Home Forums Discussions General Discussion how to make my wireless connection run faster

I have my main computer on vista, and 5 wired stations.
I go room to room using my wireless connection to ac.
I use a standard wireless router. and regular out of the box wireless connections and wired connections.
It works.
I just wish it would work a little faster.
Sometimes it hangs up as I wait for a page to load.
Any advise to make it go faster?

Richard,

What's the speed of your wireless router? Are you the only one using the wireless or is anyone else logged in? Do you have it passworded? (maybe someone else is using your wireless as well and slowing things down). How fast is the wireless on your laptop? Is there any other wireless devices in the office that could be interfering with your router? Do you have it set in a central location? How's the signal on your laptop? How old is your laptop? How much RAM do you have on your laptop?

The more info you provide would be beneficial in helping solve your wireless problem

the laptop runs window 7 home using 4G ram and 2.13 GHz
The router is a 802.11n CISCO wireless.
My computer is the only user of the wireless except for sometimes my nurse practitioner may use logmein remotely to her ac charts.
the router is in the 'front', and I receive 2-3 bar signal strength out of 5.

Oh, I have password protection using WPA2-PSK

Is there a particular part of AC that loads slow?

opening a chart; looking at the different tabs; going from messages to schedule and back to messages. sometimes plotting the growth data.

Does everything else seem to run fine on the wireless? Have you tried plugging the laptop into the network (hardwired) to see if you have the same problem?

the wireless seems overall to work ok with other activities.
when the computer is hard wired, it does better.

I have my laptop on wireless and it does hang on occasion when loading a page but not very often. I just attribute this to a wireless connection. Mine isn't even "N" but a "G".

Don't know if there's a way to make it faster for you other than hardwiring it.

Richard
I think your wireless router is dropping the signal.
I would suggest you get this Rosewill router from Newegg
( Rosewill RNX-GX4 Wireless-G Broadband Router - Item#: N82E16833166032 ) and run DDWRT software on it and you will have no problems
Hope this helps
Grenville

I would hardwire every system except portable laptops. It will take some of the strain off the wifi access point. I've also got to agree with grenville. I've got several linksys routers (about 6 now) running DD-WRT and it has been solid for the past 5 years. Completely customizable. I would also consider adding several access points to broaden your wifi coverage (you can use the same setup you just need to change the channel - preferably as far away from the closest physical access points channel). You might also consider not broadcasting your SSID for increased security.

My answer will depend on the capabilities of your wireless card...

We were having problems similar to what you described. At the suggestion of another board member, I downloaded the freeware inSSIDer that gives a look at the wireless channels and spectrum use in your immediate area. I was very surprised when I found that there were a WHOLE lot of 2.5 GHz 802.11G/N signals within range, mostly clustered around the middle channels which are the default that most routers ship with. Changing the channel of our router to a lesser used channel helped, but did not solve the problem totally.

What finally solved it was to switch from the common 2.5 GHz 802.11G/N router to a 5 GHz 802.11N Cisco router. We are now all alone in the spectrum in our building, and the signal is rock-solid and fast; I really can't tell any significantly different performance when I plug in to our gigahertz wired network. (Sure, it has to be a lot faster, but other things are now speed limiting, not the network speed.) Now, some computers needed a wireless card upgrade, but most did not. The router was not cheap... about twice what our simple Linksys WRT routers and wireless access points cost... but it solved our problem.

What version are you on? I just learned on 6.10 you have to do in and remove all for your deleted items. I had 1083 after a couple of days and removing them definitely sped up my laptop. The deleted items no longer clear themselves when you log out.

Thank you all for your imput.

what is DD-WRT software?

Regarding removing deleted messages, I am running 6.09 and I see where I can remove all deleted items; is there a way to select messages to be deleted and leave some behind?

Sort of. You can delete them all at once (from all providers) using an administrative option, or one-by-one from each inbox. If you go to a provider's message box and hit the delete button, you get an option to "delete multiple". You can reorder that list and select multiple messages for removing a large number of messages.

I have a question about the freeware inSSIDer.
I did install the program.
can someone tell me how to interpret the 'amplitude dB'

what is the DD-WRT software do - and how is it used ---> can I run this with my existing router, my 802.11n CISCO

DD-WRT is a software that you use to FLASH your router.You now have converted your under $30 router to a much more expensive router that some pay upto $600.
I can only speak for the Rosewill wireless router which cost about $ 26(see my above post).
The software can be found at www.dd-wrt.com. And the software for that router stated above is:
dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin.
You will have to disconnect your internet cable and connect your rosewill router to your computer & flash the router using the software mentioned above. There are plenty of posts,discussions on you tube,google,dd-wrt forum & newegg if you need help.
Hope this helps
Grenville

The amplitude shows the strength of the different signals. A smaller number, or higher peak (since they are negative) is better. Technically, a dB or decibel, is signal strength referenced so something, expressed as dB= 10 log B/A where B is the signal of interest, and A is the reference signal strength. In inSSIDer, the taller the signal on the graph, the stronger it is. The numbers along the bottom represent the frequency bands, or channels of each signal.

Thank you Grenville,
At first, I was confused because the rosewill router was so inexpensive when I looked it up.
However, when I checked now on the dd-wrt site, that router does not show up as one supported, so I would not know how to set it up.
The whole downloading and flashing is new to me, and I will need to study the process a lot more, and find a new router to use that is supported.

And Thank you david g,
I feel a little like back to school.
I think my signal strength is low on the inssider screen

Could anyone suggest a 'good' router that is known for good signal strerngth and stable connections?

Richard
The rosewill router RNX-GX4 wireless router shows up on the DD-WRT site as a NETCORE.
If you have someone to help you I can email you the file
(dd-wrt.v24_std_generic.bin.)
Do not be fooled by the price. Once this router is flashed it can match and even outperform many high priced routers.
Grenville

Had similar issue...if you are not at full bars your speed is already cut in half. Also, I'll agree with Grenville that you should get a new router, but disagree with the chose of the rosewill g, which will cut your speed significantly from the n you have. Is your cisco a regular home router or is it a business grade one? I researched this at length and routers are like computers in that all are not equal...they have cpu's and memory that affect their speed. The Asus RT-N16 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320038
is the screamer of routers...significantly more powerful cpu than other routers allows faster thruput and better handling of the multiple data streams your office probably uses. You'll want to flast to the latest firmware as older versions are difficult. I had speed problems using the comcast modem that came wwith my business account that resolved after switching.
Regarding ddwrt, it is an open source firmware for routers. Just as a computer will run differently with different os's, so to with different firmware on routers. ddwrt only runs on compatible routers and applying it will be a whole education in itself. If you try to flash it to an incompatible router you can "brick", or ruin your router. As an added bonus, the asus router does support it and has a mechanism in place to restore the previous firmware in case you do mess up the upgrade (thus avoiding ruining the router). I have not tried ddwrt with my asus as it is humming along perfectly with the newest version of the asusu firmware.
In any case, for $80 i'd try the Asus, be sure your laptop is running with an N card and latest drivers, and position router centrally if necessary to get full signal strength (the Asus has three antenna's so may give you better coverage than your current router too.)I hope this helps.
Art Treiman