Linux network speed is abysmally slow while winXP is ok. Why?

Question

I have a Dell inspiron 640m (1405). I am a reasonably clued in linux user, but I am getting serious networking speed problems.

The networking card is an intel 3945ABG

When wirelessly connecting with windows XP, everything runs fine and the network connection is fast.

When connecting with any linux distro, the networking speed is abysmally slow, and the connection drops randomly. (the network is recognised and the connection is made however)

Is there any possible reason why that would be?

Help me get the penguin back on my laptop!

[EDIT]: Using latest firmware for the card. The module used is iwl3945. unloading/reloading module doesn't change the behaviour. The networking speed is still ridiculously slow. There are no errors in dmesg. Using ArchLinux and module autoloading (tried manual unload/reload too...) .

[RESOLVED]: By using ndiswrapper. The iwl3945 driver seemed to be the cause of the problem. Downloading the windows driver from dell and using the .INF files works as expected:

• Blacklist iwl3945
• Install the driver: ndiswrapper -i /path/to/***.INF
• Check that the driver is loaded: ndiswrapper -l
• Load the ndiswrapper module.

Answer 1

Please try these steps:

• Check the output of dmesg and look for error signs::

  dmesg | grep -i error
  

• Try reloading the kernel modules related with your card.

  • Hopefully lsmod | grep iwl may show you what you need to unload.

  • I usually need to reload iwlagn and iwlcore.

  • Use modprobe -r [module-name] to remove and modprobe [module-name]

  • If you do not have these iwl drivers, you need an update.

• Try ifconfig wlan0 and see if you have errors.

Answer 2

Use Ndiswrapper.