How to check if your using AC standerd?

[regios287]

I currently got a Linksys EA6500 (AC1750) Wireless router, and my laptop is a Dell XPS 15z

 

I used to have a reg Wireless-N network card, but I upgraded to the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth*

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/dual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluetooth.html

 

I installed the drivers for it on my laptop, I have been using it for about am month now on the 5GHz freq on my laptop. I dont see a speed/performence diff?

 

How do I know if I am using the AC band.

[mindoculus]

If all you want is to measure speeds over WiFi just take the Speednet test from your laptop. 

 

The results will reveal Everything 

 

 

http://www.speedtest.net/

[tomsliwowski]

A better way is to open a cmd or powershell prompt and type in "netsh wlan show interfaces"

 

This will show you something like this:
 

 

There is 1 interface on the system:

 

    Name                   : Wi-Fi 2

    Description            : Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

    GUID                   : 07aae3b8-8151-427e-b256-638b748dc6a1

    Physical address       : fc:f8:ae:6d:42:9b

    State                  : connected

    SSID                   : comstar5GHz

    BSSID                  : f8:1e:df:fd:01:b8

    Network type           : Infrastructure

    Radio type             : 802.11n

    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal

    Cipher                 : CCMP

    Connection mode        : Auto Connect

    Channel                : 149

    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 300

    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 300

    Signal                 : 99%

    Profile                : comstar5GHz

 

    Hosted network status  : Not available

[regios287]

I get:

The Wireless AutoConfig Service (wlansvc) is not running.

How do I know if I am using AC Standerd?

[tomsliwowski]

If you want to enable Wireless AutoConfig Service so you can run that netsh command do what it says in this post:

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/wlansvc-service-in-windows-7-can-not-be-started/5bdc7d1c-ce54-4add-b437-eb48f50f7436

 

Also it's not standerd, it's standard. 

[regios287]

Ok once I do that, how do I know if I am on the AC band of my router?

[tomsliwowski]

Ok once I do that, how do I know if I am on the AC band of my router?

I believe it would say something like 802.11ac in the Radio type section. Also if you're close to the router, you should see the Transmit rate and Receive rate be much higher (at least 433 Mbps).

[regios287]

I believe it would say something like 802.11ac in the Radio type section. Also if you're close to the router, you should see the Transmit rate and Receive rate be much higher (at least 433 Mbps).

sorry for the late reply, but it says I am using N?

 

There is 1 interface on the system:

 

    Name                   : Wireless Network Connection 4

    Description            : Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

    GUID                   : 6364dac3-eb49-432b-9b26-f9f80eaf99bb

    Physical address       : 0c:8b:fd:5a:4a:c9

    State                  : connected

    SSID                   : MyNetwork_5GHz

    BSSID                  : b4:75:0e:67:be:ac

    Network type           : Infrastructure

    Radio type             : 802.11n

    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal

    Cipher                 : CCMP

    Connection mode        : Auto Connect

    Channel                : 149

    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 29

    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 29

    Signal                 : 99%

    Profile                : MyNetwork_5GHz

 

    Hosted network status  : Not started

[AllstaRawR]

Open the Network and Sharing Center. Click on the WiFi connection under Connections. Does the speed list as 867Mbps?

 

I believe it would say something like 802.11ac in the Radio type section. Also if you're close to the router, you should see the Transmit rate and Receive rate be much higher (at least 433 Mbps).

 

Nope. Still shows as 802.11n. Well, at least it does on all of my Windows 8/8.1 devices.

[dalekphalm]

I currently got a Linksys EA6500 (AC1750) Wireless router, and my laptop is a Dell XPS 15z

 

I used to have a reg Wireless-N network card, but I upgraded to the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth*

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/dual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluetooth.html

I installed the drivers for it on my laptop, I have been using it for about am month now on the 5GHz freq on my laptop. I dont see a speed/performence diff?

 

How do I know if I am using the AC band.

Can you please explain a little bit more about what you mean "no speed/performance difference"?

 

Are you meaning via Internet Access (eg: youtube, downloading files, multiplayer gaming, etc), or do you mean over your internal LAN (transferring local files, etc)?

 

If your internet speed is basically less than 150 Mbps (Higher even potentially), then you will see ZERO internet speed differences over Wireless N. You SHOULD however see a lot of difference over your internal LAN when transferring files between computers, etc.

 

Now for the second bit, file transfers over the LAN, it will only go as fast as the slowest link. If the other computer/NAS/Whatever is on Gigabit Ethernet or ALSO on Wireless AC, then you should see a speed/performance increase. If the other device is on 10/100 Ethernet, or on Wireless A/B/G/N, then you will NOT see a performance increase, as the other device is acting as a bottleneck.

[tomsliwowski]

 

sorry for the late reply, but it says I am using N?

