Why is my wireless so much slower than wired connection

Windows Vista SP2 across all desktop and laptops.
Netgear WGR614v4, updated firmware
When I speedtest on the desktop, it shows 7mb down/3mb up, but on my laptop I only get 700k down/2mb up. I set it up as open network (no password) enable access point and SSID. The router and the laptop wireless adapter are both capable of G speed, so I don't understand I am not getting anywhere near the wired connection on the desktop, can anyone help? thanks.

 

Do you have a lot of 2.4 ghz gadgets around the house? I had to buy a new phone so that it wouldn't compete with my wireless.

 

Well, think of it, one of the laptops might only have a B capable wireless adapter...does it slow down the entire network? The router is capable of ABG. We have two iPhones, no other gadgets around.

 

The signal strength impacts your speed alot. As well as the connection speed of wireless G being 54Mbps, while a wired connection is 100Mbps.

Although the difference in speed you are getting is much higher than normal.

 

11b can impact performance. With 11g being 54mbps it throughput is only around 30mbps. The type of security your using also can impact performance. Try to run WPA(2) AES as your main wireless security, have SSID broadcasted to for best performance. I do not recommend MAC filtering, poor excuse for security.

 

what do you have against it?

 

Having a wireless B product on your Wireless G network severly impacts your network performance. The best suggestion is to upgrade the wireless B product.

 

Now i have the wireless network to broadcast only G speed, but it's still the same. Do I need to enable access point? I have the simplest type of wireless setup here, a cable connection going through the desktop and a wireless router...why is it so difficult to get speed close to the wired? I don't have wireless B product on the network anymore.

 

Am I reading this correctly, your cable connection is going through the desktop to the wireless router then to your laptop?

That only adds more factors to the equation.

 

anyone else? I am getting good signal strength (small apt). It's like the downstream is severely caped on my laptop because I am getting 2 to 3mb upstream always.

 

So, was I correct?

 

Deskptop with cable modem, i installed a netgear wireless router to have wireless connection. That's all there is.

 

So the netgear is connected to your desktop?

 

Yeah. But anyway, I changed the channel to 1, which according to some smart wireless program, nobody was on it, and immediately I get close to wired speed! Woohoo! I didn't know the channel could affect it so much. So why only 1, 6, and 11 are recommended? What about others in between?

 

Adjacent channels overlap and interfere with each other (e.g. using channel 6 also affects channels 4-5 and 7-8 in the US), so you end up with only three non-overlapped channels.

If all three are extremely crowded and you can't get a decent connection going you could try the other channels, but otherwise don't bother.

 

Thanks. You guys are awesome!

 

Why in the world do you go through your desktop then to the router? That kind of defeats the purpose of using a router. Change your setup so the router is fed directly by the cable modem. This will add a NAT firewall and give a lot less lag. Most cable companies registers MAC address of the PC used to setup the account. Just clone your MAC address into the router and every thing should come up.

 

wired versus wireless

of course wired is always faster because they have uninterruptible constant flow of data compare to wireless which is prone to interference.

 

I believe it's sort of 3-way connection. Router, modem and desktop. I dunno, I just follow the Netgear manual.