# Wireless N help please - Ralink adaptor problems



## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

This is a long story, so read it all before you jump in offering help. no need to cover unrelated/already tested ideas.



I have a TP link wireless N router - TL-WR941ND V2


i have four wireless N adaptors - two are 150Mb, two are (supposed to be) 300Mb in both directions.


The problem is that the 300Mb adaptors are being total dickbags. they run on the Ralink RT2870 chipset.

List of problems:

1. No matter what driver i use, they seem to report the upload speed in windows as the connected speed. From the router i can see differently - for example, this.







2. (ties in with 1.) No matter what i do, i cant seem to get a 300Mb upload speed which was why i bought these damn things in the first place. i can get 250-300Mb down, which is fine, but max of 150Mb upload is worthless... i might as well have stayed with my two 150Mb only adaptors if thats all i was going to get.


3. As soon as i install the ralink software (not just 'driver only') all wireless networking breaks on my machine, even for a realtek wifi adaptor. it seems to screw up windows built in wifi system, which it uses for its core features - so i cant disable the windows service and just run this, fyi.

This means that if the software had whatever cure i need for 300Mb, i cant use it  


microsoft and ralink drivers changed nothing, i already tested a third party 300Mb adaptor and it worked fine, already flashed the router to DD-WRT - no change, the problem lies with the adaptors or their drivers.

Anyone got any ideas how to fix this?


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

Call place of purchase and/or manufacturer and complain.  Other than that, I can't really think of anything.  I know from your posts on GN that you've already tried with it basically right next to the router so it can't be distance or obstacles or interference (I know you already tried changing channels) etc.

edit: Do you have another machine you can try with to see if the software will work?


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

theJesus said:


> Call place of purchase and/or manufacturer and complain.  Other than that, I can't really think of anything.  I know from your posts on GN that you've already tried with it basically right next to the router so it can't be distance or obstacles or interference (I know you already tried changing channels) etc.
> 
> edit: Do you have another machine you can try with to see if the software will work?



i've tested on two win 7 x64 machines, software breaks on both of them.



place of purchase is not really an option, as they were imported from overseas.


and yeah i've tried changing channels and just about everything on the router - the fact i get a 300Mb downlink speed means everythings fine on that end, its just getting the 300Mb up thats murdering me


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

oh son of a bitch, they just released updated drivers 2-3 days ago that i hadnt noticed. will test them now (previous updates were over a year old, windows update driver was from 2009)


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

Let us know how it goes


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

its amazing how slow 30KB/s is when you want something to download faster... *facepalm*


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## Batou1986 (May 23, 2011)

In DD-WRT, channel width has to be set to 40Mhz to get full N 300 which you probably already know.


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

Batou1986 said:


> In DD-WRT, channel width has to be set to 40Mhz to get full N 300 which you probably already know.



yup, it showed as 150/65Mb when set to 20, so i caught onto that early.


i get 300/150 now (or near enough to it) but i need 300/300 - any ideas while i wait on these drivers to download would be appreciated.


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

Not sure if it'll make much difference, but have you tried without encryption?  I know that can affect speed a little bit sometimes, but probably not that much lol.  Worth a try though.


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

theJesus said:


> Not sure if it'll make much difference, but have you tried without encryption?  I know that can affect speed a little bit sometimes, but probably not that much lol.  Worth a try though.



yes.

TKIP locks it to 54MB, AES and off allow me to get the speeds i've gotten so far (300/150 max)

so i went for WPA2 w/ AES, being secure and giving the high speed.


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

Which drivers are you downloading right now?  I see a driver on Ralink's site from 5/10/2011 (m/d/y).  It's version 3.2.1.0


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## Batou1986 (May 23, 2011)

From Ralink's product brief on the rt 2800 series.
"Ralink feature-rich chipsets embody 2 transmitter 3 receiver (2T3R) architecture "

Im taking a shot in the dark but maybe that has something to do with it.


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

I think that's just talking about MIMO


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## Batou1986 (May 23, 2011)

theJesus said:


> I think that's just talking about MIMO



Unfortuantely no,
Looking at this diagram i really think that might be why, 3 antennas are available to receive only 2 have transmit capability.

What was the model of the N adapter that worked at full speed so we can compare





this is why i hate wireless speed ratings are a crap-shoot


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## theJesus (May 23, 2011)

I probably don't know how to interpret that diagram right, but that looks like MIMO to me.