 

There is 1 interface on the system:

 

    Name                   : Wireless Network Connection 4

    Description            : Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

    GUID                   : 6364dac3-eb49-432b-9b26-f9f80eaf99bb

    Physical address       : 0c:8b:fd:5a:4a:c9

    State                  : connected

    SSID                   : MyNetwork_5GHz

    BSSID                  : b4:75:0e:67:be:ac

    Network type           : Infrastructure

    Radio type             : 802.11n

    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal

    Cipher                 : CCMP

    Connection mode        : Auto Connect

    Channel                : 149

    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 29

    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 29

    Signal                 : 99%

    Profile                : MyNetwork_5GHz

 

    Hosted network status  : Not started

 

You're using the Intel 7260 card that I have. Seems there is a bug in the driver that will identify as 802.11n even if you're on AC (the old 16.x.x.x drivers didn't have this issue but they had a ton of other, more annoying, problems).

 

I updated to an AC router recently and as you can see the netsh shows as N even though the speeds are definitely AC:

 

There is 1 interface on the system:

 

    Name                   : Wi-Fi 2

    Description            : Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

    GUID                   : 07aae3b8-8151-427e-b256-638b748dc6a1

    Physical address       : fc:f8:ae:6d:42:9b

    State                  : connected

    SSID                   : comstar5GHz

    BSSID                  : e4:f4:c6:02:ae:2b

    Network type           : Infrastructure

    Radio type             : 802.11n

    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal

    Cipher                 : CCMP

    Connection mode        : Auto Connect

    Channel                : 149

    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 866.7

    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 866.7

    Signal                 : 90%

    Profile                : comstar5GHz

 

    Hosted network status  : Not available

 

Can you share your wifi settings for the 5GHz channel? Like what are your encryption settings as well as channel width? Also, how far away are you from the router cause your link speed is 802.11g level.

[heena]

Ok once I do that,

[regios287]

 

You're using the Intel 7260 card that I have. Seems there is a bug in the driver that will identify as 802.11n even if you're on AC (the old 16.x.x.x drivers didn't have this issue but they had a ton of other, more annoying, problems).

 

I updated to an AC router recently and as you can see the netsh shows as N even though the speeds are definitely AC:

 

There is 1 interface on the system:

 

    Name                   : Wi-Fi 2

    Description            : Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

    GUID                   : 07aae3b8-8151-427e-b256-638b748dc6a1

    Physical address       : fc:f8:ae:6d:42:9b

    State                  : connected

    SSID                   : comstar5GHz

    BSSID                  : e4:f4:c6:02:ae:2b

    Network type           : Infrastructure

    Radio type             : 802.11n

    Authentication         : WPA2-Personal

    Cipher                 : CCMP

    Connection mode        : Auto Connect

    Channel                : 149

    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 866.7

    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 866.7

    Signal                 : 90%

    Profile                : comstar5GHz

 

    Hosted network status  : Not available

 

Can you share your wifi settings for the 5GHz channel? Like what are your encryption settings as well as channel width? Also, how far away are you from the router cause your link speed is 802.11g level.

 

I got an Linksys WRT1900AC, and the download speed my ISP provides me is 25mbps down and 10mbps up

I am right in front of this router and I am doing this test

Attached is my settings

Edited June 3, 2014 by regios287

[tomsliwowski]

I got an Linksys WRT1900AC, and the download speed my ISP provides me is 25mbps down and 10mbps up

I am right in front of this router and I am doing this test

Attached is my settings

 

I am not 100% sure but your security setting could be what's causing the issue. Change it from WPA Mixed to just WPA2 Personal.

 

If that doesn't work can you also set the channel width for 5GHz from Auto to 80MHz? 

[regios287]

I am not 100% sure but your security setting could be what's causing the issue. Change it from WPA Mixed to just WPA2 Personal.

 

If that doesn't work can you also set the channel width for 5GHz from Auto to 80MHz? 

There is no 80MHz optiion for the channel width?

 

 

----EDIT----

 

Is this true?

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/GetArticle.aspx?docid=c5db9fbfa0dc4601869f8e198b338874_Setting_up_the_Linksys_WRT1900AC.xml&pid=80&converted=0#wireless3

3.    Does the WRT1900AC support the 80 MHz channel width on the 5 GHz frequency?

Yes, the 5 GHz band supports the 80 MHz channel width provided that the Channel Width dropdown option is set to Auto.  There is currently no option to select the 80 MHz only setting. 

Edited June 3, 2014 by regios287

[heena]

Nice share.................

[tomsliwowski]

There is no 80MHz optiion for the channel width?

 

 

----EDIT----

 

Is this true?

