Wifi laptop issues

[GwaiLong]

Hey,

I got a new laptop, running Vista basic. My router is a D-link DI-714P+.
Basically what's going on is with the WEP settings off I am able to connect however it gives me such slow speeds I can't really do anything with it. I tried downloading msn messenger for instance and it was downloading at 140bytes/sec. Any ideas what is going on? I can't connect if my network is secured. But for now just to connect and have reasonable speeds would be nice for me. I have plugged it in and it works just fine when I do that. Any ideas?

 

[QuaziBee]

How far away from your router are you? Are you using the software that came with your wireless adapter on your notebook or windows to configure your connection? One thing off the top of my head, I see this all the time, When you configure security on your router your wifi card connects to the next nonsecure network it sees. If this network belongs to a neighbor your signal will be very weak, hence the slow speeds. My first recomendation would be to plug your laptop into the router with a Cat5 cable and configure your security options there, be sure to assign a unique SSID name. I would suggest using WPA2 security with AES. Set a password you can remember but would be hard to guess, and configure a new wireless connection on your laptop with all that information. Check the signal strength of your router where you want to work and if its too low you will either have to move the router, your work space, or but a dedicated WAP or wireless access point. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense because I know I went kinda fast when typing. =)

 

[Jorsoft]

When I used to use wireless I could never connect properly with WEP enabled so I just switched it off. Whenever I have any issues with my router (speed, frequent disconnects, etc.) I just do perform a reset and reconfigure it. Works every time for me.
If you haven't tried a reset I'd suggest it be the first thing you do. There should be a very small button on the back of the router than you hold in with a pen or a paper clip for 30 seconds, release, and wait 5 minutes while your router reboots.
Also, I'd connect directly to your router and then high speed modem via networking cable and see if you have the same issues there. If you're connected with a cable right to your model and it's still slow then it's obviously not your router you've got to worry about.

 

[GwaiLong]

Thx guys, sorry forgot to mention that stuff. It is my router (the name is coming up when I search for wireless networks). It's at about 90%+ range, physically about 15ft away. I'm using the notebooks software to configure it. I'll try plugging it into the router and setting it up from there and seeing what happens. I notice if I restart the laptop and try to connect I can right away, it disconnects after about a min or so. And won't let me reconnect from there. I've tried connecting to the wall (which from there goes to my router) and the speed is fine, I know I've had buddies over with laptops and they had no problem connecting even with the WEP settings. So I'm assuming it's something with the wireless settings on my laptop. Any other suggestions? Oh ya just incase it's a shitty program ThinkVantage Access is the one I'm using to connect wirelessly. Thx guys, I'm really lost when it comes to wireless as this is the first laptop I've ever bought.

 

[GwaiLong]

So using windows instead of ThinkVantage seemed to work as for staying connected for lengthy periods of time. But I think my speeds are still slower than dial up (I'm having trouble even remembering back to those days) I'm gonna try the WEP settings... just to see if they work. But ya if anyone could figure out why it's going so slow that would be good enough. Like I said I'll worry about security later... right now just to be connected is good enough.

 

[GwaiLong]

I don't think it should make a difference but just incase, here is my network and how it is setup. There's 2 switches, a modem and the router. The switch off to the left there goes to all the cat 5 jacks in my house.
The modem goes to the switch above it and 3 lines go to the switch to the left and get distributed around the house. The router goes to the switch to the left and to the other switch. It only has one cat 5 connected to it right now and thats the computer in my room, everything operates fine. Cept for my laptop. Is there anything about this setup that would slow my notebook down so much?