Huge difference between internet speeds throughout household.

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smartiejoe

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Jun 15, 2015
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We recently had a new internet connection installed in our house because BT rolled out infinity to our area. We now have access to ~59mb max, however realistically I've only hit ~56 which is fine.

The problem is that we have 4 devices connected usually. My Desktop, and 3 laptops, all connected via wifi to the same connection point. One of the laptops get ~55mb and the rest only get ~23mb. It is always the same laptop getting the full speed.

I have checked drivers and settings on all devices and everything seems to be in order as far as I can tell (networking isn't my strongpoint). I ran a "netsh wlan show drivers" on all devices and they all support 802.11n as well.

I tested one of the laptops plugged directly into the router via ethernet and reached ~57mb. So it is clearly something to do with the way we are connecting to the wifi.

I have also tried connecting (via wifi) to the main router and to one of the other access points in the house and there is negligible difference so that isn't the problem.

2 of the laptops are running windows 8.1
1 of the laptops is running windows 7
The desktop is running Windows 10 Technical Review

The laptop with access to the full 50+mb is one of the laptops on 8.1

If anybody has any ideas of what might be causing this and a possible solution I'd be very grateful.

If you want anymore info or want me to run a specific test to help diagnosis I'd be more than happy to!
 
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Ethernet cable is always the best option. You could if you need wireless at the location put in a router/AP to create a new wireless signal.

A new wireless adapter would greatly depend on what the old one is. If you have something really old like 802.11g going to 802.11n may help. Going from say a 150m 802.11n to a 300m 802.11n would not be as much (it is mostly a second antenna)
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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There is not much you can do to fix this especially when some devices work correctly. You could check to see if you have the latest driver for your nic card but that seldom is the issue.

More than likely it is simply because 802.11n is not just a single speed. This is why you see the router manufactures saying 150m,300m,450m etc.
The router and the nic card will negotiate the highest speed they can. You will then get some fraction of that speed which is nowhere close to these numbers. Different device will different features will negotiate different speeds.

Now if you mean you get different speeds on the same device in different parts of the house then that is just how wireless works. It is affected by a huge number of things out of your control.
 
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smartiejoe

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Jun 15, 2015
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So if drivers are all up to date then there's nothing I can do for the laptops. Regarding my desktop I could route an ethernet cable into the room, I suppose. A new wireless adapter would probably be the only solution for wireless though, right?
 
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bill001g

Titan
Aug 9, 2012
28,318
2,754
125,640
Ethernet cable is always the best option. You could if you need wireless at the location put in a router/AP to create a new wireless signal.

A new wireless adapter would greatly depend on what the old one is. If you have something really old like 802.11g going to 802.11n may help. Going from say a 150m 802.11n to a 300m 802.11n would not be as much (it is mostly a second antenna)
 
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