Laptop network speed questions...

[FreedomEclipse]

Youre better off upgrading the wifi-card because of the extra bandwidth that the mini-pci express slot gives...

Its really straight forward:

Replace the Ralink card with an Intel 7260.HMW. I have one of these in my laptop and it works great. You'll see faster speeds if your router also supports Wireless AC


The only possible fly in the ointment here is if HP have a whitelist only for parts the laptops roll off the production line with, meaning that you cant upgrade the wifi card with a completely different one because HP straight up wont allow it. They pull crap like that so you either suck it up and live with it or source replacement parts directly from them. Its a stupid thing to do but HP arent the only manufacturers that do it.

If you dont try out the intel card, you wont know if it will or wont work. There is simply no way to tell as HP have flipflopped on whitelists with different generations of their laptops so many times. But the video guide is here if you want to give it a go.

 

[Rickkins]

Check the drivers for usb3 interface

Return the adapter or keep it just in case. Crack open the laptop to see if the wifi nic is easily accessible. Upgrading that will be your only option for greater speeds. When you get the info from the card, post it up. Also note how many antenna cables are attached.

Updated the drivers, to older ones really, got a small bump...

So, this bad boy otta do it..??

https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-7260-HMWG-R-Wireless-AC-Network-adapter/dp/B00MV3N7UO/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2TAF5O14MXCM1&keywords=Intel+7260.HMW&qid=1657237762&sprefix=intel+7260+hmw%2Caps%2C47&sr=8-4

 

[Chrispy_]

The main issue with those little USB adpaters is that they're too small to get good signal and their physical size usually means they're single-antenna. Your router will do 2x2 so having a second antenna in the laptop itself would be awesome (or even three). The other questions are "how close to the router are you" and "are there any walls in the way"

If the answers are either "not that close" or "yes" then consider connecting by 2.4GHz. It's slower but it has less falloff with range and it goes around corners/through doorways better than 5GHz. Your router will do 600Mbps with a dual-antenna NIC over 2.4GHz so provided your 2.4GHz spectrum isn't congested and you're not five walls away at the opposite corner of your house, you should probably be getting 200Mbps+

 

[Rickkins]

The main issue with those little USB adpaters is that they're too small to get good signal and their physical size usually means they're single-antenna. Your router will do 2x2 so having a second antenna in the laptop itself would be awesome (or even three). The other questions are "how close to the router are you" and "are there any walls in the way"

If the answers are either "not that close" or "yes" then consider connecting by 2.4GHz. It's slower but it has less falloff with range and it goes around corners/through doorways better than 5GHz. Your router will do 600Mbps with a dual-antenna NIC over 2.4GHz so provided your 2.4GHz spectrum isn't congested and you're not five walls away at the opposite corner of your house, you should probably be getting 200Mbps+

Yea, wireless not the defining issue for me, actual speed is. I just ordered this one...

 

[Chrispy_]

Yea, wireless not the defining issue for me, actual speed is. I just ordered this one...

As long as your old laptop supports it you should be good. It's only a WiFi 5 NIC but the improvements to WiFi 6 are mostly for Routers to manage throughput to more devices at once. For a single device in uncongested airwaves, WiFi 5 is still about as good as it gets right now.

 

[Rickkins]

Sunuva.....
Seems I should be getting excellent speeds, but still no joy...

I get this from my cell phone, exact same spot...

The router is a relatively new Dlink Dir x1870

So by now I getting to the point where my big question is claw hammer, or ball peen...??

So, a small measure of success. I reinstalled Windows and got a speed bump...

Of course I hit that speed exactly once.
According to the properties, looks like I should be getting much more speed.
I'm about 12 feet from my router.
Seriously, what the actual fuck is going on with this thing...??
Thanks.


SSID: xxxxxxxxx
Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 157
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 866/866 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::445f:2688:bdc6:9f28%22
IPv4 address: 192.168.0.170
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.0.1
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Driver version: 18.33.17.1

 

[1freedude]

Switch to 2.4GHz for kicks

At the same time, how does it feel? Is the seat of your pants useage better? The numbers say it is not perfectly optimized, but user experience can sometimes trump pure numbers

 

[Rickkins]

After many battles, I got here:

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Have you tried it closer to the router? If that helps, you could set up a router nearby in bridge mode or maybe use an access point to shorten the wi-fi distance.