Member Avatar for peter94

Just moved into my apartment for college, signed up for the 256k cable package through kms internet. Hooked up a WBR-2310 D-link router (wireless) to provide internet to my desktop and a laptop. Both computers download files at about 600-900 bytes (yes bytes, not kbytes) per second. sometimes it will get as high as 2kbs. When I unplug the router and hook the laptop up directly to the cable modem it will download at like 30kbs or more. Or when i create the port forwarding on port 80 (http) the computer i do that for will download at least 30kbps. I just want to be able to have both computers download at a reasonable speed. Both computers are windows xp, desktop xp pro, laptop xp home. laptop has centrino chip, desktop has pentium 4, both have 512mb ram. internet pages load okay, not great, not as fast as i'm used to, but okay. I just cant deal with the slow download speeds, also streaming stuff doesnt happen very fast either.

Another problem is i have WEP encryption enabled. I go and punch in the wep key in the laptop (or desktop) and connect to the internet and it works for a while (maybe 5 min) then somthing happens and the password reverts itself automatically to some 8 digit password and i have to re-enter it in order to get back on the internet. This is through windows. Right now i'm using the intel pro set program to run the internet and it is working, i was just wondering why the windows was kicking me off?

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The symptoms described by — full speed when a PC is tied directly to the modem but very slow transfers when going through the wireless box, plus Windows repeatedly losing the saved key while the vendor utility works — point at two separate problems: a flaky router/firmware or NAT/firewall issue, and a wireless-manager/driver conflict that’s corrupting the stored key. was right to flag unauthorized users as a risk, but that alone would not usually cause the extreme throttling described.

Try these troubleshooting steps in order:

  • Connect one PC to the router by Ethernet, disable Wi-Fi on that PC, and run a speed test. If wired-through-router is slow, the router (firmware/NAT/QoS) or router-to-modem link is the culprit. If wired is fast, the wireless link or adapter settings are at fault.
  • With a single wireless client, move it close to the AP and retest. If speed jumps, look for RF interference or a bad antenna placement/channel congestion (pick channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4GHz).
  • In the router UI, check for QoS/bandwidth-limiting, SPI/firewall and any “bandwidth control” features; temporarily disable them for testing. Try placing a client in the router DMZ to see if NAT handling is broken.
  • On the PCs, use only one wireless manager (either Windows Zero Configuration or Intel PROSet), not both. Update the wireless adapter drivers. If Windows keeps reverting a stored key, delete all old wireless profiles and recreate one clean profile.
  • If problems persist after the above: factory-reset the router, reconfigure carefully, and re-test. If wired throughput through the reset router is still poor, replace the router — consumer units do fail in the NAT/firmware layer and are inexpensive to swap.

Security note: WEP is easily broken. Move to WPA2-AES if both clients support it, change the router admin password, and check the DHCP/client list in the router UI for unknown devices.

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Member Avatar for lasher511

Sounds like either the router that you are using is faulty, your too far away from the router (this shouldn't be a problem for you considering they go upto 100m)or someone else is using your bandwith.

And before i get like 600 posts saying BUT HE HAS WEP ENABLED HOW COULD THEY BE. It is not that hard to crack a WEP encrytion if you have the right tools and the right tools are easy to get and cost under $80 which would be well worth it if your on a campus and its likely their will be at least one person using a wireless router.

Member Avatar for peter94

Actually, here's EVERYTHING that happened. I moved in, got ineternet, hooked up wireless router, everything seemed to be working fine, then like a month later i realized download speeds were quite slow so in an effort to fix that i found out that my firmware was out of date, so i updated that, and somehow in doing so it basically restarted my router so i had to go through and set it all up again, (before i had wep enabled) but this time i decided to do WPA, and i did and it wasnt working. We couldnt get on to the computer. but i think that is because something is messed up in the windows program and it keeps defaulting itself back to some strange password. I think i fixed that though. I deleted the ssid on the windows program and made a new one and now it seems to be holding the password, but i cant figure out why my downloads are so slow. i mean come on? 856 bytes per second is slower than things were ten years ago.

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