Killer Wireless and Skype Success Story

To add a little background to this story, I currently live in Chile, but spend months at a time in my original home in the States. My girlfriend is Chilean and while I'm in the states we often spend hours at a time in skype conversations.

With every computer I had (custom built, asus G73Jh, and an asus ultrabook), there was a random chance of my connection resetting during a skype call. After googling this I found it was a common problem for anybody using skype over a wireless connection. It turns out that if you are too far from your router (only a few rooms for me), the bandwidth required to continue the video call can cause a problem with a weaker connection (they were still 5 bar connections for me) which causes the driver to kill the connection. This usually requires a restart to fix, as a /release /renew was useless.

In my recent purchase of a m18x R2 I opted to upgrade to the Killer wireless in the hopes of solving my skype woes. Though I haven't noticed any other improvements, I have not had this problem a single time. I am very happy with this result, and I thought I would share this success story in case anyone else wishes to consider this during their future purchases.

 

proviticus,

Nice results !!

Curious of:

During this observation, was the same router used?
Which router(s) have you been using?
In your other computers, which brand and model of wireless cards were installed?
Are you using the killer wireless software or just the drivers?

Thank you,
Monnie

P.S. Nice facial decomposition. Time for some reconstructive flaps.

 

Monnie,
I have used the same router in both cases, some netgear dual-band router (forget the model name, I can check when I get home), and I've tested it using the same desk (same distance from said router).

The wireless cards were the built in wireless in the asus laptops. Appears to have been an Atheros AR9825 (according to the internet) for the G73Jh, and Atheros AR9485 for the ultrabook. I cannot remember for the life of me what I bought for the custom, but knowing my past self, whatever was cheap, so something crappy.

As for the software, I'm mostly just using the drivers, as I connected through the windows utilities. However I did open the software and run the speed test to configure the Up/Down in the software. Not sure if that mattered.

 

Proviticus,

Thank you for the information.

Enjoy your skype sessions

 

So I guess the killer wifi is actually pretty good. I wonder if I should get that upgrade but I'm trying to save as much money as possible already. Ugh, such a hard choice...money or amazing skype calls..,which I admit drop on me a lot.

 

I'd say pull the trigger on the Killer if you skype often (especially if you get dropped a lot too). It's a cheaper upgrade and maybe you can get some kind of discount out of your representative if you tell a sad story

Being that skype and gaming take up nearly equal amounts of my 'computer-time', the amount of money spent to upgrade the wireless compared to the gaming upgrades seemed like a pretty easy choice. Also, there's always that chance of an increase in multiplayer gaming enjoyment, like keeping your downloads going during gaming and let it sort out the correct priorities.

 

I have to agree that, while I haven't done any Skypeing yet, the Software does make a difference. Setting Internet from a 4 (lowest) to a 1 (highest) priority, you can definitely notice the difference. Almost like opening an application from a hard drive vs. a solid state.

Though, I've heard that the Killer Wireless card is just a re-branded Atheros Card? So not sure if your improvements were based off of the software or simply improvements due to technology advancing over time.

But especially since I went for the older 1102, for $30 it is definitely a good investment for the price, I would say, especially when you're travelling to other areas (even just university, etc.) where the wireless isn't that great, to be assured that your internet or what have you is being allocated the most bandwidth is well worth it. (Not sure how it works with the Intel cards, though I'd have to assume that there are no such capabilities?)

 

it was not killer wireless that solved the problem but rather a more powerfull chip and antenna. any usb wifi would perform even better.

 

So what is the conclusion? I keep hearing different stories. Some like the skype success stories and others saying it hardly makes a difference.

 

Well here's the conclusion:
With my killer wireless I have no skype connectivity issues.

With my old GH73jh, a custom desktop, and my UX31 ultrabook I all have connectivity issues because of the distance from my router.

Maybe either card I could have purchased in the M18x would have a better antenna and thus better reception, and finally no skype issues. However I cannot conclude that. I can only conclude that I no longer have Skype issues, and my M18x R2 is the only computer I have that can say that.

I attributed it to the Killer Wireless, but perhaps that was an attribution error, however, I do love the software, and will continue to make this attribution error until proven incorrect