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

wireless N is mimo.

the thing is, two is supposed to be enough to manage 300Mb - the third was for redundancy



yes jesus, those are the ones i just updated to... and they didnt work. software broke wireless, drivers alone made no difference.


http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/prodetail.aspx?mid=010303010103&id=2583

^ that was the adaptor that worked fine at 300


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## Batou1986 (May 23, 2011)

Mussels said:


> http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/prodetail.aspx?mid=010303010103&id=2583
> 
> ^ that was the adapter that worked fine at 300



That's a (2T2R) adapter and it works hmm, the product brief said something about being able to use 2T3R mode or 2T2R mode maybe somewhere in the adapter property's there's an option to change that, might help ?


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## Mussels (May 23, 2011)

Batou1986 said:


> That's a (2T2R) adapter and it works hmm, the product brief said something about being able to use 2T3R mode or 2T2R mode maybe somewhere in the adapter property's there's an option to change that, might help ?



nothing on the adapter side, there is on the router side. its set to 2t3r atm, i can try 2t2r


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## Batou1986 (May 23, 2011)

any luck ?


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## Mussels (May 24, 2011)

after more research and finding others with these adaptors, they're just falsely advertised shit.


they only do 300/150, have poor range/power, and suck at everything except packet injection for cracking WEP security.


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## Easy Rhino (May 24, 2011)

you will NEVER get 300mbps transfer rates on wireless. 300mbps is theoretical. what is more, 300mbps is on the physical layer, the mac layer reduces that speed to about 150mbps. what is even more, your wireless n router is shared bandwidth like other routers. so in reality with all the overhead and real world speeds you are sharing 100mbps with 4 adaptors. if you transfer files inside the lan you should get between 10-15MBPS (not mbps) if you are within 20 feet of the access point. even if it says it is connected at 300mbps you will never hit that, that is simply the driver telling your operating system its OFDMA connection rate.

better drivers will help in the long run but if you speeds are slower than 10-15 MBPS (100mbps) i would say you either have a lot of noise or the adaptors/router is crap. hard to tell really.


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## slyfox2151 (May 24, 2011)

Mussels said:


> after more research and finding others with these adaptors, they're just falsely advertised shit.
> 
> 
> they only do 300/150, have poor range/power, and suck at everything except packet injection for cracking WEP security.



how much for them? lol


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## Mussels (May 24, 2011)

Easy Rhino said:


> you will NEVER get 300mbps transfer rates on wireless. 300mbps is theoretical. what is more, 300mbps is on the physical layer, the mac layer reduces that speed to about 150mbps. what is even more, your wireless n router is shared bandwidth like other routers. so in reality with all the overhead and real world speeds you are sharing 100mbps with 4 adaptors. if you transfer files inside the lan you should get between 10-15MBPS (not mbps) if you are within 20 feet of the access point. even if it says it is connected at 300mbps you will never hit that, that is simply the driver telling your operating system its OFDMA connection rate.
> 
> better drivers will help in the long run but if you speeds are slower than 10-15 MBPS (100mbps) i would say you either have a lot of noise or the adaptors/router is crap. hard to tell really.



you havent read the thread, the problem is that the adaptors simply dont support 300MB upload/TX, despite the box saying it does.

You certainly can get 300Mb connections, as i've managed a stable 300/150 connection here with no problems - its the upload i cant get working on these adaptors. downloading from another device connected to the router at 100Mb ethernet lets me get a happy 12.5MB/s steady... but i wanted more than that, which means i need 300Mb upload rates.


sly: it cost me $75 shipped for the two of them. if you want to make me an offer, do so via PM.


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## Easy Rhino (May 24, 2011)

Mussels said:


> you havent read the thread, the problem is that the adaptors simply dont support 300MB upload/TX, despite the box saying it does.
> 
> You certainly can get 300Mb connections, as i've managed a stable 300/150 connection here with no problems



yes, some wireless n routers/adaptors will do 600mbps on the PHY so 300mbps on the MAC. if you are getting 300 mbps transfers i would say you are literally getting better than 99% of other wireless n users. you should be happy! if your upload is only 150mbps it could be misreporting the OFDMA rules to your OS causing the slowdown. have you checked for new firmware for your router?


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