my TP works better on ethernet than wireless

[newmanm]

my TP works better and is more responsive on ethernet than wireless. it's not uncommon for my computer to bog down with wireless. the CPU useage on wireless is often very high. and then there are periods where everything seems to work fine.

I have a Netgear router WNR843B. it sits within a couple of feet from my computer. it is possible that the router is the culprit. I have read that this router does not always work well projecting two different signals. my TP runs -g and my wife's MacBook runs -n.

it's not that my wireless does not work, it's just often way slower than the ethernet, especially on image laden websites and resource hogs like outlook 2007.

I am not sure what to start looking for.

[RealBlackStuff]

Having the router that close, personally I would always opt for the wired connection.

[dr_st]

I would look into the wireless drivers.

When you say the CPU usage is very high - which process is the one hogging the CPU?

[newmanm]

When you say the CPU usage is very high - which process is the one hogging the CPU?

system idle process

the page file is around 9 hundred something to a GB plus

[Vempele]

system idle process

System idle process = "Percentage of time the processor is idle".

[mpcook]

Does your wireless performance vary depending on whether or not the Mac is on the network?

Mike

[newmanm]

Does your wireless performance vary depending on whether or not the Mac is on the network?

Mike

I am not sure, but I don't think so. the Mac is always on, though mostly idle.

[mpcook]

See what happens with the mac off. I have seen them slow down win computers on the same network.

[newmanm]

See what happens with the mac off. I have seen them slow down win computers on the same network.

are there any settings on the Mac I can change?

[NorrisCell]

I always notice a performance increase when using Ethernet. As a result, I only use wifi when absolutely necessary, or when doing light tasks.

[dr_st]

I always notice a performance increase when using Ethernet.

Are you referring to network performance specifically, or general computer performance?

[newmanm]

oh. there's a big spike on the performance:cpu usage screen of the task manager when the system idle process has a big number.

it appears that having the Mac off the system works better. I'm wondering of the Mac is not trying to access the network drive that I have on my system. it is sold by OWC, so it should not have a problem with the Mac.

the problem that I have with the network drive is that WinXP seems to drop the peer to peer networking to the drive fairly often.

[mpcook]

[quote="newmanm"]
it appears that having the Mac off the system works better. I'm wondering of the Mac is not trying to access the network drive that I have on my system. it is sold by OWC, so it should not have a problem with the Mac.
quote]

I know nothing about MAC's but I do have experience trying to run a mixed network and the MAC's seemed to do some sort of "polling" that slowed down the network. You may want to take a look at the MAC's network settings, or have someone who is MAC-familiar take a look.

Mike

[NorrisCell]

Are you referring to network performance specifically, or general computer performance?

Sorry, I meant network performance. Higher transfer speeds, less fluctuation in speed.

[newmanm]

since I've plugged in to ethernet while I am at my desk, all my problems are much reduced.

it's possible that I've somehow cleared out the offending program(s) in my continual defragmenting, registry cleaning, etc or maybe one of the many continual updates.

I do notice that outlook is really a hog as well as word when it's starting up.

what network utilities do you guys recommend for monitoring a home network? cheap or free would be the best.

I use netstat to see if I can see who's connected to the network. is that the right program?