4965AG WiFi Slow On Public WiFi

[Pete B]

X61s is running well with good WiFi speed at home connecting to home
gateway, but out connected to my ISPs public WiFi it is VERY slow.
My other computers in the same locations connecting to the same public
WiFi do not have this problem. It was not just a transient issue since I've
tried it 3 or 4 times over the last week or so with the same issue.
I have 3 to 4 bars so it is not a signal strength issue.
Any good way to debug this?
I'm probably going to go to a 6200 so perhaps I should just do that.

[Hans Gruber]

Are you connecting to the same public networks at the very same time with your other devices? If not it could be a congested public network at the time you are using your 4965AG wireless card. At the same time if you would upgrade or wifi card to perhaps an 4965AGN your speeds could be considerably higher with wireless N capabilities. Wireless G downloads in a very best case scenario 18mbps. Typically between 10mbps-15mbps.

Do your other devices have wireless N capabilities?

[Pete B]

Oh interesting point, I didn't even think of that because it feels like 1 MBPs not anywhere
near the spec'd rate. Most of them started without N and I recently upgraded one with
not much of an improvement in speed because I don't pay for high speed anyway.

No, the X61s is always slow and the others are always significantly faster.

[RealBlackStuff]

You could have corroded antenna contacts on the card.
The 1/2 size Intel 6200N with 1/2 size adapter would be a good choice.

[Pete B]

I put in an Intel 6200 card and I see in task manager that the connection speed
bounces all over the place, 5 Mbps, 11, 0 back up. My Dell D830 works well at
this location and shows a solid 5 with occasional blip up to 11.
I'm going to assume at this point that the smaller antennas reduce the signal just
below the marginal level.

[hhhd1]

if you are using AC power while at home, while running on battery when you experience slow downs, it could be the power saving feature of the card affecting it performance.

[Pete B]

Thanks, yes that makes sense but I do use it at home on battery and it always
works well. But at home with the new card I have 144 Mbps, solid, at least to
the home gateway, nothing like that I'm sure over the internet, but certainly
the wireless link is not a limitation while browsing the web.

[RealBlackStuff]

Did you connect the grey antenna to Main and the black to Aux on the 6200N?
Do NOT use the white antenna with a 2-wire card.
What if you turn (L or R) the X61s 90 degrees at a time "in public" to try and get better reception?
Sounds like you might have a bad antenna wire (black or grey) coming from lid into base.

[Pete B]

I'm going to try a 7260 in it next so I'll check the antennas then, but I do think
that they are hooked up correctly.

It is a very marginal location with all of my PCs, the Dell seems to be the only
one that works fairly reliably. I was just hoping for a bit more sensitivity or better
handling of the weak signal with the new card.
Signal quality there also seems to depend on the season, there are times of
the year when all of my PCs work there for a few months at a time.

The Dell has a Broadcom 1395.

[RealBlackStuff]

Maybe look for a better public spot?

[Pete B]

Ha, yes, but they have the best coffee here!

[Pete B]

Getting 3 to 5 bars today on the X61s, not sure if it is just a good day
or if reseating the card made a difference. Getting 13 to 58 mbps today
usually much less than 5.

[jaspen-meyer]

I just walked around my place measuring signal strength on my x61s's Intel 5100 AGN.

At the place where I usually work signal was 49dBm. Moving 2 steps to the left, which put a wall and a metal door frame between the x61s and the wifi router, signal dropped to 61dBm! As realblackstuff pointed out, rotating the machine also has a dramatic effect on reception.

In the cafe try to seat yourself so you've got an unobstructed view of the router.

In linux you can watch signal strength with this one-liner:

Code: Select all

while true; do iwconfig|grep uali;sleep 0.3;done

A summary of the readings taken in the 4m X 5m room I'm in:
# readings Link Quality ----- Signal Level
1 Link Quality=29/70 Signal level=-81 dBm
2 Link Quality=32/70 Signal level=-78 dBm
1 Link Quality=34/70 Signal level=-76 dBm
3 Link Quality=35/70 Signal level=-75 dBm
1 Link Quality=36/70 Signal level=-74 dBm
1 Link Quality=37/70 Signal level=-73 dBm
1 Link Quality=38/70 Signal level=-72 dBm
4 Link Quality=39/70 Signal level=-71 dBm
3 Link Quality=40/70 Signal level=-70 dBm
2 Link Quality=42/70 Signal level=-68 dBm
2 Link Quality=43/70 Signal level=-67 dBm
2 Link Quality=44/70 Signal level=-66 dBm
2 Link Quality=45/70 Signal level=-65 dBm
6 Link Quality=46/70 Signal level=-64 dBm
5 Link Quality=47/70 Signal level=-63 dBm
9 Link Quality=48/70 Signal level=-62 dBm
8 Link Quality=49/70 Signal level=-61 dBm
14 Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm
5 Link Quality=51/70 Signal level=-59 dBm
7 Link Quality=52/70 Signal level=-58 dBm
8 Link Quality=53/70 Signal level=-57 dBm
8 Link Quality=54/70 Signal level=-56 dBm
11 Link Quality=55/70 Signal level=-55 dBm
6 Link Quality=56/70 Signal level=-54 dBm
8 Link Quality=57/70 Signal level=-53 dBm
2 Link Quality=58/70 Signal level=-52 dBm
11 Link Quality=59/70 Signal level=-51 dBm
8 Link Quality=60/70 Signal level=-50 dBm
3 Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm
7 Link Quality=62/70 Signal level=-48 dBm
9 Link Quality=63/70 Signal level=-47 dBm
1 Link Quality=64/70 Signal level=-46 dBm
8 Link Quality=65/70 Signal level=-45 dBm
1 Link Quality=66/70 Signal level=-44 dBm
1 Link Quality=68/70 Signal level=-42 dBm