Any IT / Network Experts About?

Orikoru

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My laptop and phone are connected to the same Wifi Extender, same distance away, but the connection is miles slower through the laptop. I've been doing Speedtests on both, on the phone I was getting 12mb while on the laptop it was about 2. The YouTube video I was watching kept stopping to load. Anyone know how to fix this? Really annoying.
 

ScienceBoy

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Probably the wifi adapter on the laptop is older or connecting to 2.5Ghz and the phone has a newer wifi receiver and connects to the 5Ghz.

I could be wrong but without knowing the device models this is my guess.
 

GreiginFife

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Most likely its as Scienceboy says. Laptop wifi adapter (if onboard) is likely running at a slower speed if the laptop is aged.
Even some newer laptops only offer single band adapters.

There is no "fix" if that's the case, per se, and if its an on board PCIe card, reinstalling it will do nothing.

If its an older laptop then two options, one would be to replace the PCIe card internally with a dual band card. Most production windows laptops use either Intel or Atheros adapters and are around £20-£30 commonly.
Second option would be to buy a dual band USB adapter (anywhere from about £10 up) and disable the onboard adapter.

Third option, of course, would be a ethernet connection. Best speed possible and most stable.

Edit to add; of course the first port of call should always be to ensure that your device drivers are as up to date as possible. Check the driver version in device manager and then check the product page of the laptop for the most up to date version and compare.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Reinstall the network adaptor might do something
I was having wi-fi connection issues to a specific router (I couldn't connect when all other devices could) with my work laptop and our support told me to do a Network reset. That seems to have both fixed the connection issue I was having and my speed of connection has improved. I was wary about doing the reset given I didn't know if there were wider implications for doing it - but hey it worked and there do not seem to have been any wider issues.

As mentioned by @GiF - mine is an older laptop and it may have been related to the wireless adaptor...though I am not aware that the reset upgraded it - just did a full reset.
 

GreiginFife

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I was having wi-fi connection issues to a specific router (I couldn't connect when all other devices could) with my work laptop and our support told me to do a Network reset. That seems to have both fixed the connection issue I was having and my speed of connection has improved. I was wary about doing the reset given I didn't know if there were wider implications for doing it - but hey it worked and there do not seem to have been any wider issues.

As mentioned by @GiF - mine is an older laptop and it may have been related to the wireless adaptor...though I am not aware that the reset upgraded it - just did a full reset.

Your circumstances appear different. Possibly in your case packet errors were causing your connection to appear slow. Resetting the network adapter just drops it and picks ip a "fresh" connection and resetting via the router "bounces the line" effectively resetting the error counts. So you would see a difference even without touching the adapter.

In the OPs case one device is much faster showing that its more likely hardware related.

That said, resetting your home broadband connection every few weeks isn't bad practice to get in to.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Your circumstances appear different. Possibly in your case packet errors were causing your connection to appear slow. Resetting the network adapter just drops it and picks ip a "fresh" connection and resetting via the router "bounces the line" effectively resetting the error counts. So you would see a difference even without touching the adapter.

In the OPs case one device is much faster showing that its more likely hardware related.

That said, resetting your home broadband connection every few weeks isn't bad practice to get in to.
That would explain it...I tried resetting the router but that didn't work for me...and yes - it was as if the reset had unblocked something...though why for only that specific router and not any other I connect through (it's a new BT super fast router)
 

bobmac

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Your circumstances appear different. Possibly in your case packet errors were causing your connection to appear slow. Resetting the network adapter just drops it and picks ip a "fresh" connection and resetting via the router "bounces the line" effectively resetting the error counts. So you would see a difference even without touching the adapter.

In the OPs case one device is much faster showing that its more likely hardware related.

That said, resetting your home broadband connection every few weeks isn't bad practice to get in to.

I knew that, all of it, honest...

:whistle:
 

yandabrown

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Are you 100% certain that you are connected to the extender not the original router? Has it ever been quicker? Is it quicker next to the main router?
 

Orikoru

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Thanks all for responses. I did delete/refresh the Network Adapter and that does seem to have improved things fractionally. Functioning better this morning anyway (but maybe less bandwidth being used at this time). I asked some Reddit boffins as well, as you do, and as some of you said it may just be a case of the laptop being 7 or 8 years older than the phone unfortunately.
 

GreiginFife

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Thanks all for responses. I did delete/refresh the Network Adapter and that does seem to have improved things fractionally. Functioning better this morning anyway (but maybe less bandwidth being used at this time). I asked some Reddit boffins as well, as you do, and as some of you said it may just be a case of the laptop being 7 or 8 years older than the phone unfortunately.

Probably worth buying a USB adapter that is dual band capable. Amazon have plenty around the tenner mark. The laptop itself will be capable of the increased speed (unless its really old and has really slow CPU/RAM), it's probably just the onboard adapter that's limiting your speed at the moment.
 

Rooter

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Why do some of the forums suggest you unplug as well ? Surely powering off is enough ?

Meh, same thing unless your house has dodgy electrics!! . The important part is to leave devices a good minute or 2 at least before powering back up. Some will have very small internal batteries to keep them running in the event of a power glitch, so its important to reset them properly. Hence I always try to leave 5 minutes switched off.
 

Crazyface

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Your circumstances appear different. Possibly in your case packet errors were causing your connection to appear slow. Resetting the network adapter just drops it and picks ip a "fresh" connection and resetting via the router "bounces the line" effectively resetting the error counts. So you would see a difference even without touching the adapter.

In the OPs case one device is much faster showing that its more likely hardware related.

That said, resetting your home broadband connection every few weeks isn't bad practice to get in to.

Q on last bit.

Why?
 

PhilTheFragger

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Q on last bit.

Why?

Many broadband connections are over copper wire to the local green cabinet,
Over time you can get a static build up which can interfere with the signal.

Unplugging the power lead for a few seconds allows the static to dissipate.

It is much less of an issue nowadays, in the old days before fibre, as the whole link to the exchange was on copper wire.

Or you may just have a crap router ?
 
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