[marmoo]

Hey all

Came for some more advise

My girlfriend needed a cheap laptop for one of her member of staff at work

She got a toshiba satellite c660-1ld

See link for full details:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satel...884708-pdt.html

The problem is that wireless connection is currently running at 65mbps according to status on the network connection

It has a n type card(Realtek) in it which is meant to run at a maximum 300 mpbs

I checked the BT(British Telecom) Hub she is feeding off and that is currently running at 150 mpbs

Any ideas what can cause this? - I expected it to run at least at 130 mbps

Should mention also that download speed is about 5-6M at mo

This post has been edited by marmoo on Monday, Apr 9 2012, 17:47

[Stinky12]

Where is she getting that 65MB connection?
She should try at home and office and see if there are any differences in the connection.
Update wifi drivers may help and check device manager, if her wifi adapter is limited to G speeds only.

[Slamman]

Theoretical Throughput is just that, remember, the top specs are always cited, but your mileage will vary! As always the case for transmitted signals

[TenEightyOne]

It could be interference on the wireless band. Some machines are more sensitive to particular types of interference than others. If you've got a HomeHub3 try switching the channel.

[marmoo]

I tried the laptop at home also (same hub type) and again only 65 mbps - My desktop has a wireless card in it and that is running at 130mbps at mo

I went into properties on the wireless card and it is set to b/g/n, does not appear to have an option to switch to just n type - is this normal?

I went into both hubs via the website(BT) and switched channel - appears to have 11 seperate channels

It was on 6 so tried channel 1 and 11 (i understand it is always best to go about 5 channels away from the channel you were on) but same end result

I could not find on laptop or in the hub site an option to switch from 20mhz to 40mhz - anyone have any ideas on this?

Also, i tried updating the driver to the card via device manager but it keeps telling me my driver is up to date - should i try the realtek website direct?

Thanks for all help so far guys - hope we can find a solution

This post has been edited by marmoo on Tuesday, Apr 10 2012, 06:14

[Stinky12]

What is the model of that Realtek wireless chip?
Not all N chips are designed to run at 300mb/s, some only max out at 150mb/s.
You try at other places besides your home?
Yes, update drivers directly from Realtek.

[marmoo]

Wireless card is Realtek RTL8188CE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC

Checked on different places but same router type which may be the problem

Just gone on Realtek site

Is this what I want to download? (if it does not jump to it like on my pc it is about 3/4's down page)

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downlo...=true#RTL8188CE

Hub is BTHub2

Also, can Windows7 Defender and AVG free edition 2012 cause a reduction in mbps if used together?

This post has been edited by marmoo on Tuesday, Apr 10 2012, 15:56

[Wolf68k]

Here's a question: does it say 68mbps all of the time or only when you looked at it and the wifi is for the most part idle?
The reason I ask is because of this topic I looked at mine and I noticed it said 72mbps. I stepped away for a bit, came back and saw that is said 9mbps then jumped to 12. When I opened my browser and went to speedtest.net and ran a test it jumped to 144, which I'll call normal since that is what my dad's MBP says as well. After the test and I closed the browser it dropped back to 72mbps, as I'm typing this it reads 54mbps.
If this is the case with her's then it seems to be a non-issue. My dad's MBP was a constant 144mbps where as like I said mine fluxes until it's in use then does what it should.

If you really want to change the channel and see if that helps at all then do this:
Get inSSIDer http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
You'll see what other APs are being detected and what channel(s) they are using. Just pick one that no one else is using or fewer people are using.
The RSSi, the lower the -Xnumber the greater the signal strength, the graph below will help as well because it'll be higher up

[marmoo]

Ok...tested the speed as I was browsing and during speed test and it sat at 65mpbs - did not move

Downloaded inSSIDer and used it on the laptop 1st and it said that max rate was 65

Then tried inSSIDer on my desktop (running XP) with a different wireless card (Ralink Technology WildPackets 802.11n Wireless LAN Card)

and it says max rate is 130

I'm lost......

[Stinky12]

Looks like you're not the only one...
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Networking-Wi...ard/td-p/151463

[marmoo]

QUOTE (Stinky12 @ Tuesday, Apr 10 2012, 20:07)

Looks like you're not the only one... http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Networking-Wi...ard/td-p/151463

magic........

Looks like an email to Toshiba /Realtek is in order...can't wait for their lame advice

Thanks for all your help guys..knew if there was anything that could be done easily then you would point in the right direction but some things can't be sorted easily i suppose

[Slamman]

My Toshiba came with an Atheros, which is a common brand, like Dell using Broadcom

Realtek is perhaps more common for Ethernet hard wiring then Wifi I think

[marmoo]

QUOTE (Slamman @ Wednesday, Apr 11 2012, 22:54)

My Toshiba came with an Atheros, which is a common brand, like Dell using Broadcom Realtek is perhaps more common for Ethernet hard wiring then Wifi I think

but this begs the question 'why put one in a laptop?'

laptops are meant to be mobile and not restricted by hardwire ethernet

Unlike the common problems as per Stinky's link where people re constantly dropping from connection, the connection is stable but only at 65 mbps

suppose things could be worse

[finn4life]

legitimate question, why does it matter? Unless your internet is that fast.

[marmoo]

Truth is when it comes to PC's, I am a bit of a perfectionist and like the system to run as best as it can

Internet speed is fine on the laptop but I get a bit anal about any kind of lag

[Wolf68k]

Realtek is more commonly known for on-board audio and LAN. That's not to say that they don't do Wifi, card readers, and display controllers (I don't mean on-board video like for a PC, this is was is on the inside of the monitor and TVs) and few other things as well.
They just make the chips and supply drivers for them. I have a PCI card, some place, that has Realtek chips on it but the card was build by someone else and you had to use their drivers not Realtek. I might have trashed/recycled the card other wise I might dig it up and look it to see what it was so pardon my lack of detail but hopefully you get the point.

Why did Toshiba put a Realtek wifi card in that laptop while they use some other wifi cards in some of their other products? Save money maybe. Who knows.
HP put a crappy Intel Wifi Link 1000 BGN in my G71-340US laptop, so did Dell, ASUS, and many others. But what really sucks is that I can't simply replace the card with anything I want because HP has a whitelist in the BIOS that prevents it. Now since there are there are drivers listed from Ralink, Atheros and Broadcom listed in the list of wifi drivers for the same laptop I could put one of those it in but fat lot of good that'll do since I have no idea which ones specifically I can use because I know I can't replace the Intel card with just any Intel card which is what I want to do.
Sorry to rant.

Trust me I get that you're confused by this speed thing. All I can tell you is this, if the transfer speeds are fine then just let it go. When those start to have problems then you have a problem worth worrying about.

This post has been edited by Wolf68k on Thursday, Apr 12 2012, 16:20

[marmoo]

QUOTE

Trust me I get that you're confused by this speed thing. All I can tell you is this, if the transfer speeds are fine then just let it go. When those start to have problems then you have a problem worth worrying about

Sound advice Wolf

Think we are done here . Happy for it to be locked

Thanks again for all your help lads

[Wolf68k]

Locked by request