X201 and wireless N

[aviography]

Received my X201 a couple of weeks ago, quite happy with it.

However I just noticed this morning that the wirelss connection to my D-link Extreme-N DIR-655 router was only at 52 Mbps upstairs, and changed to 104 Mbps when I brought the X201 downstairs to within 8 feet of the D-link N router.

In comparison my T-60 sitting at the same 8 feet distance from the router happily reports 300 Mbps connection, my work Toshiba reports the same 300 Mbps connection

The X201 has the standard Intel Advanced-N 6200 AGN, shouldn't it connect to the router at 300 Mbps just like the T60 does automatically as I would expected it to? Are there any settings that I need to change?

BTW, I went into the Intel ProSet/Wirelss Tools tab and ran the diagnostic tests, they passed just fine.

Edit: Rebooted the X201, it now connects as 52 Mbps even sitting only 8 feet away from the router......

Thanks in advance.

[Comenius]

Make sure the encryption on your router is set to WPA2/AES. That's required for the faster N speeds.

[aviography]

I'm pretty certain the router had already been set up properly as both my T60 and the work Toshiba Tecra report 300 Mbps connection speed, it's only this X201 that isn't.

I've also noticed other oddball connection speeds too from the X201, 70 something Mbps was one of them..............

[killer]

@comenius: Welcome to the forums!

You make a good point about wireless N. I'll check it out on my wife's new X201 which seems to get lower than 56Mbs when N is available from our router.

[marlinspike]

If there's interference you'll get slower speeds too. Try moving your router to 5ghz if it's on 2.4ghz.

[aviography]

I can't tell if there are interference......, but both my personal T60 and work Toshiba Tecra connect at 300 Mbps just fine, so in theory I would expect the X201 to have no issues when there are no other computers near by that's turned on.

As for the 5Ghz, not even sure if the router or the wirelss card are capable of that?

[Harryc]

As for the 5Ghz, not even sure if the router or the wireless card are capable of that?

The card is for sure... the D-link Extreme-N DIR-655 is a dual band router, so it does as well.

[marlinspike]

I can't tell if there are interference......, but both my personal T60 and work Toshiba Tecra connect at 300 Mbps just fine, so in theory I would expect the X201 to have no issues when there are no other computers near by that's turned on.

As for the 5Ghz, not even sure if the router or the wirelss card are capable of that?

There are things other than computers that cause interference.

[aviography]

There are things other than computers that cause interference.

Certainly, I am just not understanding why the X201 would be affected by potential interference when the T60 and Tecra are not.

[marlinspike]

Could be different timing. It'd be worth trying the 5ghz anyways since it costs nothing other than a couple minutes of your time.

[aviography]

If there's interference you'll get slower speeds too. Try moving your router to 5ghz if it's on 2.4ghz.

As for the 5Ghz, not even sure if the router or the wirelss card are capable of that?

The card is for sure... the D-link Extreme-N DIR-655 is a dual band router, so it does as well.

As it turns out D-Link DIR-655 is NOT a dual band router, see http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link- ... g=lwrspecs

My X-201 has still not reported any connection speed faster than around 100 Mbps, while my T-60 always connect at 300 Mbps to the very same physical DIR-655.

Any thoughts please?

[Harryc]

Do you have an acquaintance or know of a business or hotspot with wireless 'N' capabilities on prem? You may want to test the X201 elsewhere just to eliminate your equipment or some kind of strange compatibility. Yes the other laptops work but they do not have the same hardware.

[aviography]

Thanks for this idea.

I'm not aware of any Hotspots with known "N" capabilit, have to ask around to see if folks I know have N routers that they would agree for me to connect to, ironically most neighbours around me do seem to have N routers based on what X201 is reporting, but I doubt anyone would give me the password to connect to their network!

[Harryc]

You never know...it is very easy to change a password in the router config.

[killer]

My ADSL provider's router has wireless N activated. I have checked the router configuration and N is set to work.

My wife's X201 has Access Connections and I checked that it is set up for a/b/g/n. So it should pick up wireless N.

In fact it is no faster than it was with her T43p with a/b/g. So there is something that appears to be missing in the set-up but I'll be b*ggered if I can see what is missing.

Maybe it is a Windows 7 setting? As the old girl is away for a couple of days and has taken the X201 with her then I can't investigate. When she gets back I'll try to find out if there is some administrative limitation set at present.

