Laptop bottleneck internet speed issue

[basil5011]

Thank you in advance for any advice. I have a 2 yr. old plus HP notebook. As far as I can ascertain it is the bottleneck for my 1 gig internet service. I am able to get the speed on my Galaxy S23 Ultra cell phone. However, my laptop tips out at 250 mbps using speedtest.net. I ordered a USB adapter with no success; it actually further slowed my speed to my laptop. I have to download medical images and the speed is a big issue for time savings.

 

[neeyik]

You'll need to provide the exact details of your HP notebook before anyone can really offer any advice. For example, which model is it? The Envy, Pavillion, Spectre, HP14, HP17, or Chromebook?

 

[basil5011]

Thank you. Specs:
HP Laptop EF0xxx
32 GB Ram
Bios 11/26/21
Ryzen AMD Processor
1 GB SSD Drive
Wireless Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter

 

[neeyik]

Wireless Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter

That’s the culprit — it only has an absolute maximum transfer rate of 433 Mbps, and that’s with perfect conditions. So getting 250 Mbps, while a fair bit lower than the maximum, isn’t unusual with that adapter.

To get nearer your 1 Gbps service limit, you could use a CAT5 cable and connect the laptop directly to the router, if both it and the laptop have RJ45/Ethernet ports (and both ports will need to support 1 Gbps transfer rates too).

Edit: If there’s no Ethernet port in the laptop, then a decent USB 3.1 AC1300 or higher WiFi adapter is your only option. Don’t bother with anything with a lower AC rating and ensure that the adapter goes into the laptop’s USB 3 ports and not its USB 2 ones.

 

[basil5011]

Thank you for your help.

 

[Mark Fuller]

To get nearer your 1 Gbps service limit, you could use a CAT5 cable and connect the laptop directly to the router, if both it and the laptop have RJ45/Ethernet ports (and both ports will need to support 1 Gbps transfer rates too).

I believe he will have to have either a CAT 5e or CAT6 cable, if I am not mistaken a CAT 5 maxes out at 100mbs per sec.