# Wireless - signal strength, kinda funny



## kamojamo (Dec 9, 2008)

I don't know about you but I find this funny. 

Right now I'm on a cheap, old-ish, Toshiba Sattelite with dodgy 54mbps wireless lan connected to the internet via a wireless router.

This laptop is sitting on top of my desktop PC, where the signal reaching the laptop and the desktop should be exactly the same, the antenna are within inches of each other.

The PC is quite nice, it's specs are easily better than the laptops in every way, cpu speed, amount of ram, amount of hdd space, graphics card and, importantly, the wireless card. In this PC it is a D-Link DWA-556  "Xtreme N Pci Express Desktop Adapter". A wireless N card.

On the laptop, sitting right here, internet browsing is a breeze, files download quickly, files on other computers are accessible quickly and easily through the network.

On the computer, next to the laptop, browsing the network freezes explorer or it loads just the pc i'm on, internet explorer wont even load the homepage, outlook stays at 0% when sending receiving. OCCASIONALLY i can get a small document through the network after waiting forever (and several tries). Vista says it's connected to the network and it appears everything is correct.

The best bit is, the router is a wireless N Xtreme router to, in fact: the router from the exact same series - they were supposed to go together seemlessly.

The funny part, my laptop, with rubbish, stock, slow, basic wireless works perfectly next to this desktop and I just looked over and next to the PC is the box the pci express wireless card came in which reads "6 X Range, 14 X Speed". hahahaha 

Any suggestions as to why this is being a PAIN IN THE ASS!!! haha.

take care

kamojamo


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## Polaris573 (Dec 10, 2008)

Are you able to ping the router or otherwise connect to it in any way?


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## Pinchy (Dec 10, 2008)

Sounds like a driver problem to me. Uninstall drivers for the Dlink, downloaded latest of Dlink site and install them.

I have the same WLAN card and from downstairs, it gets 76% signal strength to my wireless N router. A centrino G laptop gets about the same signal (if not better). I don't know why its the case, I find it stupid. That being said tho, the N card obviously has a faster network connection.


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## mrhuggles (Dec 10, 2008)

does wireless N have anything like g-mode protection?


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## francis511 (Dec 10, 2008)

Could be anything. Tried slowly going thru all the router`s settings?


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## mrhuggles (Dec 10, 2008)

i remember when i got my first router, i googled every single feature 1 by 1 cuz i was really curious about everything, it was fun


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