Intel 2915a/b/g + DI-624 + wireless

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milkster · #1 Post by **milkster** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:56 pm

So i have a T43 with the Intel Pro 2915a/b/g wireless card and a DI-624. I have noticed a BIG speed difference when using Wireless with WEP-128bits compared to using the onboard ethernet port. When i run a speed test on dslreports.com over wireless my speed jumps from around 2meg down to 4meg when i do back to back tests but when i do the same test over ethernet cable connected to the same router my speedtests stay in the 4meg range. I notice the same thing when downloading files over http and p2p. This leads me to believe that its something to do with compatibility between the two.

Is there any known compatibility issues with this setup? Any idea why the performace sucks over wireless? I'm using Access Connections 4.23 to manage the connections and wireless driver ver. 9.0.1.21. Also when running ThinkVantage System Update 3 i do not get any updates related to the intel card. Is there anything I can do????

#2 Post by **bill bolton** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:59 pm

milkster wrote:I have noticed a BIG speed difference when using Wireless with WEP-128bits compared to using the onboard ethernet port.

This is normal. The real throughput on a 802.11g WiFi link is substantially lower than the real throughput on a 100Mbps wired Ethernet link for a variety of reasons..... some of which may sometimes be tweakable (and sometimes not), and some of which are just systemic to WiFi technology.

Cheers,

Bill

milkster · #3 Post by **milkster** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:13 am

Bill bolton:

Are you saying that its normall for me to not be able to get 4Meg down constant throughput over wireless???? That sounds really strange since i have 54Mbps to work with.... But then again, i don't know very much about wireless stuff. Would buying a better router help my situation?

#4 Post by **bill bolton** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:10 am

milkster wrote:But then again, i don't know very much about wireless stuff.

I strongly suggest that you do some research using Goggle. Just like radio reception, wireless data 802.11 technologies are subject to a wide variety of interference and signal attenuation factors..... which vary from location to location.

Cheers,

Bill

Hotbrick · #5 Post by **Hotbrick** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:22 am

Since the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used by all kinds of wireless equipment, using the 5 GHz band gives 802.11a the advantage of less interference and same speed (54 Mbit/s).

Maybe a 802.11a router would help you?

milkster · #6 Post by **milkster** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:45 am

Hotbrick wrote:Since the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used by all kinds of wireless equipment, using the 5 GHz band gives 802.11a the advantage of less interference and same speed (54 Mbit/s).

Maybe a 802.11a router would help you?

It looks like i'll have to go that way. So can you recommend any 802.11a routers? All the major stores carry 802.11b/g and now 802.11n is poping up all over the place...

Hotbrick · #7 Post by **Hotbrick** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:40 am

HHmm, it's indeed hard to google a 802.11a router!

I have no experience with the a-band myself, I bought a Linksys WRT54GL (only b/g) a few months ago. But I regret not looking for one that also supports the a-band; just to experiment with it....

But...I am satisfied with the combination WRT54GL and Intel 2915abg. Good range, speed OK.

danage · #8 Post by **danage** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:17 pm

@hotbrick: the a-band falls under the regulation of some eu-agency and is not being used in the union due to some kind of interference with some other, pre-existing standard

#9 Post by **bill bolton** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:10 pm

Hotbrick wrote:Maybe a 802.11a router would help you?

milkster needs to do some reading, and then apply the knowledge gained to analysing milkster's particular wireless situation. There is nothing at all in mikster's posts so far to suggest that 802.11a would relieve any of the issues raised to date.

Cheers,

Bill

danage · #10 Post by **danage** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:40 am

actually, i do not believe there is anything you could do besides trying different hardware.

1. WLAN is, by definition, much slower than ethernet. Suggested reading are the respective articles in the Wikipedia. Especially when it comes to more than one device using the WLAN, performance is split between those. That happens even with devices in different networks, as long as they communicate on the same channel, or channels close to each other. So switching to the a-band is not totally off-hand, but not necessarily necessesary. :)

2. I have personal experience in which combination of different WLAN chipsets showed significantly different performance. Besides my personal opinion that intel WLAN generally sucks, you might want to try the throughput on a friend's router to check whether switching routers might help. As far as routers go, I have heard Linksys is a very good brand.

Hope this helps.

#11 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:01 pm

danage wrote:i do not believe there is anything you could do besides trying different hardware.

There are several things that might be done which do not inolve "different hardware", especially since milkster is using a very reliable and effective Intel WiFi card.

milkster needs to analyse the particular situation at hand (which has not been described) to see which might be applicable.

#12 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:11 pm

One thing to test would be to try copying a large file to another computer inside the router (preferably also on wireless) as this will eliminate the possibility of the wireless interacting with the Internet connection.

Milkster, are you using Rogers or Bell for your Internet connection?

Intel 2915a/b/g + DI-624 + wireless

Intel 2915a/b/g + DI-624 + wireless

Re: Intel 2915a/b/g + DI-624 + wireless

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