WiFi speeds differ laptop-desktop

[Bunn]

Hey guys had Sky Fibre for bout 2 months now all going well, i have a edimax usb drive which picks up bout 36-37mb on the laptop in all rooms in the house, but when i use it on the desktop it only seems to get about 16mb very strange, could any body help?

Many thanks

[Scubbie]

Could I suggest a couple of things to help diagnose this?

Download and install inSSIDer: inSSIDer – Discover The Wi-Fi Around You | MetaGeek

Take a look at the relative signal strength of each.

Next could you double check the USB port specifications? I wonder it your PC has a USB 1 or you have the adaptor plugged into a hub?

[Bunn]

The signal kept going from good to normal and was at 73% on the USB drives utility, But the laptop picks up a munch better signal in the same place. haven't tried that software yet will have a look later, I'm sure the USB are 2.0 as the pc is not that old.

[Scubbie]

No problem. Also could you confirm what the reported WiFi connection speed is please on both the Laptop and the PC?

There are several other things which can affect the through put speeds. For example AV & Firewall software will check everything and will slow it down a little. Different packages will affect the speed differently and things such as RAM and CPU speed will affect things even more.

With such a dramatic difference in speed I would first ensure that they are both connecting at similar/identical speeds and the the signals are good for both. I would also be inclined to check that there is no source of radio interference near the PC.

Finally do check that you haven't accidentally got two firewalls or two AV packages running on the PC.

[Bunn]

They both duel core processers both with 2gb ram, running avg on both and just windows firewall, desktop was testing at 16mb and lap 34 and they where next to each other, just used the one USB dongle tho.

[Isitme]

just used the one USB dongle tho.

Do you mean you are using the same dongle to test the Laptop and the desktop?

There is a good chance one is connecting at G speed and the other at N. Check at the manufacturers site that the drivers are fully up to date.

[Bunn]

Hey guys getting 34.89 now, very bizzare tho as I'm now using the USB at the back and each one gives different speeds one was 4mb one was 10mb and found one that was giving me 34, the front USB wa only giving 16, any reason why this is???

Many thanks all

[Bunn]

Can anybody see this thread I can't seem to see it

[Isitme]

If you can't see it, how can you post in it?

one was 4mb one was 10mb and found one that was giving me 34, the front USB wa only giving 16, any reason why this is???

It is probably a combination of a) The USB hub also being used by another device, b) The difference between USB 1.1 and USB 2.