Router and WiFi tune up?
 

You know I've complained about my slow connection for years. At this point, I have the fastest FIOS Verizon offers, yet it took 50 seconds to open OT just now.

Yesterday was interminable. It 's so slow I can't even log onto B of A to pay bills. It just times out. I'm so sick and tired that I'm about to give up something. Either this new $1600 computer, Verizon (I have a contract with TV, phone, fiber optic, etc.) or what, I don't know.

But, before I throw the baby out with the bath water, I'll ask ONE MORE TIME.

thx.

Does your computer work OK on other connections?

My office is detached.The router is 30 feet away in the house. The path for the signal goes pretty much straight thru 2 single pane glass doors. I can see the router from where I sit. The only thing I can think of that would disturb the signal is that the main electrical panel and service entrance is next to, but not directly in the path of the line of sight to the router.

My wife is on WiFi and her laptop (which is less than this desktop; 540 K RAM and a 2 YO chip vs. 1G RAM and a 3.00 GHz Pentium) downloads much faster. She is 2 plaster walls away and about 20 feet.

Have your restarted the router? Sometimes it helps. Also check that you have the latest firmware for the router.

The router is a proprietary Verizon model. Talking to them is like trying to talk to your Senator.

28 seconds to post that.

Do other machines on this network run well?

1) Pelican is really slow so your times don't surprise me.

2) While glass does not affect WIFI much if the panes are coated they can cause problems.

I'd reboot the router, leave it unplugged for 10 seconds.

Do you have a way to measure the signal strength to your PC?

Try changing channels on the router, may be some interference.

Have you tried your wife's laptop in your office? If it crawls, the problem is some kind of interference. What is the signal strength? You can also bypass the router and connect directly and check. "Slow" connections are typically caused by drop packets by something failing (outside your house). You can check that by using the ping command (e.g. ping -n 10 some-website.com). If you get request timed out - packets are getting dropped. BTW - you can have strong signal strength and still have dropped packets.

Good luck

Milt is it that black router with the silver strip?

I have a small problem. I get a message that Windows cannot configure this connection. It is between mid range and 4 bars, never all the way. So the connection is not so good. The glass doors are not coated. I'll try moving the router closer. I'll have to buy some cables.

yes, M1424WR

Does it get better if you open the glass doors?

change channel
disable upnp on the router
set router and all wifi cards to long pramble instead of auto
don't use usb dongle wifi crap
buy better antenna's (stock usually is 4 DB, 15 bucks get's you 6-8 DB omnidirectional ones)
maybe consider getting an antenna extension cable so you can position it better on both pc and router
make sure you don't sit inbetween 2 antenna's, human=water, water is bad for wifi signal

last but not least, make sure no neighbour is downloading kiddy pr0n via your wireless... lock. it. down.

I'm familiar with the need for security. However, this slow speed is all the time. Unless the pedophile is 24/7.

One other thing, the FIOS installer told me that this type of system is very secure as it is. Must be somewhat true, I can't get into the thing to change any settings and if I could, I wouldn't know what "upnp" is. I do have a 3 ft extension on the USB and I move is around to see if i can catch a better signal. No difference.

I understand that fiber optic is just like DSL, lots of users makes it slow. Must be all of Long Beach on my system.

oh, loose the 3ft extension right now, those things are terrible

try hooking up an external harddrive that's powered via usb, on one of those extensions... you'll be lucky if it spins up at all


"Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) helps devices, such as Internet appliances and computers, access the network and connect to other devices as needed. UPnP devices can automatically discover the services from other registered UPnP devices on the network."

all nice , but hardly anybody needs it, and it uses cpu time and internal memory on the router, slowing things down...
folks who need it, are better off with a manual port forward...


if you can't get in the router, then you should look up the reset button and factory password.. and take control back..

secure as it is... how can you tell if you can't get in
that admin console is just the frontend to configure it... the router might be open for everybody... you can't get in>it could very well be unsecure...

milt are you on wireless 30ft away? if so, do you know if the card you're using is 802.11b or 802.11g?

G has a shorter range than B but B is slower, G downgrades to B speeds at distances.

My suggestion would be to run a wire if you can. Do you have the ability to adjust the settings on the wireless router? If so I would suggest you download something called netstumbler and run it on your computer - it will help you see what channels are in use around you for other wireless networks.

More often than not people leave their wireless routers configured with the default settings; almost all of them come configured on channel 6 or 11. So a lot of times folks are competing all around them for the same channels (there are 11 in the US for 802.11b/g). So, if you run netstumbler - if need be I can provide screen shots - you will see what channels are in use in your immediate area. Then you can choose a channel that is NOT in use which will improve your performance. 30ft isn't very far but in a poorly configured environment it can make a difference.

Failing that - run a wire. Wireless is great but for reliable connectivity if you can run a wire - do so.

ditto!

seriously, long preamble setting does miracles

it's like the old autonegotiation half duplex/full duplex 7 years ago, it would cause all sorts of crap if left enabled in some combinations of hardware....

I'll tell you what is frustrating to me. Windows XP assumes I'm an adminstrator and always wants me to configure settings for users. There are no users, only me. No network and never will be. I'd sure like to bypass all that mess and get down to business.

