I have a brand new high speed Dell laptop (downstairs) using a wireless router from upstairs. My internet (Road Runner) speed is pretty slow on my laptop. I'm getting an "excellent" signal which I was told can be bogus. Someone also told me that I might be "dropping packets" (web pages sometimes lag/hang). My questions is, should I get a range extender? Would that help my internet speed? Thanks in advance! Chris
Your internet should never be the bottleneck of your wireless connection. Even with 802.11b you're running at 8-9 megs (assuming there are not alot of other wireless users around you) and your internet connection is not likely more than 6 megs. Go sit next to your wireless router and see if you experience the same problem.
I woud also recommend pluggin directly into your cable modem and see what type of speed your getting. Then use a wired connection on the router and do a bandwith check, then finally do a bandwith check wirelessly. That way you can see all three possible setups and see what type of loss in speed you are getting, IF any.... http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Do what Yonkers said ... try moving closer to the router first. If it gets faster, then you're not getting enough range. Also, do you have a router that is capable of sending out at the same speed as your internet connection? For example, if your router is only capable of sending out a wireless signal at 50mbps and your speed is 100mbps, you'll only get half the speed with the wireless.
That's a very good speed....usually on road runner i get around 4000 download but i guess it depends on the area and service...that's definently not a slow connection at all.
That's decent speed. It depends on what service you have. Roadrunner you should be getting 4000+. DSL you should get around what you have unless you have the premium DSL which is same as Roadrunner. Either way, you should be pretty happy surfing at that speed. Are you getting that when plugged into the router, sitting right next to it, or far away wirelessly?
Just thought I'd add on here with a question: My cable internet randomly goes down, just won't connect to the internet. I sometimes have to restart my router, sometimes my cable modem, and sometimes both just to get it back. It's not a problem with the cable being down because my cable TV stays on and people in the neighborhood keep their internet connection...so what gives?
When you guys say you are downloading at 4000 kbps...are you saying you download at 4 megs a second on your cable internet? If so, holy sheeeeee-it, when I'm downloading a file, I'm happy with anywhere between 100-200k
4000 Kbps is equal to 500KBytes which is about a half a meg a second. I get almost 1 meg a second when I'm download from some of the bigger sites.
Roadrunner is dang fast. Last Result: Download Speed: 4754 kbps (594.3 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 358 kbps (44.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
FYI, just because your cable tv is up doesn't mean your Internet necessarily has to be up. Are you using a Linksys router? I've seen this happen with a lot of cable modem users here in the Dallas area with Comcast (now Time Warner).
