I'm new to wireless....

[zimagirl79]

I bought myself a laptop, which I absolutley love. I log in to my little wireless network and I can still get a signal when I'm over at the neighbor's house which I find totally cool.

My problem is, I seem to surf slower on this computer than on the one that is connected directly to the router with CAT5 cable. I read a comment on here about things being lightning fast and honestly, my reaction was "oh really?" I had been using OpenDNS but it really wasn't making any improvement in speeds so I turned it back off. I don't see any difference with or without it. I guess my question is, should I expect pages to load slower since the computer and router are communicating wirelessly? Don't laugh at me, as I said this is a new experience for me!

Anyone have suggestions as to what I can check to try to speed things up? I've kinda got a list in my head and will run through a few things, but with as much as I've got going on lately I'm likely missing something obvious. Any suggestions appreciated.

[FisionChips]

Hi Jeanne - one thing that would slow you down is if the wireless signal is weak - is your PC some way or in a different room from the wireless router. Also make and model of router would be useful.

[zimagirl79]

Well, the router is only a few feet away and my signal strength reads excellent. I had thought maybe I was getting a poor signal but no way. I have an older router so maybe I just need to set myself up with a new one. It's a Linksys, wireless-B, so older technology. I've tried a few basic steps that give me very slight improvement but nothing like I think I should get with a brand new computer.

Think I'll do some router shopping, just to pass the time......;)

[mister2]

I've never used wireless so I guess you know a lot more than me!

The only thing I can offer is to try setting WEP to 64 bit if it is at 128 bit now - the unencryption overhead could cause slowdowns. There is an article here with a few basic things to check.

Then again, it may just be the age of your router ...

[FisionChips]

Wireless B is certainly slower. If you are shopping try going for one of the netgear range such as this one:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?NGR-871160

I take it you are ADSL?

[zimagirl79]

Yes I'm thinking I should invest in a new router. I got this one so I could hook up the girls and I never really worried about how fast their connection was. Now that it's ME using it I won't be happy till I speed things up! LOL I just love shopping technology.....

Oh, and I'm on cable.

[zimagirl79]

New Netgear router purchased - same one as you pointed me to but it has a different model number here - and installed. I also went back to using OpenDNS (thanks xpgeek!) and page load times are faster. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with it for now until I can explore some more options.

[FisionChips]

my addendum was going to be that the model I had picked out wasn't a cable version... I take it the one you got was ready for cable?

[zimagirl79]

Yes ma'am. I'm a lot happier now!

[Techfreak]

I've got wireless setup but the router and wireless are completely separate boxes. I've got a Belkin router and a Linksys Wireless AP, this was mainly as i hadn't planned on having wireless in the beginning and the AP was on offer when i bought it.
The Wireless AP is on one of my Routers ports, i have MAC address filtering on the router and on the AP separately. Security wise i have WPA-2 setup which in conjunction with the MAC filtering keeps most ppl out.
i also use opendns to keep things running smoother, btw my ISP is Virgin Media.