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    Horrible internet speeds on R2, help!

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by zarzak, Jul 7, 2010.

  1. zarzak

    zarzak Notebook Consultant

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    For some reason my internet is really suffering on the R2 while using wireless.

    I have an apple airport base station as my wireless hub, and I've never had any problems with it before now. It works fine with my macbook pro, my eee pc, my playstation 3, my roommate's old pc, and has worked well for numerous pc's owned by friends.

    For some reason though my alienware m11x is having a lot of trouble with it. It takes the m11x a bit to acquire a signal, and when it does my internet download speeds are less than half (confirmed using speedtest - I went from 18 mbps normally to under 9 mbps). What is going on here?

    Has anyone else run into this problem?

    I also noticed slow internet speeds on my m11x at my family's home as well - they also have an airport base station.
     
    zarzak, Jul 7, 2010
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  2. corwinicre

    corwinicre Notebook Deity

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    I don't know for sure if this is your problem, but there is an option under the advanced power settings of each power plan to control whether the wireless adapter uses more power and is faster or less power and is slower.
     
    corwinicre, Jul 7, 2010
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  3. zarzak

    zarzak Notebook Consultant

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    Nope, am on "maximum performance" when plugged in, which was what my testing was done under.
     
    zarzak, Jul 7, 2010
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  4. tk112190

    tk112190 Notebook Consultant

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    Holy crap, are you serious? I didn't know that.. LOL. Wow. Thanks ;D
     
    tk112190, Jul 7, 2010
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  5. zarzak

    zarzak Notebook Consultant

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    Just tried speedtest again, to check. Both laptops sat next to eachother, and I ran the test simultaneously.

    Macbook Pro: 18.24 Mb/s upload ; ping 14ms
    Alienware m11x: 8.52 Mb/s upload ; ping 52ms
    Upload speed was about the same for both

    ..

    And again, wireless is set to 'maximum performance' on the alienware, and alienware is plugged in.
     
    zarzak, Jul 7, 2010
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  6. Rokkitz

    Rokkitz Notebook Enthusiast

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    So... 10/100 Ethernet taking its toll? Or just bad antennae?
     
    Rokkitz, Jul 7, 2010
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  7. tk112190

    tk112190 Notebook Consultant

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    Have you tried reinstalling the dell drivers? If you have try installing them again, sometimes that helps. :)
     
    tk112190, Jul 7, 2010
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  8. MrPharCyde

    MrPharCyde Notebook Guru

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    MrPharCyde, Jul 8, 2010
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  9. MaxGeek

    MaxGeek Notebook Evangelist

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    The speed of the ethernet port has nothing to do with the wireless. The wireless card supports N, but it does only have 2 antennas where as most N cards tend to have 3 antennas.

    My wireless seems fine though connected to my Dlink DIR-825.
    http://www.speedtest.net/result/872604988.png
     
    MaxGeek, Jul 8, 2010
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  10. zarzak

    zarzak Notebook Consultant

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    I will give that a try tonight. If it doesn't work I guess I'll have to call Dell ... :(
     
    zarzak, Jul 8, 2010
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  11. zarzak

    zarzak Notebook Consultant

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    As a last ditch effort I tried out firefox instead of ie, and my speeds doubled. I knew ie was bad, but really ... ? :p
     
    zarzak, Jul 8, 2010
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