Slow internet but fast network over wireless

Simply put, my wireless internet is slow but my wireless network is fast. All the wired systems on the network get atleast 768KB/s down easy but the one and only wireless system with 2.3MB/s of laptop to router bandwidth (benchmarked and tested) only gets 256KB/s down max I have tryed disabling all QoS, dissconnecting all other systems, and benchmarked the laptop on cat5 geting the same speeds as the other wired systems. I even tryed verious modded wireless drivers with no avail.

Wireless laptop to wired desktop speed avg: 2.3MB/s (megabytes per second)
Wireless laptop to internet avg speed: 256KB/s
Wired desktop avg internet speed: 768KB/s~1MB/s

Any ideas?

 

what is the hardware specs of the wifi setup? router, wifi card.

It's a laptop? do you know if there are any power saving features for the wifi adapter that would hinder it? Check the adapter settings for battery saving options and shut them off.

 

RWIN set correctly

 

Asus WL-500g Premium v2 running Tomato 1.25 and a highly modded Netgear WG511 v2 pcmcia card.

That was apparently part of the problem. Downloads now burst at expected speeds, but quickly setle down to the same 256KBs as before. I tryed several sites and benchmarks with the same results.
Start speed / burst: 768KBs ~ 1MBs
Sustaned: ~256KBs

 

Have you set RWIN key manually into registry? If so what value is it set to?

For 2K/XP, this is the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

If your RWIN is still at Default, then no setting will show here. You will need to create your own in this way:

Click on Edit/New/DWORD. Type in "TcpWindowSize" (no quotes). Click outside of field once, then double click on new entry and enter the value you choose (decimal). Close the window and reboot your PC for setting to "take."

I would start with 64240 as decimal fig. However RWIN need to be multiple of MTU which you should determine first.

Good Luck

 

EDIT: Just noticed that you are using a WG511v2. If this is the 'Made in China' version, it has the Marvell Libertas chipset which is a pile of dogshi*.

I had endless troubles with these on my children's laptops. After a great deal of research I bought 2 WG511T with the Atheros [AR5212] chipset. These are very much more stable, have better wireless range [& work with Linux]

 

Yup, Libertas chipset. Worst pcmcia card I have ever used.uke But free is free. I took it apart and modded the :crap out of it. Added two antannas from an old router, put on heatsinks, and made the card short enough to be a purely internal. The antennas improved range (albeit slightly) and the heatsinks improved signal stability (thing ran HOT and would randomly disconnect). I had to use generic chipset drivers not netgears drivers as netgear's drivers would hardlock the system randomly in deepsleep. Yes its a junk card, but this just doesnt make any sense to me.

I used tcpoptimizer, the RWIN is set to 1027840. Burst speeds are now at "normal" speeds but sustaned speeds are still slow.

 

Well free has it's own quality. The WG511v2 Marvel has hordes of dissatisfied users as you are probably aware. Plus the damn thing keeps pinging the internet incessantly.

The problem I was getting with the WG511v2 was that the signal strength would vary wildly. It would loose connection and then return after a while. Speed was also slow. Can't remember exactly but my router was synced at 8000kbps. The wired pc was getting 6500kbps ie 800KBs and the wg511v2 was getting less than half.

wow. That looks great. You put a lot of effort into it. I must admit if it had been any other card rather than the Marvell one I would have said the effort was worth it.

tcpoptimiser is very good. I just prefer to do it manually ie set MTU size and RWIN to follow.

Only thing I can suggest is to check the registry and make sure the above key is in. On XP the default is no Parameters key.

The only other thing is of course to try a proper card apart from the WG511v2 and mod if required. The 2 that I can recommend and which I bought after extensive research that are cheap is the WG511T and the Edimax 7108 [uses Ralink chipset RT25xx].

Good Luck

 

I found this was due to overheating, at least on my card.

Well I used this card as a guinea pig of sorts before I attempt it on a good card.

I orderd a linksys pcmcia card with a broadcom chipset (with afterburner support). Hopefully this will solve the slow internet problem.

 

Update: I found a slightly modified driver for the Marvell Libertas 8335 chipset netgear WG511V2. Downloads are at "normal" speeds and signal strength is slightly improved.