Show off your internet speed!

bobkn said:

The laptop is a Lenovo Ideapad 110-15isk. It is spec'd through IEEE 802.11n. Presumably, that applies to both bands. (It is connected on the 5GHz band now.)

I had a conversation with a fellow earlier this evening who said that the 2.4GHz band is limited to 54Mbps. I'm not completely clear on that, but I believe that it applies to 802.11g. Newer versions (like 802.11n) don't have that limit.

What USB adapter are you considering for your wife? Just curious. My second PC connects via a USB adapter, but it's larger than a dongle. A7000 – Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi USB Adapter – USB 3.0, Dual Band

Click to expand...

I'm looking at this nano TP-Link dongle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PB1X4C...olid=2V7GV5K2XZAMH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it.
It has a good signal. Not thrilled with the speed, though. It's not looking much better than what she has. I'll continue to look around.

She is connected to my main router now and not a signal repeater. For some reason, her computer was connecting as an 802.11a, which is 54Mbps if memory serves. I need to disable the other three router signals on her system from auto-connecting, though. Currently, all is good. If I still don't like the speed of her Internet connection once we upgrade ISPs, I'll get the nano dongle.

That one you bought is great for a desktop but way too large for her. My wife likes to treat her technology roughly. I can see her breaking that the first day she has it. Or complaining about how large it is.

In an earlier post, I have the speeds for all the types of connections. Here's that link again:

I'm quickly learning more and more about Wi-Fi signals, I think! :)

If you get an adapter for your wife's laptop, it may be helpful to connect in the 5GHz band. Assuming that she doesn't need the greater range of the 2.4GHz band.

I didn't intend to suggest the A7000 for use with a laptop. It'd be much too clunky for most people.

Thanks for the link. It's not up-to-date, but I don't think I have any 802.11ax hardware anyway.

This websites findings were way slower that what I got for some reason

bobkn said:

If you get an adapter for your wife's laptop, it may be helpful to connect in the 5GHz band. Assuming that she doesn't need the greater range of the 2.4GHz band.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I've connected her laptop to the 5Ghz band. I'll see how that runs once I get the new Internet. If not, I'll be searching for a good dongle.

jvickers said:

I'm looking at this nano TP-Link dongle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PB1X4C...olid=2V7GV5K2XZAMH&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it.
It has a good signal. Not thrilled with the speed, though. It's not looking much better than what she has. I'll continue to look around.

Click to expand...

Havalook at this one. It's much faster, for only about an inch more in size. (My wife loves hers.) The nanos are all pretty limited.
https://www.amazon.com/USB-WiFi-Net...adapter+archer+t2u+nano&qid=1631395975&sr=8-7

Wisewiz said:

Havalook at this one. It's much faster, for only about an inch more in size. (My wife loves hers.)
https://www.amazon.com/USB-WiFi-Net...adapter+archer+t2u+nano&qid=1631395975&sr=8-7

Click to expand...

Thanks! I put that on my wish list just now to remind me about it.

@bobkn , out of curiosity, what's the specs on the Realtek® L8200A LAN Turbo LAN Utility on your motherboard for you to get those download speeds? I know the onboard ethernet on my board is 1,000/1,000Mbps, for instance.

jvickers said:

@bobkn , out of curiosity, what's the specs on the Realtek® L8200A LAN Turbo LAN Utility on your motherboard for you to get those download speeds? I know the onboard ethernet on my board is 1,000/1,000Mbps, for instance.

Click to expand...

The L8200A is limited to 1Gb, even though it seems to be in the GBe family. (It appears to be an OEM only controller, and it's not to be found on Realtek's web site.) I was able to get about 945Mbps down with it, slightly better than the expected 940Gbps.

I just added an inexpensive PCI-E 1x card with a Realtek 8125 controller. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V1HG47H?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details (You can save a couple of dollars on a similar card without the red heatsink.) I have it set (Device Manager) to 2.5Gbps; no negotiation.

Editorial comment: looks like it's early days for 2.5Gbps desktop gear. I intended to duplicate my previous setup (Comcast compatible modem with voice, and a separate Wi-Fi router) while having a 2.5GBps connection from the PC to the modem. That turned out to be difficult and expensive. I ended up going with an xFinity AX7 "gateway", which made it easy. (I did spend an hour on the phone with Comcast support, trying to figure out how to split the 2.4 and 5GHz bands on that device. The default is to have them merged, which I didn't want. Eventually, I prevailed, and I see a different network name for each band. Everything is configured through a smartphone app, which is novel for me.) $14/month.

I learned the hard way that one does not install an Ethernet switch between a modem and a wireless router.

bobkn said:

The L8200A is limited to 1Gb, even though it seems to be in the GBe family. (It appears to be an OEM only controller, and it's not to be found on Realtek's web site.) I was able to get about 945Mbps down with it, slightly better than the expected 940Gbps.

I just added an inexpensive PCI-E 1x card with a Realtek 8125 controller. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V1HG47H?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details (You can save a couple of dollars on a similar card without the red heatsink.) I have it set (Device Manager) to 2.5Gbps; no negotiation.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I was thinking you must have installed a PCI-E 1x card. I was looking at that Realtek card you link here last night and posted it in the My Latest Purchase thread with the caveat that I had to get that in the future! Good to know it seems like a solid card to purchase. Very inexpensive, really, when a MB with a 2.5G ethernet connection is wickedly expensive. Sure, there are other amenities on the newer MBs, but that's the only thing on them I was thinking about. I'm not at that place where I need anything faster than a 1G Internet connection, so things can wait.

jvickers said:

Thanks! I was thinking you must have installed a PCI-E 1x card. I was looking at that Realtek card you link here last night and posted it in the My Latest Purchase thread with the caveat that I had to get that in the future! Good to know it seems like a solid card to purchase. Very inexpensive, really, when a MB with a 2.5G ethernet connection is wickedly expensive. Sure, there are other amenities on the newer MBs, but that's the only thing on them I was thinking about. I'm not at that place where I need anything faster than a 1G Internet connection, so things can wait.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure that I can recommend the card, as I've only had it for a few days Installed late on Thursday, 9 September. So far so good, though. A $30 risk isn't too bad.

First, I'm getting an internet upgrade on Thursday, from 10Mb, to 35Mb. From different ISPs.

For some reason, my internet bottlenecked during an live YouTube video at 480p.

Here's mine:

Reminder: Please see the video in the first post on how to post your results from Speedtest.net:

/edit
New ISP!

Here is mine @ 10PM local time Saturday evening. Paying for 1Gb up and down but rarely see that when I am awake.

Alex Baker said:

Click to expand...

When I first got Metronet 1 GB up and down mine was this fast. Now with everyone on the fiber network for its speed the top speeds are slower. I am in Lebanon IN.

I changed from my old ISP to ATT and got a new speed:



Not nearly as fast as some have, but my reason for changing ISP wasn't speed, although I got 25 mbps more speed anyway.