Capped speeds w/ new wifi card???

[chris7519]

I recently replaced my Intel 3945 w/ a Gigabyte GN-W101GT (Atheros AR5005GS) wifi card. Before I did the switch, my Intel would get speeds around 17Mbps and hold steady (although if you took it 10 feet away from the router, it would decrease dramatically). After I switched the cards, my Gigabyte gets MUCH better range but gets 10Mbps and never any higher. When I test the connection speeds, I get to 10Mbps very quickly, then all of a sudden it will just hold there (as if it could reach higher speeds, but it's capped somehow). Tested a wired connection from the router to the laptop and will hit 17Mbps no problem. Any reason why all of a sudden I have a speed cap on my wifi card?

[golfnut]

Not all vendors wireless adapters will perform the same...

What type of WAN connection do you have that sustains 17 Mbps on the wired link and how are you testing?

Greg

[chris7519]

Cox Communications (Cable Company) in Phoenix apparently has a 20Mbps connection (I thought it was 15Mbps, but I'm not complaining about the extra speed). Now I realize that all vendors might not be the same, but I'm just confused as how I can get better range, this card supports Super G+ (108Mbps), and it shows a connection to the router of 54Mbps with an "Excellent" (5 bars) connection, but end up being slower speeds...

[golfnut]

That's pretty good speed for a cable link...

As for the wireless adapter, range is also different depending on the vendor.

It's really all based on how the card interputs the wireless environment and makes whatever adjustments it thinks are necessary to maintain a good connection, including lowering the speed.

There's another really good thread here where someone found that a top-of-the-line Cisco wireless adapter performed poorly (range and speed) compared to an Intel Centrino.

Wireless standards only ensure operability between different vendors. Performance is another story.

Greg