How do PC Wireless PCI Cards work in terms of speed? Mine is limiting my internet.

DragonBorn1511 · Jul 26, 2016

My PC has a TP Link PCI 50mbps PCI Card.

My internet speed is ~46mbps. However with the wireless card it limits my internet to 20mbps. Using a wired Ethernet connection it runs at 46mbps no problems.

Am i blindingly missing how the speed rating on these cards is listed? or could it be something else?

rgd1101 · Jul 26, 2016

which exact model of the pci card?

faalin · Jul 26, 2016

The card may be rated at 50mbps but what is the wireless unit putting out.

DeauteratedDog · Jul 26, 2016

Can we get the exact model of the card and your router/access point?

Jester Maroc · Jul 26, 2016

Plus, since it is a desktop and the wireless card is behind a large metal box with your wireless router some distance away?? it can be that the wifi signal struggles to penetrate cleanly to your card.

DragonBorn1511 · Jul 26, 2016

rgd1101 :

Without taking the card out, Speccy tells me it's a Qualcomm Atheros AR5007G. However it's definitively a TP Link.

faalin :

What do you mean by what is the wireless unit putting out? With a wired Ethernet connection i'm at a constant ~46mpbs. With the wireless card, just 20.

DeauteratedDog :

Without taking the card out, Speccy tells me it's a Qualcomm Atheros AR5007G. However it's definitively a TP Link

Jester Maroc :

All my other wireless devices including my laptop in the same room seem to have no problem getting around 40mpbs. That's why this is concerning.

Jester Maroc · Jul 26, 2016

It can be an issue if the AP (your router) is severely blocked by the PC case. Just turn the PC around and see if the problem persists.

DeauteratedDog · Jul 26, 2016

I think that is a 802.11b/g adapter. it is limited to 54 Mbps (modulation rate) or 20-25 Mbps actual throughput.

nukemaster · Jul 26, 2016

DeauteratedDog :

This is true. About half the bandwidth is used for collision avoidance in many of these setups.

PCI and PCI-e should have no issues with 40 megabit/sec since that us only 5 megabytes/sec

faalin · Jul 26, 2016

DeauteratedDog :

so your wireless switch, access point, or router is only putting out 20-25Mbps there is your limit. your card can only go as fast as what your wireless point puts out.

Running a cable will always be faster in speed.

DeauteratedDog · Jul 26, 2016

faalin :

No, he said that he's getting 40ish Mbps on other wireless devices, so his router/access point must be at least 2-stream 802.11n.

He just needs to upgrade the adapter in the desktop to one that supports 2-stream 802.11n (usually marketed as N300)

DragonBorn1511 · Jul 26, 2016

DeauteratedDog :

So you're saying my adapter is just too old? Because I have another PCI adapter (125mbps) and a few PCIEx1 adapters too (all of thme 150mpbs except 1 which is 300) I just got left them all from mates and they all work, so I guess i'll change it out and see how it goes.

I would prefer to use a PCI card, as it's at the bottom of my mobo, and using a PCIEx1 card would block...90% of my ITX GPU's fan. The other PCI one I have are a Buffalo Airstation G54 (125mbps)(http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless/wireless-g-125-high-speed/wireless-g-125-high-speed-pci-adapter)

how can I tell which cards are 2-stream 802.11n? This will save me a lot of trouble of having to change out each card and testing them all...

Thanks everyone for the answers, I usually am able to fix 95% of my hardware problems as I have lots of years experience in gaming PC's however networking is something I've never really learnt. Maybe now is the time xD

UPDATE: So I decided to just bite the bullet and test out the another PCI Card. The Buffalo G54 Airstation 125mbps one I mentioned earlier. This time it's limited to 14-18mbps but typically stays around 15mpbs....very odd indeed.

nukemaster · Jul 26, 2016

What kind of access point or router are you using?

G cards are rated at 54 megabits.
N is generally faster, but some use 2.4 ghz only while others can use 2.4 and 5ghz.
Newer standards like AC that are even faster and even older standards like B(11 megabits) that are slower.

Some that are faster use custom setups running multiple channels at the same time, but many times they only work on the same companies parts.

DragonBorn1511 · Jul 26, 2016

nukemaster :

I'm using just a standard UK Sky Black box router (the fibre optic one) as for the G cards, it should be able to go up to ~40mbps like my other wireless devices, and it's not, which is why I'm so confused.

nukemaster · Jul 26, 2016

Are you 100% sure the other devices are in fact 802.11g and not another version or one of those custom mimo/multi channel units?

I have never seem regular G rate cards get that close to 54 megabit due to overhead/collision avoidance.

DragonBorn1511 · Jul 26, 2016

nukemaster :

yes both the TP Link and Buffalo one I linked you guys to, are both G rated. What's weird is the buffalo one performs worse. :S

nukemaster · Jul 27, 2016

I would guess signal issues or something on the slower one. I have seen quite a wide variation with different notebooks over the years.

I was talking about the other devices getting higher speeds. Are they on the same cards or different ones. Maybe you are in a bad location(farther or more interference).

How do PC Wireless PCI Cards work in terms of speed? Mine is limiting my internet.

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