[LegendaryKA8]

Hmm... this is pretty interesting. I've got the same D-link DIR-655 router the OP has, and where I sit(maybe around five feet from the router) my X200's getting 65Mbps... I think I've seen it go all the way up to 104Mbps once, but that's about it. I'll try playing around with the settings and see what I can get.

Edit: I tried some of the suggestions in this thread and am now getting 130Mbps out of the X200... went with WPA2/AES, and switched from my mixed 802.11b/g/n mode to 802.11g/n(I have one remaining g device, and am unsure whether or not my iTouch is an n device or not). Decent speed boost for just five minutes of messing with settings.

[bill bolton]

D-link Extreme-N DIR-655 router was only at 52 Mbps upstairs, and changed to 104 Mbps when I brought the X201 downstairs to within 8 feet of the D-link N router.

The DIR-655 is 2.4GHz band only router.

You need an 802.11n capable router that supports 5GHz band operation to get straightforward full speed 802.11n operation with the Intel Wi-Fi cards typically fitted to recent ThinkPad models.

There are numerous messages on ThinkPads.com about this, going back over several years.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[marlinspike]

Out of curiosity, given that my internet itself is significantly slower than 54mbps, do I stand to gain anything by updating my routher to an n-router?

[Harryc]

No, not unless you frequently transfer huge files over your home LAN via wireless.

[bill bolton]

My X-201 has still not reported any connection speed faster than around 100 Mbps, while my T-60 always connect at 300 Mbps to the very same physical DIR-655.

Any thoughts please?

Unless you have explicitly modified the BIOS in your T60, the only 802.11n card that will work in it is a (quirky) Atheros based card that IS NOT fully 802.11n draft 2 (and later) compliant. That card will connect at 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band, even though that came to be recognised as an anti-social thing to do as development of the 802.11n specification progressed.

Your X201 has an Intel card which IS fully 802.11n compliant and basically will only connect at ~270 Mbps in the 5GHz band.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[aviography]

Unless you have explicitly modified the BIOS in your T60, the only 802.11n card that will work in it is a (quirky) Atheros based card that IS NOT fully 802.11n draft 2 (and later) compliant. That card will connect at 300Mbps in the 2.4GHz band, even though that came to be recognised as an anti-social thing to do as development of the 802.11n specification progressed.

Your X201 has an Intel card which IS fully 802.11n compliant and basically will only connect at ~270 Mbps in the 5GHz band.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Thank you, Bill. My T-60 is a 8744-5BU and the BIOS is unmodified, the spec I found http://www.superwarehouse.com/Lenovo_Th ... ps/1494381 does not list if it is the Atheros card or not, I'll do some more digging to see if I can find some reference to the brand of the wi-fi card.

Your last statement though is quite clear that 5GHz band is required for the higher connect speed, while I can get a DIR 855 dual-band router now, I just can't justify retiring a perfectly good DIR-655......

Although this brings up yet another mystry, since my 3-month new work-issued high-end Toshiba Tecra also shows connection at 300 Mbps with my single band DIR-655, maybe Toshiba is also not fully compliant?

[aviography]

Local Best Buy had the DIR-825 dual band router on sale for Boxing Day, I got one yesterday to try out.

The X201 now will connect at up to 240 Mbps if I chose the "Media" connection for 5 GHz vs. the regular connection at 2.4 GHz, the 2.4 GHz connection will not go faster than 170 Mbps, my old T60 says it connects at 300 Mbps, both laptops are within 6 feet of DIR-825.

However, I find a comparison of the DIR-825 performance with my existing DIR-655 shows the DIR-825 to be slower, I tested a few streaming video clips, where the DIR-655 allows me to click ahead and start playing from the new point almost immediately, the DIR-825 will sit there showing the % loading for a couple of seconds before it will start, the same thing is observed with the T-60, again the observations are made with both laptops within 6 feet clear space to the DIR-825.

I checked the firmware of the DIR-825 at 2.02NA dated June 4th, 2009, query using the "Check Now" buttonn in the D-Link utility returns the "this firmware is the latest version" message.

So, while the DIR-825 reports the X201 is connected at a higher Mbps, its real life performance is actually worse than the DIR-625.

My plan had been to keep the DIR-825 and set up the DIR-655 at my parent's house, looks like I might be better off just returning the DIR-825 and getting another DIR-655 for them!

Any thoughts?

Thanks