e4300 slow wireless

some tests, when farther away it seems that the 2nd antenna makes things slower. and even when i am close disconnecting antenna 2 does not make a whole lot of a difference, some tests show even higher speed.

tests from my working location far from router

antenna 2 detached





both antennas attached



detaching antenna 1 causes the connection to break.


testing closer to the router in the adjacent room, it is not the same room where the router is

just antenna 1





both antennas

 

Well unfortunately without testing in another laptop it is hard to rule out motherboard/antennae vs your wifi card. I can tell you the 5100AGN in my Latitude 13 gets me very good speeds with my Verizon FiOS G router.

Apple don't have very easy access to the card, and I doubt you will be able to get far without custom kext files.

 

Does "detaching antenna 1 causes the connection to break" mean disconnecting both antennae or antenna 2 connected? Assuming you had antenna 2 connected then the fact that you can get a connection with only antenna 1 connected but no connection if only antenna 2 connected indicates something wrong with antenna 2 or its cable.

Ideally, you should rerun the tests with the Dell wireless card in order to confirm these results but we know from previous experience that you get an overall poor performance with the Dell wireless card.

John

 

correct, it means leaving antenna 2 connected. it seems that the dell card works better than the intel one. This is the new dell card they sent me. I am not sure I can draw any conclusion at all. All the tests were run in the same room which is closer to the router. I don't even know why the first tests scored so low.

here some tests with antenna 1 disconnected







antenna 2 disconnected







both antennas connected






and this is the Intel again with both connected
with latest driver from intel's website




with windows 7 driver

 

Thanks for the extra results which show that two antenna work better than one (which is how it should be). I therefore need to retract my previous conclusion and remain baffled.

I have tested both my E6410 and E4300 (both have Intel cards) and both give a throughput of about 9.8Mb/s on a nominal 10Mb/s internet connection. In comparison, the Samsung NC20 (details in my review - see signature - but has an Atheros wireless card) peaked at about 8Mb/s.

John

 

well at this point I am puzzled either. Right now i am running with the dell card and it seems to run better, go figure. altough this is the one they sent as a replacement. I am glad i didnt ship it back yet.

i have no clue why the intel card is slower.

 

Perhaps the card is defective? I have 3 notebooks with Intel wireless cards and they have all functioned perfectly fine.

 

i had dell send me another intel card and new antennas. lets see.