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/GetArticle.aspx?docid=c5db9fbfa0dc4601869f8e198b338874_Setting_up_the_Linksys_WRT1900AC.xml&pid=80&converted=0#wireless3

3.    Does the WRT1900AC support the 80 MHz channel width on the 5 GHz frequency?

Yes, the 5 GHz band supports the 80 MHz channel width provided that the Channel Width dropdown option is set to Auto.  There is currently no option to select the 80 MHz only setting. 

Wow, that just screams of lazy coding by the manufacturer (glad I'm using a Nighthawk with DD-WRT). Did changing the encryption help with your speeds at all? I know that anything below WPA2 Personal (using AES encryption) will give you bad speeds.

[regios287]

Wow, that just screams of lazy coding by the manufacturer (glad I'm using a Nighthawk with DD-WRT). Did changing the encryption help with your speeds at all? I know that anything below WPA2 Personal (using AES encryption) will give you bad speeds.

 

If I change the Encryption to WPA2 Personal, and I used that CMD command, I get 300mbps download and 300mbps upload, but if I check the Connection Speed in the "Manage Network and Connections" I see 300mbps as well

 

If I changed it back to Mixed, the CMD command gave me like 30mbps download and 30mbps upload, but if I check the Connection Speed in the "Manage Network and Connections" I see 700-900mbps if I am close to the router

Is that commend rlly accurate? I never knew I could check my connection speed in the Widows 7 Network Controls

[tomsliwowski]

If I change the Encryption to WPA2 Personal, and I used that CMD command, I get 300mbps download and 300mbps upload, but if I check the Connection Speed in the "Manage Network and Connections" I see 300mbps as well

 

If I changed it back to Mixed, the CMD command gave me like 30mbps download and 30mbps upload, but if I check the Connection Speed in the "Manage Network and Connections" I see 700-900mbps if I am close to the router

Is that commend rlly accurate? I never knew I could check my connection speed in the Widows 7 Network Controls

The speed shown using the netsh command should reflect what Windows shows you in the GUI. Not sure why there is such a high discrepancy but I'm going to say the GUI is wrong as the AC7260 can't get a connection higher that 866Mbps up or down.

 

If turning on WPA2 Personal gives you 300up/down then I would say we're on the right track as that is the absolute top in terms of N speeds. Hopefully the next firmware update for your router will have better and more complete configuration options.

 

Are there any advanced wireless settings in the Linksys GUI?

[regios287]

The speed shown using the netsh command should reflect what Windows shows you in the GUI. Not sure why there is such a high discrepancy but I'm going to say the GUI is wrong as the AC7260 can't get a connection higher that 866Mbps up or down.

 

If turning on WPA2 Personal gives you 300up/down then I would say we're on the right track as that is the absolute top in terms of N speeds. Hopefully the next firmware update for your router will have better and more complete configuration options.

 

Are there any advanced wireless settings in the Linksys GUI?

As far as I know, no there is not

 

But shouldent I keep it on Mixed? I get over 750mbps in the Windows 7 info

[tomsliwowski]

As far as I know, no there is not

 

But shouldent I keep it on Mixed? I get over 750mbps in the Windows 7 info

 

I would see if you're actually getting that speed. Do you have another PC you can transfer a large file to or from? If not, do you have a USB drive you can plug into the USB port on your router and see how fast you can actually send data over? I'm going to say that in mixed mode you're not actually getting anything above the 30Mbps that netsh is showing.

[regios287]

I would see if you're actually getting that speed. Do you have another PC you can transfer a large file to or from? If not, do you have a USB drive you can plug into the USB port on your router and see how fast you can actually send data over? I'm going to say that in mixed mode you're not actually getting anything above the 30Mbps that netsh is showing.

 

I have tried transfering a 1GB file from my NAS server to my laptop over my 5GHz and I get about 25-40MB/s depending on the file

[tomsliwowski]

I have tried transfering a 1GB file from my NAS server to my laptop over my 5GHz and I get about 25-40MB/s depending on the file

Something doesn't sound right. 750Mbps should be (without overhead) about 93MB/s. 25-40MB/s sounds more like a 300Mbps link speed.

[regios287]

Something doesn't sound right. 750Mbps should be (without overhead) about 93MB/s. 25-40MB/s sounds more like a 300Mbps link speed.

 

What could be the issue?

[tomsliwowski]

What could be the issue?

Not 100% sure. The link speed mismatch you're showing between the netsh and windows' GUI is just plain weird as they should be identical. The NAS speed could be a function of the drives you have in there plus any kind of RAID you may have on there. 

 

Try running a speed test using the tools mentioned in this article - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-basics/31220-how-fast-is-your-network-five-ways-to-measure-network-speed . They should at least show what your link speed is.

 

EDIT: Apparently Intel just released an updated 17.0.3.2 drivers. These at least identify the 802.11ac connection correctly now in netsh.