Wifi upgrade.

[Hulkbert]

I have an inspiron 7359 and my current wireless solution is slow. I was thinking of changing the wireless card to one with ac wireless and 2x2 antennas. I found this. Not sure if that would work with my laptop or if there is a better solution. And, to the people who say "for faster speeds use ethernet" , if I could use ethernet I wouldn't be thinking of an upgrade. Thanks for any help and suggestions.

[79wjd]

I would be very surprised if Wireless N was bottlenecking you any meaningful amount. At school I use my 6 year old N300 without any issues and it feels just as fast as my AC1900 that I have at home (I have 80/80Mbps).

 

What makes you think wifi is your problem? 

[Hulkbert]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

I would be very surprised if Wireless N was bottlenecking you any meaningful amount. At school I use my 6 year old N300 without any issues and it feels just as fast as my AC1900 that I have at home (I have 80/80Mbps).

 

What makes you think wifi is your problem? 

I'm not sure I follow... I was thinking, I know my current wifi card is only 1x1, what if I got a wifi card with 2x2. Also, could I buy a usb wifi dongle and use that with my current wifi card for more bandwidth? ( I think I should have posted this topic in networking...)

[r4tch3t]

What djdwosk is saying is that you should be getting enough bandwidth with your current wifi since even older tech can be used fine. 

What do you mean by slow?

[Hulkbert]

3 minutes ago, r4tch3t said:

What djdwosk is saying is that you should be getting enough bandwidth with your current wifi since even older tech can be used fine. 

What do you mean by slow?

Like 15-5 mbps up down. Maybe I should get a usb dongle with an external antenna? No joke, on youtube it automatically sets to 144p.

[r4tch3t]

You should be getting much more than that, my 11 year old laptop can pull down just shy of 60 in a low reception area. Is that download speed from the internet?

Do you get higher speeds if you're close to the wifi router? If so it could be a signal issue and getting a new adaptor may not help.

[Hulkbert]

Just now, r4tch3t said:

You should be getting much more than that, my 11 year old laptop can pull down just shy of 60 in a low reception area. Is that download speed from the internet?

Do you get higher speeds if you're close to the wifi router? If so it could be a signal issue and getting a new adaptor may not help.

Does the fact that it is my school's wifi change anything? Could they be throttling my bandwidth and it isn't anything to do with my hardware?

[79wjd]

35 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

Does the fact that it is my school's wifi change anything? Could they be throttling my bandwidth and it isn't anything to do with my hardware?

Yeah, the schools wifi is probably pretty shit (if it's high school, if it's college, then it's probably good, but again, your wifi card probably isn't the bottleneck). What kind of speeds do you get at home? 

 

Also, you really can't really team wifi adapters (spread the load to increase bandwidth), plus USB wifi adapters are literally crap. 

[Hulkbert]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yeah, the schools wifi is probably pretty shit. 

Idk. When I went there before school started I was getting like 75 mbps.

[79wjd]

Just now, Hulkbert said:

Idk. When I went there before school started I was getting like 75 mbps.

On the same device? (if so then the wifi card isn't the issue -- try reformatting your laptop and doing a fresh install, there's probably something else going on).

[Hulkbert]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

On the same device? (if so then the wifi card isn't the issue -- try reformatting your laptop and doing a fresh install, there's probably something else going on).

Yes. At home I max out my isp bandwidth. So, more antennas isn't going to fix it? My friend with the same wifi card gets like 5 mbps.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

Yes. At home I max out my isp bandwidth. So, more antennas isn't going to fix it? My friend with the same wifi card gets like 5 mbps.

Well, think about it....if the same laptop with the same wifi card gets far higher speeds at home and then all of a sudden at school it goes to shit, then it's pretty obvious the wireless card isn't likely to be the issue. 

 

Now, it's possible the signal at school is weaker than the one you have at home, and the antennas might not be picking up the signal as well. But my original point still stands, wireless N is more than fast enough. Right now, I'm on wireless N on my old Netgear N300 (slow as shit by today's standards), and I'm easily able to stream youtube @ 4k while also streaming netflix and browsing a dozen other tabs (and three forums). 

[Hulkbert]

5 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Well, think about it....if the same laptop with the same wifi card gets far higher speeds at home and then all of a sudden at school it goes to shit, then it's pretty obvious the wireless card isn't likely to be the issue. 

 

Now, it's possible the signal at school is weaker than the one you have at home, and the antennas might not be picking up the signal as well. But my original point still stands, wireless N is more than fast enough. Right now, I'm on wireless N on my old Netgear N300 (slow as shit by today's standards), and I'm easily able to stream youtube @ 4k while also streaming netflix and browsing a dozen other tabs (and three forums). 

I've sat under the router and I still get horrible internet speed. I think that the school's routers are these.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Hulkbert

[r4tch3t]

10 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

Idk. When I went there before school started I was getting like 75 mbps.

This makes sense. Before school started you could make use of more of the internet connection. When school stated everyone stated using the bandwidth leaving less for you to use. There is no problem with your hardware. Also it is possible to team together multiple wifi adaptors but in this case I doubt it would help much.

[Hulkbert]

12 minutes ago, r4tch3t said:

This makes sense. Before school started you could make use of more of the internet connection. When school stated everyone stated using the bandwidth leaving less for you to use. There is no problem with your hardware. Also it is possible to team together multiple wifi adaptors but in this case I doubt it would help much.

So, I guess I'm stuck with 5 mbps. I guess I'm SOL then.

[r4tch3t]

It's livable. I don't know if your school would allow it but you could try to find an Ethernet jack. It's what I did at uni any time I wanted faster speeds (generally off the uni server).

[Hulkbert]

1 minute ago, r4tch3t said:

It's livable. I don't know if your school would allow it but you could try to find an Ethernet jack. It's what I did at uni any time I wanted faster speeds (generally off the uni server).

Haven't found any yet.

[79wjd]

7 minutes ago, Hulkbert said:

So, I guess I'm stuck with 5 mbps. I guess I'm SOL then.

I'd suggest at least trying to reinstall network drivers. Universities usually have pretty good networks. (also asking someone else what kind of speeds they get)

[Hulkbert]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

I'd suggest at least trying to reinstall network drivers. Universities usually have pretty good networks. (also asking someone else what kind of speeds they get)

Some kid on a macbook air was getting 30+ mbps.