Slow vista wireless speeds

[djwazzup06]

I have the following configuration running on Vista Ultimate 64bit:

GIGABYTE GN-WP01GS IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Wireless Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839121008

LINKSYS WRT54G rev8 IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124010

I'm sure everybody knows about Vista's problems and transfer speeds through a network. SP1 was supposed to fix it, but in my experience it has not. I've done alot of tweaking already in order to get Vista to stop pinging for more wireless access points. In XP it was called Zero Config or whatever. I noticed this "lag" in online gaming and also while pinging my router with -t command so it doesn't stop pinging. So i've been running the command netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="wireless network connection" to stop that, along with WLAN optimizer and Ralink XP drivers. I basically followed this http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/835328.html and another guide that told me to use XP drivers from Ralink and finally got it to work fine without the lag or high ping latency in command prompt. May I also add that I have installed the latest firmware from Linksys site for the router.

I come here to ask how to fix network file transfer speeds. I barely get 1mbps usually 700-900kbps and while transfering, my signal strength fluctuates along with the link speed (18-54mbps). I've been up and down most forums and alot are outdated, or include alot of things i've already tried like disabling all firewall settings, turning off Remote Differential Compression and TCP autotuning, changing the duplex settings on my NIC (even though I cannot find duplex settings in my NIC advanced properties), etc.

I'm burnt out and out of ideas. Maybe some of you know something I haven't tried? Or any suggestions at all that I haven't tried may give me light. Thanks for the help

 

[Guest]

I would not use wireless for gaming -- if ethernet is impractical consider homeplugs (mains borne networking adapters).


Meanwhile, it would be worth trying with an ethernet link just to confirm that it is a wireless problem.

My guess is you simply have poor reception. Change channels, especially if you can detect strong neighbouring wifi. Raise router above furniture level, mess with antenna angles. Relocate cordless phone base or video sender away from computer or router.

 

[djwazzup06]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ethernet is impractical. I would need a 50ft cable to fun from my living room to my desktop. Wireless is causing the lag, i know of that because i brought the router in here to cable it to my desktop for testing and it didnt cause the lag. As for the slow transfer speeds, i'm not sure. I do get very strong signal strengths from neighboring wifi connections. I may try changing the channel, but that wouldn't cause slow transfer speeds, would it?

 

[Guest]

That you can detect neighbouring wifi suggests that a channel change might help -- try to choose one three channels away from strongest neighbour.

Arguably, Channel could affect performance even without interference. Channels represents slightly different frequencies -- that may carry better or worse in different environments.

Don't overlook the homeplug option, though not cheap.

 

[djwazzup06]

Changing the channel helped a little bit with the signal strength, but not the transfer speeds. I barely get to 1MBps and took about 7 minutes to get to that speed. In the networking tab of task manager, the network utilization is between 44% and 55% and my link speed still drops to 18Mbps to 54Mbps. All of this is happening while i'm trying to copy a file from another computer on the network.

I've reinstalled drivers. Vista, XP, Gigabyte, Ralink, let Windows Update do it, everything. I currently have TCP autoconfig and autotuning both off. Also Windows Firewall is off just to test this.

I don't think it's a channel/signal problem. Perhaps Vista and Driver issue?

 

[hawkinsa21]

I also get this problem with wireless. My network tab in task manager shows a shocking 2 - 11% utilization on a 54Mbps card!!!

I have also done everything that you have, i.e. the tweaks, firewall, disabling certain features... the lot. No difference. SP1 did not address this either.

I am using a netgear wg311v3 wireless card, and have also tested many different wireless channels.

- I am copying from my vista machine to my xp laptop, directly from a main hard disk (I also have an external USB disk which also suffers the same problem).
- I am using UNC paths to get the files, i.e. \\pc\e$\<file>
- I am trying to transfer video and music data, although any file type is affected


I will hook up via Cat5 and see if this makes any difference. A lot of posts online state that the problem occured for wired connections and that changing the duplex settings fixed the issue, but obviously there are no duplex settings on a wireless card (that I am aware of!)

I will also try to push the files from Vista to XP rather than pull them, and see if that makes any difference.


I will let you know if wiring up the computers fixes the issue. Network utilization of 2% is downright unacceptable, and the fact that in this day and age it is quicker for my to litterally transfer data using a USB 1.1 port to a portable memory stick is rediculous (I have USB 2.0 but tested 1.1 and yes it was faster than my network transfer)

 

[hawkinsa21]

I can confirm that hooking my XP laptop up directly to my Vista PC has very fast file transfer speeds, as expected.

I will have to try and hook up both the PC and the laptop to the router and see if I can still get fast speeds through the router.

If the transfer is slow between the computers once they are both wired into the router then the router is at fault, otherwise the wireless is the one that is affected.

 

[djwazzup06]

Thanks for your input hawkinsa21.

I'm fairly positive it is a Vista Wireless issue. I connected my XP laptop to my Vista desktop with a crossover cable and transfer speeds were normal, meaning as fast as they should be. I may have to retry having my Vista desktop wired to the router and try to transfer to the wireless XP and vice versa. I am also going to try to boot into XP on my desktop and see if it still happens.

In addition, I have tried to push files to my Vista desktop from XP laptop all through wireless and the speeds are the same no matter which way you transfer. I also have not found any duplex settings on any wireless card that i've tested this on.

I'll get back to you about my testing.

 

[juventus]

I resolved my S L O W W W W wireless download speed issue (cut in half by going wireless with Vista) by setting wireless adapter power settings to "max. performance" as described here:


http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/12/04/how-windows-vista-rtm-build-addresses-wireless-connectivity-issues.aspx


After countless hours troubleshooting I stumbled on the above link, did the change and VOILA - wirelessly achieving max. download speed as per ISP specs!


Thouhgt this might help someone....