to an unused channel. Then go back to wifi and see if that fixes anything.

I had a system start to act up one day and on a hunch did what I said above. I found a neighbor installed a wifi without checking on my channel. The interference was giving my system problems.

I changed to an unused channel and problem solved

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: UPDATE!!! Laptop wifi problem

Re: UPDATE!!! Laptop wifi problem

One of my pet peeves is no feedback when people try to help someone, so:

Without going into all the stuff I tried in the last month the problem is solved by changing the channel on the wireless TV transmitter.
eavega wins the contest. Don't know why it just affected the laptop but not the other two PC's but it's fixed.

Thanks everyone. Just hit me with a 2X4, I'll figure it out.

Dave

You have regular PC's on wireless? How many? I know, I have one in my house, but just one. And if that one is on the net and I'm listening to streaming music while I exercise, I have almost no bandwidth left to browse the web on my Ipod touch. And I have smokin' net too.

Rather than make another thread, my router which used to work great right where it's at (and its many feet from any wires other than it's own) way up high near the ceiling stopped being the smokin' router it used to be. It still works, but I'm getting .5mbps down but 5.5mbps upload to my Ipod touch, where I used to get over 10mbps down and 5 up. What would you say that problem could be? I never lose signal and never have any other issues except it's not fast like it used to be.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

802.11G has 54 Mbs bandwidth so your bandwidth problem is not in your wireless connection. Its in your connection to your service provider and/or the sites you are connecting to assuming you have good signal stregth and no interference

And just an interesting tidbit on testing download speeds. My old service provider in my area used to throttle the bandwidth depending on sites. They used to play a game though where they gave unlimited bandwidth to the test sites so you actually thought you were getting good download speeds. Best test is to FTP download a known sized file and time it yourself.

To see what channels other networks that are in your neighborhood are using download and install Netstumbler. It will also show your signal strength and SNR.

 

[Outsider]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Uhhh, he said it's fixed ...

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Uhhh, he said it's fixed ...

Uhhh, he might have been replying to my question.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

Uhhh, he might have been replying to my question.

Uhhh... yes I was.

 

[jlinder]

Re: Laptop wifi problem

802.11G has 54 Mbs bandwidth so your bandwidth problem is not in your wireless connection. Its in your connection to your service provider and/or the sites you are connecting to assuming you have good signal stregth and no interference

And just an interesting tidbit on testing download speeds. My old service provider in my area used to throttle the bandwidth depending on sites. They used to play a game though where they gave unlimited bandwidth to the test sites so you actually thought you were getting good download speeds. Best test is to FTP download a known sized file and time it yourself.

To see what channels other networks that are in your neighborhood are using download and install Netstumbler. It will also show your signal strength and SNR.

Uhhhh (do we have to start a reply with Uhhh now? )

I had long told people this. What I noted was that my provider has what they call boost where they give you a very high speed of about 20Mb/s for a second or so, then drop to the real speed if you are doing a download. This gives people nicer web page downloads.

Their trick was that if you went to any of the speed test sites like speedtest.net they left it do the high speed for the whole test, and people went off bragging what great speed they had.

Then see what happens when you go to a plain old FTP server they don't know about and you get a much slower speed. 6Mb/s in my case.

I call that trick false advertising, or just misleading the public, but that's an argument that will never come to anything.