Slow Network Transfers With Intel 5300

Hi,

I just upgraded from a 4965AGN to a 5300 and I'm experiencing slow wireless transfers on my network.

The network is my T61 with an Intel 5300 and a desktop with a DLink DWA-556 802.11n PCIe atheros based card. Both the WLAN cards are running the latest drivers and the router has the latest firmware.

I'm using a 802.11n 2.4Ghz router (Draytek 2710Vn) and both the network cards report a connection of 300Mbs, but transfer speeds are around 3MB/s.

802.11n 2.4Ghz auto channel width is setup on the router and on the cards, and Im using WPA2 AES.

Any ideas?

 

30mbit transfers aren't bad...but try it without WPA2 AES, even though I am sure you want the security. Doesn't hurt to see if encryption hits your performance.

 

Did you set the 5300 card to operate in 40MHz (AKA Fat channel) mode for 2.4 GHz 802.11N?? This is off by default, and mandatory for good 802.11N performance (however, it will kill 802.11G clients in range [unless it falls back to 20MHz automatically]).

I'm not sure what performance to expect between two wireless clients, but I have been able to get very good 802.11N performance on my Wi-Fi 5100 with a D-Link 655 (desktop backend via GigE). I have been able to achieve 110mbps w/ AES for actual file transfers (full specs in 802.11N link in sig).

 

Yes its set to "Auto" on the 5300 and "20/40" on my router. The DLink desktop adapter doesnt have a setting for this.

 

I thought that you couldn't run Draft N without encryption? Of course, the throughput might be faster at G, without encryption, but I doubt it...

 

You're right.

 

why would you do that, 4965 is about the same as 5300 performance wise.

 

Not quite.

Intel has limited the 4965AGN to only use the 20Mhz channel on the 2.4HGhz band, so the maximum connection speed to a 802.11n access point is limited to 130Mbs.

The 5300 supports both 20Mhz and 40Mhz channels on the 2.4Ghz band.

 

Theoretically but has anyone posted actual real world performance differences?

 

Well I found a HUGE real world performance difference by enabling 40MHz mode on my 5100 (56.70mbps real world @ 20MHz, 111.10mbps real world @ 20MHz, all other things equal), see this thread.

 

Did you ever find a solution to your problem? I'm trying to transfer files wirelessly between a Lenovo Thinkpad W500 with the Intel 5300 and a desktop machine using a D-Link DWA-556. My router is a D-Link DIR-655.

My transfer speeds are SUPER low... 1MB/sec if I'm lucky, often significantly slower. Encryption is WPA2/AES, router bandwidth is set to Auto 20/40, both machines report a 300Mbps connection, but according to the router, the desktop is usually in the range of 240Mbps and the W500 varies between 50 and 100Mbps.

I set the Intel 5300 bandwidth to auto (the only other option was 20mhz only), but still no improvement.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks for that tip. I used to be maxed at 130mpbs, now I changed the setting to auto and getting full 300mpbs for the first time. Kudos.

 

To install the 5300 card in the T61 would mean the bios has to be hacked, as the 5300 card is not whitelisted in the bios.