50Mbps Internet limited to 20Mbps and persistent icon trouble

[kElevrA]

Hi,

I hope I'm not reposting but as of yet I can't find any solution to either of my problems.

Firstly, I recently got faster internet installed and replaced my router with one that could utilise the faster bandwidth. The router is supposed to be capable of enabling up to 300Mbps whilst my wireless card is supposed to receive up to 54Mbps. The speed of my internet provided is 50Mbps which is the speed that I get when I connect to the router via ethernet but when I am in the same room with my laptop, I only get 20Mbps (tested using speedtest.net). Help pleaseee?

Also, after tinkering a little, my wireless icon in the bottom right corner has permanently become the logo that is attached (I.e. the icon that pops up in windows 7 when the ethernet connection is disabled/not working). Everything seems to work fine though so it's not a major issue, but it's just really annoying; I keep thinking something is wrong and every time my internet cuts out I never know.

Anyway, thanks in advance

 

[Punkid]

it could be a problem with your wireless card....u mention, does it work well via ethernet? if yes then u cant blame anything but your wireless card OR the wireless radio of the router itself....u can try tweaking the setting of the wireless radio in the router's config

 

[kElevrA]

Sorry, yes that's right. I can get the full 50Mbps connecting via ethernet. Is there any way I can narrow it down to one or the other? Would reinstalling the router do anything?

Also, if I should be tweaking the wireless settings, what should I be tweaking? (see attached current advanced wireless settings)

 

[Punkid]

those advanced setting are ok,u can also try changing the channel of wifi,by default it should be 6 (for most manufacturers)...try changing it to the extremes because that the default channel might be clogged if there are too many wireless signals in your area....

to narrow the problem down to one device, try a different wifi capable device to connect to the router OR connect your laptop to a different router just for the purpose of diagnosing the problem

 

[kElevrA]

I tried changing my wireless channel but it didn't change anything. I actually had previously tried installing the adapter that came with the router but that didn't affect the speed either. (Actually I think doing that was the cause of the persistent wrong icon but I've uninstalled it and tried to do a system restore to no avail.)

Does this mean it is something to do with the router?

Btw I really appreciate all your help.

EDIT: I called the customer support for my ISP and they told me that since my wireless card is g it would not be able to use the 50Mbps that is provided by the N router. However, I checked my router settings and it is currently "802.11 Mixed (n/b/g)" - Is what the guy said true?

 

[Punkid]

well theoretically it should be able to but i guess in reality,some throughput is lost so u will not get full 54mbps....by the way ,because your wireless card has no support for wireless N , set the wireless radio of your router to 802.11 b/g ONLY.....furthermore,if you are on vista or win 7, try adding the network moniter gadget to your sidebar and moniter the data rate...for me, the data rate on wireless G is 3.1 megaBYTES per second...if you are getting something between 2.5-3.0 MBps then everything is fine, its the wireless G standard thats limiting you

 

[kElevrA]

Hmmm, that is it. The G adapter is the limiting factor. Thank you so muuch.

I installed an N USB wireless adapter on another computer with XP which was limited for a different reason which just complicated so many things...

For anyone who comes across this post in the future, windows 2000 and XP (in the UK at least) can't utilise speeds above 20-25Mbps unless they optimise their computer with a client... Virgin Media "speedbooster" is available at virginmedia.com/speedbooster

EDIT: And I'm assuming there's not really much I can do to get the 54Mbps that my Dell wireless card is supposed to receive? Gah... I hate false advertising.

 

[Punkid]

glad i could be of help,..

btw its not false advertising, 54mbps is just the theoretical bandwidth of the Wireless G standard...read articles on wikipedia for more detailed explanations

 

[kElevrA]

Wiki gave me this:

"[802.11g] operates at a maximum physical layer bit rate of 54 Mbit/s exclusive of forward error correction codes, or about 22 Mbit/s average throughput."

So what are forward error correction codes?

On a separate note, if my laptop is literally sitting next to the router, what other variables are involved in determining the speed/throughput?

 

[Punkid]

forward error correction send extra pieces of information from the sender of some data to the reciever in order to correct any information that might have been lost during the transfer

so you see as wiki says 22 Mbit/s (not to be confused with Mbtye) , a throughput of around 2.5 Mbytes is perfectly normal because : 8 bits = 1 byte , so 22/8 = 2.75 Mbytes/s