Slow WiFi Adapters

[moistbison]

I have gone through 3 WiFi adapters in 3 months, and the last two have had the same exact slowness issue. The original adapter had great speeds (50+mbps), but ended up dying on me and not recognizing any networks. It was a cheap refurb, so I wasn't surprised. I replaced it with a Trendnet TEW-805UB. The connection on this worked fine, but I could never get more than 4-5mbps with it. I tried most of what I could think of (repositioning to the front of my PC, multiple USB ports, an external USB hub, etc. Updated drivers, rolled back drivers, etc.) I decided that the adapter may be having issues, so I purchased a Wavlink AC600. Same exact issue! I tried the same troubleshooting steps, to no avail. I want to note that in the same exact area my adapter (desktop) is in, I get adequate speeds with any other device (iphone is 80mbps+, laptop is 40-50mbps as well). So it is not a signal issue. Also, the download speed has issues but my upload speed is adequate. Usually 10-15mbps.

My router is an ASUS RT-AC87U and this all happens on the 2.4 ghz band. I have the 5 ghz band disabled because it was unreliable, which is a known issue with this model.

I'm using Windows 10 on a custom built machine. The motherboard is an ASUS Sabertooth Z77

 

[helpstar]

Did you even try the 5GHz with the dual band adapters you bought?

Update the firmware of your ASUS router?

Which internet connection speed are you using? How did you check the data rate? try speedtest.net

 

[moistbison]

Did you even try the 5GHz with the dual band adapters you bought?

Update the firmware of your ASUS router?

Which internet connection speed are you using? How did you check the data rate? try speedtest.net

I have not tried with the 5ghz band, when I had it enabled it only would broadcast the network maybe 50% of the time, and always went down. Known issue with that router. All my other devices work fine on the 2.4ghz band.

Latest router firmware

My internet is 150mbps, and I check the speeds on every device through speedtest.net, and speedtest.verizon.net to confirm and same results everywhere. All devices work fine except for this adapter on my desktop.

 

[helpstar]

chipset and usb drivers up to date of the motherboard?

searched a bit for the router´s bug in 5GHz, so it looks like a firmware bug.
this worked for some people:
"Unplugged device, held reset and plugged it back in. Continued to hold reset until power light flashed slowly indicating it is in recovery mode then released reset button. Waited about one minute. Pushed power button to power off device. Waited 30 seconds then powered back on. Both bands worked normally after that"
https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20160124043818000&board_id=11&model=RT-AC66U&page=1&count=35

 

[moistbison]

chipset and usb drivers up to date of the motherboard?

searched a bit for the router´s bug in 5GHz, so it looks like a firmware bug.
this worked for some people:
"Unplugged device, held reset and plugged it back in. Continued to hold reset until power light flashed slowly indicating it is in recovery mode then released reset button. Waited about one minute. Pushed power button to power off device. Waited 30 seconds then powered back on. Both bands worked normally after that"
https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20160124043818000&board_id=11&model=RT-AC66U&page=1&count=35

I just tried this and it didn't work. The connection actually seems slower now and the 5ghz band still won't even show up. 2mbps download and less than 1 meg upload. All my other devices are still fine.

 

[helpstar]

use a usb extender cable (a short one like https://www.pollin.de/shop/images/article/xtrabig/X722237.1.JPG) to align the best signal for the usb wifi adapter

 

[moistbison]

use a usb extender cable (a short one like https://www.pollin.de/shop/images/article/xtrabig/X722237.1.JPG) to align the best signal for the usb wifi adapter

Thank you for the help, but it is not a signal issue. My router has so many issues that I'm fairly sure that is the cause. I'm upgrading this week.