WLAN N connection not full speed, W7

Question

Well i have a problem, im not sure what to do, i have 65mbps connection , and i connect to my PC with WLAN N , with a dual band Linksys wireless N, my internet router that my ISP gave me to me is WLAN N too, a Netgear cg3100d , so a couple of month ago i did a speed test in speedtest.net and it gave me the full 65mbps , i was very impress , i did the test in Safe Mode of windows , all with the WLAN

these days i notice my speed is not that good anymore so i went to safe mode , and ran the test , i gave me about 20mbps , i reset de router, but nothing change, i did it in safemode too

to make sure is not something about time , i know maybe the time , more users online, can down this amount , i ran the test over LAN, and it gave me about 60mbps , that was very close to my real connection,

so my question , what happend? why i dont have my full speed like before? i doubt that is my W7, because i ran the test in safemode

Answer 1

There are lots of different factors involved with wireless internet.

First i would point out that testing with an external site such as speedtest brings even more problems, because your internet connections and that of speedtest.net could vary. Try FTPing a big file through your network if you are able to. It will be a more accurate test.

Next it is best to make sure the problem isnt caused by settings on your computer. Try different laptops and see if the result is the same.

Microwaves and cordless phones transmit on the same frequency as wlan and could negatively impact your speed. But there are also less obvious troublemakers. Maybe there is an electromagnetic field in between? A wall with lots of cables or pipes (metal)? I have seen really weird things with wireless.. One place perfect signal, 2 meters further no signal at all and a little bit further the signal is perfect again. So always keep in mind that the maximum speed advertised on the box is not really possible in real-life situations.

And there is another form of interference: there are 13 channels available which all the wlan-networks have to share. If you are using a network that your neigbors use as well this may cause problems (especially when you are both are generating a lot of traffic).

Fortunatly there is a way to find out which channel is best for your. You could download inSSIDer (on windows) and do several analysis of the wireless networks on different times during the day at different locations in your house. This will give you an overview of which channels are heavily used and which ones are currently free. Pick a channel with as less active networks around it as possible. Then configure your Netgear to use this new channel.