Achieving 54mbps

On my Desktop PC I have an Asus wl-138g v2 wireless card (Vista HP). My laptop has an Atheros card. I'm connected to my router and wlan through a Linksys WAP54G AP. On the laptop I get a 54mbps connection all over the house. However, with the Asus card I always get 11mbps only, even though the signal strength is reported as excellent (88%). I've configured the AP to Wireless-G only. Does anyone have any suggestions as of how to get the Asus card to connect at 54mbps?

Mikkel

Reply to
Mikkel
Loading thread data ...

Mikkel hath wroth:

That's weird. My guess(tm) is that the WAP54G thinks it's limited to

802.11b 11Mbits/sec, or is seeing a sufficiently high error rate to limit the speed to 11Mbits/sec, or one manufactory goofed on Wi-Fi compatibility. It can also be yet another Vista problem. Dunno. Let's test these guesses one at a time, mostly by substitution.
  1. Does the speed every go over 11Mbits/sec for the desktop? Does the Asus client manager (or Vista wireless manager) anything other than the 88% signal strength, such as a high noise level or 802.11b only connection? Does it work (browse web sites, etc) at 11Mbits/sec?
  2. Got the latest Asus WL-138G v2 driver from HP (or from Asus)? It shows a Vista driver version 1.0.0.51.

You might also want to dig through the FAQ. Some of the items look interesting (but not directly related):

  1. Try connecting the desktop to a neighbors wireless network. No need to get the encryption key or actually surf the internet, just get a connection. It should show a connection speed. If it's 54Mbits/sec the HP desktop is working correctly and the WAP54G has a problem. If you can't find a suitable neighbor, borrow a different wireless AP or router.
  2. The WAP54G comes in various hardware mutation. V1 thru V3. These are not my favorite devices and I've had stability problems with the V2 versions. V3 with firmware v3.04 seems ok. Look on the serial number tag for the hardware version. Check for updates.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

First of all, thanks for replying.

No. I've never seen it go above or even below 11mbps

The signal/noise says -40 dBm / -90 dBm going up and down about 5 dBm for each. It can utilize the 2Mbit internet connection. The reason I want it to go higher is local file transfers. I get about 400KB/S for that, which is a lot slower than I would expect. I'm also considering getting a faster internet connection and I don't want the wireless connection to become a bottleneck.

I believe that one is not for the V2. The V1 has a Marvell chip. I'm using v4.102.15.56 which seems to be the latest from Asus. I tried another driver v4.102.15.61 with the same result. The chip is a bcm4318.

Unfortunately my neighbors don't have wireless. I'll try another AP when I get the opportunity.

Seems I have a V1 with firmware v3.04 ...

Thanks again.

Reply to
Mikkel

Mikkel hath wroth:

Weird.

-40dBm is fairly strong and -90dBm is almost no noise/interference at all. The -50dB SNR (signal to noise ratio) is more than adquate for it to get to ODFM (802.11g) speeds. It's not a signal strength problem.

Is that "bits/sec" or "bytes/sec"? My guess is Bytes.

400KBytes/sec = 3.2Mbits/sec, which is about what you'll get from an 11Mbit/sec wireless association. It's working normally, but at far too slow a rate.

Yep. I missed. If I follow the pull down menus under downloads, it only offers the WL-138G (no version number specified). However, if I do a global search for WL-138G drivers, it offers: Wl-138G v1, WL-138G v2, and WL-138GE

4.102.15.56 seems to be the latest for the v2.
formatting link
the download page says: "2. The Vista driver does not support Afterburner function." I wonder if there are other problems.

Yeah, that seems easier than dragging the desktop somewhere.

Reminder, you can always configure a wireless router into working like a wireless access point by merely disabling the DHCP server and setting the IP address to something that doesn't duplicate the main router. Then connect an ethernet cable between LAN ports on the router and wireless AP.

Oh-oh. That's the most likely culprit. I haven't seen this particular problem, but there were plenty of other problems with the older WAP54G units.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.