Help with Dell Draft N card, really slow connection!

Okay, the router I'm trying to connect to is a TRENDNet TEW-432BRP.

I'm currently using my PC to type this since my laptop's connection is at a crawl.

My Laptop is using a Dell Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n WLAN mini Card. When I connect to my router, it states that the speed is 54.0 Mbps, the signal Strength to the router is at it's strongest too. But it's download/upload speeds are so slow that when I ran bandwidth tests on it, it was showing the speed in kbps, not even Mbps. I downloaded the newer drivers for the network cards and threw it on the laptop using a usb drive and installed it but it's still very slow.

I tried downloading a file on the laptop and I got like 17 kbps(my actual surfing speeds varies each time I connect), then I did the same file on my PC located beside my laptop and got 500+ kbps.

If I take out the ethernet cable from my PC (connected to router) and plug it into my laptop, it gives me the 'proper' speed that I should be getting.

Is my Draft N card not compatible with my router or what's wrong? I can't figure it out.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

 

Try turning off Draft-N; and anything that starts with Super, Express, or any other fast acronym. Just run 802.11b&g mode.

 

And another strange thing I just noticed... when I play BF2142, i have perfect ping/latency, under 50s on my laptop. But when I surf the net, anything, dell.ca, google, microsoft update, its very slow and sometimes wouldn't even load. (I just got this laptop on Thursday, (yesterday))

Edit: Where do I go to disable to Draft-N? I tried to do it in device manager but that just disables the whole card. Do I use Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility or Broadcom Advanced Control Suite 2? I tried the former but couldnt find the option to disable it, trying latter now.

 

Can someone tell me how to turn off Draft-N and just run 802.11b&g mode?

 

It should be in your card's control panel. On my Atheros card, it's in the connection settings.

 

My usb wifi works too (ie good speeds).

Well, I called Dell Tech support and they told me that the Dell Draft N card isn't compatible with my two year old router. Said they've had problems with TRENDNet routers for years.

So I'm going to find a friend or neighbour that has a good wireless router and try connect to them. If it works I guess it works, if it doesn't... well I'm calling them back again.

Also, I plan to call Customer Care to see if I can get a free Intel card or something. My USB wifi is fine but I would still prefer to have working internal wireless.

Thanks for your help btw WackyT

 

You're probably better off getting a PreN router. Right now frys online (outpost) has a refurb Netgear Next router for under $50 which uses the same broadcom intesiFI chip as those in the Dells. It should offer decent speeds close to Ethernet. Its a pretty good deal as most PreN junk is over $130ish. From the looks of it, we won't be getting true N till Q3. Anyways if you go that route let us know what speeds you get!

 

You do NOT need to do that, it's NOT your wireless card. As long as you have the latest driver from dell website, it should work just fine. I have the same wireless card and it's working GREAT. I bet it's your wireless router,
if you just bought this router, do yourself a favor and return it, add some $$ and get something decent, like buffalo, linksys WRT54GL, or a pre-N router, GL.

 

i would upgrade to the latest firmware of your old router. try that and see if it helps and as other ppl suggested here, disable N option.

 

Draft=Beta

thats why N is not a wireless standard yet. there will be compatibly issues till it is ironed out. I would suggest disabling the N band unless you have it hooked up to a N router. My linkys Draft N router was acting really weird till I disabled the N band. come to find out the N band slightly overlaps the G band, and was screwing the signal up.

 

I have tested my wireless card with 3 G routers, linksys WRT54G, buffalo WHR-G54S, and D-link DI-524. No issues whatsoever, try getting a better wireless router, but first flash the latest firmware for the router and try, otherwise just sell it on craiglist and get something better.