Is my 1394 connection my Ethernet connection? Should it be enabled if I don't have a cable?

Run this test with a server close to your home and post the result here:

http://www.speedtest.net/

Aurel

1394 is firewire.
I agree with mikester. I'm not sure how you narrowed it down to the wifi. Could you run a network cable and see if that works better?

I'll get a 30 ft cable and see.

Firewire? I don't have that hooked up do I? The antenna is in a USB port.

I've done the speed test many times. Today it's 3600/1800, I'm paying for 15 mps.

just found an interesting site: http://www.newnetworks.com/TeletruthresponseVerizon.htm

Milt,

You mention the antenna is in the USB port. Does this antenna have line of sight to the router or is the computer in the way?

The Wifi signal operates at 2.4GHz. This signal is attenuated by metal and water very easily. If there is a tree in the way, that will cause issue. If the computer case is in the way, same thing.

One more thing, microwave ovens operate at 2.4 GHz, the resonate frequency of water. If you have a microwave oven operating near by, this would really screw things up.

Your connection should be very solid at 30 feet. Assuming that the radios are putting out 100mW and that you have a 2dBi gain antenne at both ends, you should be able to connect at 100 yards with no obstacles.

If you are opperating a G radio instead of a B radio, if the signal weakens, the signal will drop back to B speeds.

My first step would be the following:
1. turn off the computer
2. turn off your wife's computer
3. Unplug the router
4. wait 30 seconds
5. turn on the router
6. Let the router boot up (can be a couple minutes)
7. turn on wife's computer
8. turn on your computer

The order of these steps is important. The router needs to access an address from the host. Then the router will build an address table for your home computers. This takes place when the router is powered on.

thanks to all. I don't have any kitchen stuff nearby. That's in the opposite direction. The USB antenna is mounted on top of my flat screen. Should I move it?

On top of your flat screen should not be a problem. Is there an arc welder near by? Those throw off all kinds of spurious emissions.

For a reliable benchmark of "getting what you pay for" you need to be plugged into the router with ethernet. Short cable, not a 30 footer.

The speed you are paying for is to the router, not your computer.

For instance if you are paying for 15 mbs but your computer is old and only has a 10 mb network card....

A 30ft Fast Ethernet cable will work light years faster than 30ft of wireless (802.11a/b/g). Fast Ethernet of reasonable quality should easily be able to go to 100ft and the standard allows for 328 (100 meters).

Also, note that the radios in home wireless routers are LIMITED to output no greater than 100mW. That does not even come close to implying that that it what they are set to transmit out of the box. Before I hacked my linksys WAP54G it was putting out a max of ~80mW.

Milt - stop by Fry's in Fountain Valley and pick up a really long ethernet cable. Don't get more than Cat 5 (they have cat 5e and cat 6) unless they don't have it. Cat 5 will be good for 328ft as I mentioned earlier - you only need 30.

I have wireless at my house (and I do this for a living for a large multinational corporation that makes toys but will remain nameless) but due to the construction of my house (lots of wire mesh layered over the gypsum button board) wireless works like crap through some of my house. So I just ran the wires and now I no longer have to troubleshoot the wireless. I do use it but far less than I used to.

I smoked a computer once when I welded in the same building (same circuit). I don't have a computer on anymore when I weld in spite of my surge protector. :D

Milt,

Have things gotten better? I have Fios at home, and it rocks.

If you want, I can bring my laptop over and see what we can work out?

Michael

Milt, are you sure your computer hooked up to your own wireless router, and didn't latch onto a neighbor's instead? I had that happen to a friend of mine. He complained about the speed, and when I went over to take a look his computer was using the unsecured wifi of his neighbor. My friend had been paying Verizon for DSL for 1.5 years, and he had probably never actually used it! Once we configured his computer to always use his own wifi the speed was much better.

Wifi
 

Milt,
Have you tried taking your wife's laptop out to your office to see if you get a fast connection between the router and her laptop while in your office? Maybe this will narrow the issue down to the wifi connection to the router or settings within your PC. I too have FIOS and have the same package you've got. 2 PC hardwired to my router and the wife's laptop upstairs and all are quick.

Kevin

Milt, here's a real stupid question,, have you run any Adware software lately ?? You could have a few trojens running in the background slowing things down significantly as well.

Not stupid at all to me. Lavasoft has gone to a fee based version only, so I have no upgraded database. I try to run Spybot once a month. I'll run it right now.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware is still free, they just have a newer version.
Click the download button on the left of this page.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/single/trialpay.php

Hehe, Spybot logged me off.

Downloading Adware now, but I'm already faster. I didn't think of the tracking cookies, I just did this about 3 weeks ago (I think:))

FYI Milt I got Spybot works great..and is still free.....

Yeah, i hope because Adware failed to install. They've gotten funky; they want you to sign up for a credit card or FTD flowers to get their premium package. I opted for the standard and got nothing.

I'm on my wife's laptop and it's much faster in my office. She doesn't have half the computer I have in terns of performance. I haven't even reset the router to make sure I'm comparing apples with apples.

I guess I'll hire a tech.