Wireless broadband speed ???

[j4mes_bond25]

I'm using Virgin's cable broadband.

I've a question about the speed of my broadband, in particular the one that I receive on my laptop and wondered if anyone around may be able to point me in right direction.

I've a PC upstairs connected to Virgin's modem & wired connected to PC. After upgrading my broadband speed to 10MB (from 2MB).

When running online speed check on 3 different website, the PC upstairs shows around 10MB of speed, however, on laptop it only shows around 2MB.

Laptop shows signal strength of wireless router as "very good" (understandably, upstairs it show "excellent" due to its close proximity to router). However, when I'm next to router i.e. when signal strength shows "excellent" and when I run a search, the test shows the speed of around 5-6MB.

I've disabled ZoneAlarm firewall, Spybot anti-spyware and AVG's anti-virus software, when running this speed test, but it's made no difference whatsoever & remains just under 1MB.

I've also ensured that the channels set on router and my wireless chip on laptop is same. Router's default setting's channel 6 and I've ensured the same set for my wireless chip on on laptop as well.

I've had new modem & router sent out by the Virgin people due to this, but the problem continuous, I'm afraid. Can anyone tell why I fail to get around or just under 10MB of broadband speed on my laptop?

Can investing in new & better router i.e. "N" router make any difference in broadband speed though? (bearing in mind it shows better speed at close proximity to router than running test result downstairs). Though, why would distance from router affect "broadband" speed (shouldn't it just affect the connectivity "strength" alone)?

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

What wireless network speed are you getting on your laptop (that is, how many Megabits per second between the wireless router and your laptop, not the Internet and your laptop)?

 

[j4mes_bond25]

Hello,

What wireless network speed are you getting on your laptop (that is, how many Megabits per second between the wireless router and your laptop, not the Internet and your laptop)?

It's 54Mbps. In the past, it used to drop down but after syncronising the channel settings on both wireless chip on laptop and router to "Channel 11", it remains steady at 54Mbps.

 

[Alvin.C]

It's 54Mbps. In the past, it used to drop down but after syncronising the channel settings on both wireless chip on laptop and router to "Channel 11", it remains steady at 54Mbps.

Have you tried doing a speed test with your laptop connected directly to the router via ethernet?

 

[j4mes_bond25]

Have you tried doing a speed test with your laptop connected directly to the router via ethernet?

I was hoping to do that but don't think I'd be able to since I've an exclaimation mark next to Ethernet controller in Device manager, so it appears that wired ethernet adapter's controller driver's missing from my system.

 

[KSoD]

Yes that is a clear sign that the ethernet drivers are missing. Install them and you should be good to go and test.