Cox Cable slow wifi

[sinty]

I pay for 130mb dsl, I receive 130mb through the hardline wired connection downstairs when my primary pc is. However, my upstairs wifi is only receiving 37mb average. I use a lower end TPlink 150mbps usb adapter for my computer, I should be getting a lot more than 37mb off wireless in my house, I am only 20 feet from the main box, although i guess it is going through the floor and about 2 more dry walls.

Will a much nicer usb wifi adapter help me here? I've switched channels on the router, channel 1 seems to give me a consistent "Acceptable" rating at 37mb, anything beyond 6 is "Severe" at 5mb or so.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[PCBuilderProbs]

I would say there's three good options you could do:
1. Run a fully wired connection (prob not a good idea)
2. Get a wifi-card for your system that uses a PCI slot
3. By a wireless router, sync it wirelessly to your internet, then use a shorter ethernet cable and plug it in through like that.

 

[digitaldoc]

First step is to run Speedtest.net on your modem, directly wired, and confirm you are getting the 130 Mbps speed.

Next, I would see if you could get the desktop wired either with Ethernet, or with a Powerline adapter. These will always be more consistent than WiFi.

If you want to continue to use the WiFi, I would first look at the router. Is it 802.11n or 802.11ac compliant? The newer AC gear I find has a better signal, and more consistent speeds. While your overall distance is not much, with that many obstacles in the way, there will be loss of signal.

Finally, with all that optimized, then (and only then), would I look at a new WiFi adapter. I would use an AC model, with an external adapter. I use the one below from a floor away from my router, and get consistently high speeds, but of course YMMV.

http://www.amazon.com/Netis-WF2190-Wireless-Long-Range-Supports/dp/B00I604M00/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1428101007&sr=8-6&keywords=netis

 

[sinty]

wired connection gets roughly 95mb speed, sharing the primary hub with the downstairs pc which gets 130mb consistent. Its AC complaint, its the newest modem the company has.

Cox told me to buy their netgear wireless AC, so I shelled out 160 bucks for it to find out it doesn't offer any faster speeds than the primary hub did. So, the last piece in the chain has to be the wireless adapter I am using. If I am getting 95mb wired speed off the upstairs pc connected to the primary modem with a 50 ft cable, can I ever really expect a wifi setup to ever achieve the same 90mb or so?

 

[digitaldoc]

wired connection gets roughly 95mb speed, sharing the primary hub with the downstairs pc which gets 130mb consistent. Its AC complaint, its the newest modem the company has.

Cox told me to buy their netgear wireless AC, so I shelled out 160 bucks for it to find out it doesn't offer any faster speeds than the primary hub did. So, the last piece in the chain has to be the wireless adapter I am using. If I am getting 95mb wired speed off the upstairs pc connected to the primary modem with a 50 ft cable, can I ever really expect a wifi setup to ever achieve the same 90mb or so?

Wired connection may be 10/100 (as opposed to 10/100/1000- so called Gigafast), and that may be your first bottleneck.

Yes, WiFi, particularly 5 GHz can do speeds much faster than 90 Mbps.

 

[g90814]

Wireless is very flaky and unpredictable. Walls and other obstacles will be the biggest issue.

If you can get 1/2 your max speed (so 50-60Mbps) you should be happy.

What kind of adapter are you using?

Also, it seems you are using 2.4Ghz channel, which can have issues from interference from other nearby wireless networks. For what channel to use, set that to 'auto' and your router will choose the least congested channel.

5Ghz channel might work better for you, although it is not as good going through obstacles.

 

[sinty]

if I am to receive 50% of the speed, I would expect roughly 70mb, but I max out at 40mb via wifi. Hardline gets me 90+mb. I am using a 150mb rated TP link WN722N. It is a 2.4ghz channel, and I've messed with all 11 channels. As mentioned, channel 1 is definitely the best at 40mb or so, channel 2-11 just drop off more until you get to 11 which maxes at like 7mb with an always "Severe" connection.

 

[g90814]

For 2.4Ghz, you should only use channels 1, 6, and 11. Any other ones give you the risk of overlap.

I'd suggest getting a dual band or better adapter so you can use 5Ghz.

 

[spentshells]

Alright, It sounds a lot like you have hit the maximum transfer speed capacity for the USB interface.

 

[sinty]

Ya, 90mb or so may be the limit to my usb wired adapter. Any recommendations for the usb wifi adapter that would help most is appreciated.

 

[spentshells]

You will want to pick up a pci or pcie x1 wifi card. You won't run into a hardware limitation in these cases, unless you get a much faster internet connection. Then and then only the better option will be pcie x1 card.

There may be faster usb v3 wifi adapters. I must ask that you go with the pcie or pci options.

 

[digitaldoc]

There are definitely USB 3.0 WiFi adapters that can keep up with the faster 5 GHz connections. Look for AC1200 gear.

 

[spentshells]

Any reason you need a faster connection than you currently have? 37Mbps seems fast enough unless you game,

 

[sinty]

I do want to game light, online uncompetitive games though mostly and because I am paying for 130mb, I want to achieve the maximum speed that I can via wifi

 

[g90814]

You should look into powerline adapters... you'd have better results.

You'll never get your full internet speed via wireless, unless you happen to be in direct line of site of your router, and even then it's usually not max.

 

[sinty]

Will the Powerline box actual retain high speed? Again I pay for 130mb wired, and the modem broadcasts roughly 40mb through into my TP link adapter. If the Powerline actually retains closer to 90mb then that is definitely something I would want to do if I can run my main modem wifi to the Powerline, then out that via ethernet in a wired connection.

But, won't that all be negated by just using a really nice wifi adapter? I purchased a linksys 5ghz ac1200 dual band adapter for cheap, I'll see how that goes and then look elsewhere. Will update after my new adapter arrives.

 

[digitaldoc]

Will the Powerline box actual retain high speed? Again I pay for 130mb wired, and the modem broadcasts roughly 40mb through into my TP link adapter. If the Powerline actually retains closer to 90mb then that is definitely something I would want to do if I can run my main modem wifi to the Powerline, then out that via ethernet in a wired connection.

But, won't that all be negated by just using a really nice wifi adapter? I purchased a linksys 5ghz ac1200 dual band adapter for cheap, I'll see how that goes and then look elsewhere. Will update after my new adapter arrives.

I would try the WiFi adapter first. While there are certainly issues with wireless connections, it may do ok for you.

If you do go with the Powerline route as previously suggested, look for a set that is not bottlenecked by a 10/100 Ethernet port, even though they advertise it as faster speeds.

 

[sinty]

new 5ghz adapter gets me 60mb, old tplink 2.4ghz adapter gets me 30mb. Well worth a $15 investment on the new adapter, but still running short of the 90mb I was hoping for. Guess I can't complain, I got a 2x boost from the previous adapter.