New wireless adapter not playing ball!

[AledJ]

Sent my old belkin wireless adapter back to belkin as I believed it was faulty, and they have now sent me out a new one. I added the new mac address to my router entering the network key on the pc upstairs too. Now for some reason at first it would only give me limited connection (no idea why). Then finally it gave me a full connection, but............................another problem popped up. Before when i used to hover the cusor mouse over the little wireless icon I would get the normal stuff with speed in 72 mbps for example. Now it shows 1.0 mbps I have no idea why!!! Speed test is showing 5.1 mb at the moment.

The reason I sent the other adapter back was because I was getting these low speeds. So for the last week I have been on my laptop and for a few days the speed would show 5.9mb going down to 1.3mb. Then the last two days only speeds of 9mb on my laptop.

So that kind of dispelled the thought that its an adapter problem!! Can't see its being my pc as the laptop had a funny turn with the speeds whcih then went back to normal. I did think it was the new wardrobe as that's when the speeds went iffy on the laptop, but that turned out not to be the case.

Some i'm lost!!!! Need some help on this please!!


Oh I should add the net is not slow at all!! Can go on to ign at not have to wait for a video to buffer. And i'm also using windows for the connection not the belkin software program.

[AledJ]

Ok now the speed is going from 1.0mbps to 7.0mbps and back down again very odd

[abaxas]

If you are talking about the 'speed' in windows. That number is just made up on the spot and bares no relation to actual throughput.

Also it could be 100's of other factors. Including your router.

Start playing about with your laptop and different cards. See what you get.

[AledJ]

If you are talking about the 'speed' in windows. That number is just made up on the spot and bares no relation to actual throughput.

Also it could be 100's of other factors. Including your router.

Start playing about with your laptop and different cards. See what you get.

If it was my router then why is the speed ok on my laptop and my sister laptop???

[mrt9888]

Check the version of the adaptor and see if it needs a different driver (version no should be on the sticker), I have a USB Belkin adaptor and they made different versions of the same adaptor with different chips so they need different drivers.

[abaxas]

Remember that not all networking equipment is interoperable, dispite the specs saying it is.

This is especially true for wireless, you may think it 'should' all work together, when in real life it doesnt.

Think back to the old cisco/intel pro 100 problems of the past etc.

[AledJ]

Check the version of the adaptor and see if it needs a different driver (version no should be on the sticker), I have a USB Belkin adaptor and they made different versions of the same adaptor with different chips so they need different drivers.

Before I put the new cd in for this new adapter I installed the old belkin software. Not sure if that deleted the drivers for the old adapter I had....

The new adapter is the f5d8053 and installed the software from the disc.

I have checked in program files in the belkin folder and it says its version 6, also checked the adapter it too is version 6. I moved a wireless phone that was in the hall but that made no difference. Could the problem I had with connecting this morning 9limited connectivity at first be the source of the problem??


abaxas: Both the router and adapter are made by belkin.

[AledJ]

Ok decided to try out the belkin software and odd things are happening again. The little wireless icon is now showing 14.5 mbps occasionally going to 7 mbps, and maybe 1.0 mbps.

I'm sure there is an answer there somewhere!!!!

edit: Its sitting on 7mbps now and when i change sites its goes down to 1.0 mbps

[AledJ]

I have now reinstalled it twice but still the same problem. When I look in network connections it shows the adapter as 'wireless network connection 6' is that because windows sees it as another connection???

Also there are two other connection: 1394 connection, 1394 connection 2

What are they?

[mrt9888]

The 1394 is firewire, and the wireless network connection 6 is just the 6th different network connection you made.

Are you sure its not a signal problem, try changing the wireless channel on the router.

[ecac]

As abaxas said earlier, is what you're seeing a reality or just the number Windows happens to give you (which is often just rubbish)? Have you taken some real measurements? Given you say the net isn't slow at all, have you actually got a performance problem? Try carrying out some speed tests if you're worried before you get too far with reinstalling/installing stuff.

[AledJ]

As abaxas said earlier, is what you're seeing a reality or just the number Windows happens to give you (which is often just rubbish)? Have you taken some real measurements? Given you say the net isn't slow at all, have you actually got a performance problem? Try carrying out some speed tests if you're worried before you get too far with reinstalling/installing stuff.

Windows should be saying at least 72 mbps as that's what it was showing before I sent the other adapter back to belkin. As for speed tests the most I can get is 5.9mb dl with 0.5 up-load. I have a 10mb + VM line. At the moment i'm updating games on steam and the current download rate is 900 kb/s or so to 1mb.

As for changing the channel I did that before the other adapter went back. My signal strength is either good or very good.


Some more info: Decided to play some dod:source and see what the ping was like. It settle at 14 although it would sometimes bounce into the mid 20's then back down. I was the only one on the server but the ping i was gettign was the same as the last time i played on a full server.


Just ahd an email from belkin with a rma number and postage label. When I emailed them about the old adapter it took a week or so before they gave me the rma number. So wonder if there is some known issue.

[AledJ]

So been having some problems with the electricity in the house and decided t o move the pc downstairs. This is to see if it trips the power down here. So I have also had the chance to plug it directly into the router. Know I now that my pc is ok getting speeds of 9.3mb on a speed test.

So i'm now more confused than ever as to why:

1. when using the wireless adapter in my room hovering the mouse over the icon shows 1.0Mbps or sometime 7.0Mbps.

2. When playing steam (ping is 14 to 25) or downloading a game from it I get 1.0mb speed download.

3. On a speed test using the wireless adapter it will not go above 5.6mb

I have had three new wireless adapter from belkin and can't think of what to try next.