On my 2nd 7811FX - 2nd problem

The second problem I'm having has happened with BOTH of the 7811s I've had. The Wifi blows. I've tried both on several networks (my home is N, my work is G) and it gets bad download speeds (less than 25k/sec) whereas my little Sony Vaio 1.2Ghz with Wifi G gets upwards of 500k/sec+ on the same sites downloading the same files from the same Wifi router. So I know it isn't the connection, it's something either in the config of the 7811 or the configs of the router (which I hope it isn't because I don't have access to most of the routers configs except my home one). I've also tried it in several coffee shops with the same results. I carry both laptops - the Sony is only 2.8 lbs, so it's a feather compared to the Gateway...

Ideas? Please link to previous resolution if there is one. Again sorry for the double post if there is already a solution, but searching on here is difficult at best with all the thread hijacking.

Thanks in advance!

Rob

 

I have the same problem as you, 2 7811's both have horrible wireless, updated drivers=nothing. start in safemode with networking=nothing, plugged in my D-link usb dongle and bam it went 600 kbps a second. I think the wireless cards on these laptops are bad.

 

are u sure about this? the wireless card is made by intel, intel 5100.
when do we see a bad intel product hardware wise?

 

That's odd. My WiFi works great on my P-7811FX and it's the 2887 one.

 

Yeah my wifi is friggin good. The connection is fantastic, the signal is fantastic. You might want to update your wifi driver (I'm using the Intel wifi driver that can be found here: http://support.gateway.com/support/...t=browse&platform=10022&model=12115&os=&type= )

 

Same here.

 

i have great wifi throughout my house even across the street.

 

Are you trying to connect A B G or N? For 802.11b, you should have no problem connecting. If you have an older 802.11g wireless router you may need to upgrade the firmware on the router as many 11g routers hit the market before the standard was firmed up. The same is happening with 11n right now. Get both the latest driver for the intel card as described above and get the latest firmware for your router. Linksys is usually pretty good about keeping up to date. But some other companies are known to let standards violations linger well after the standards had been established.

 

New Intel wifi drivers out:

http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21105

 

I downloaded the latest drivers for both V64 and XP and both installations still crawl on downloads and general browsing at both my work wireless (G) and at home (N with latest firmware).

I found an AnandTech article describing the difference between the 3 different mini PCIe wifi modules from Intel:

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3356&p=6

It shows that they did buy the least expensive one with the least amount of antennas and concurrent spatial streams.

I'll try sitting right next to my wireless N tonight to see if it may be an interference issue. But like I said, my little Sony with wireless G performs 8-10x better sitting nearby the Gateway so I imagine it would experience similar interference...

Thanks for all the responses! Other than the WiFi I'm extremely happy with the FX. FYI, some games do NOT like Vista 64 and weren't happy until I did an XP dual boot. Gothic 3 is the one that got me doing it - the copy protection didn't work (kept saying it couldn't find the DVD) and the frame rates were miserable on Vista 64. It runs beatifully on XP though.

Rob

 

Perhaps you just got a bad WiFi card? Mine works flawlessly. I just installed TFC through STEAM and was getting 800 kb/s.

 

I have heard of Vista and wifi speed issues from several people. It could very well be vista and not your laptop. Mine however is work flawlessly. I have gotten over 1.8m/s downloads (love fios) over wifi. I am running my 7811 with the stock OS installed.

 

Running xp sp3 and with intel proset wireless 12.0.4.0 and connected to a Wireless G Linksys WRT54G with firmware replaced; I'm getting 2500 kb/s and 422 kb/s ups (same as my desktop hard lined). No problems yet. I get the exact same results when connecting to a Netgear WGT624 (wireless G).

Since you tried updating the drivers, have you tried reseating the card as well as the antenna? Also, one of the ways to know for sure is to find someone with a working wireless card and put it in your system. If it works great, then it's your card. If it sucks, then it's either the software or perhaps the pci interface to the pc...

Btw: if it's within 14 days, I'd recommend taking it back to BB for an exchange (unfortunately again).