MAC vs PC - Network issues

J

joaquimjssoares

n00b
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
18
Hi Guys,

I'm having a strange situation on my PC, and I really am struggling to have it sorted...

I have a notebook - MAC Book Pro - which connects to my wireless network with absolutely no problems. Download rates are always around 1.5 - 2 Mbs, and I'm happy with it.

Now with my PC I have completely diferent results. It gets to the point of going down to 50Kbs... I've tried several USB wireless devices on my PC and the result is always the same. Well, not always. From time to time I can get good results, but never as good as the MAC. I've also installed the same USB wireless devices on the MAC and the results are just as good as the original MAC wireless device.

I've recently changed the router - I had an old Netgear 54G and bought a brand new one, also Netgear N - but again, with the MAC everything works great.

I recently updated my OS to W7 and expected it to be better. In the beggining it was a little better, but now is just as bad.

I really don't understand what is happening. The only thing I think it can be is some kind of Malware that affects the network. Of course I have anti-virus installed - I use avast home edition - but can it be that just the anti-virus is not enough? Can it be a bad configuration of the wireless network on W7?

I'm running out of ideas... any help will be much apreciated.

Cheers,

JS
 
are both laptops being used in the same area?

have you tried changing the wireless channel on the router, just for giggles?

is it only the wireless connection on the Windows laptop? have you tried plugging directly into the router to see what the speed is like?
if only the wireless connection, highly doubtful it's a virus/malware
 
Try forcing your router down to G only speeds and see if the problem persists. The mac should have native N capabilities but the usb dongles may not and maybe having both going at once is pissing your router off.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the answers. I'm going nuts with this. In the past 1 week the connection with the desktop has become insane. I can only get 20kbps now. I am going to buy a big network cable (15m is what I need... will I have trouble with it?) and connect the router directly to the desktop. I'm really sick of it.

Just for the record the USB wireless device is a WNDA3100 and the router is a WNR3500. Both Netgear. I had a G router, and changed to this one thinking it would fix my slow connection, but unfortunately it didn't.

I still don't understand why the mac has no problem at all. And the wireless card on the mac is a G card.

Any ideas before I go with the cable solution?

Thanks
JS
 
You can run up to ~100m of CAT5 but I wouldn't go over that. 15m is fine. As far as your issue, I can't really narrow it down. Could be the position of your PC is causing the signal to go through some kind of interference, could be a problem with your USB controller, could potentially be malware. I would run a hardline and see if your problem persists.
 
Thank you very much for your help guys... it may be some signal interference for sure... I'll do some more tests tonight by changing the USB dongle position (I have an USB extension) and see if that affects the signal.

Thanks once again.

JS
 
If your testing determines that the usb adapter is the problem, try replacing it with a wireless pci or pcie card. I've never had very much success with the usb ones.
 
I agree it could be where the PC is placed. if you can move the USB dongle then brilliant failing that try the mac sitting on top of the PC.

However my main hunch would be Windows 7! I have tried it on many machines and found its networking skills to be VERY poor, both speed and reliability with other machines. Kinda like when Vista first came out, awful on networks!

G
 
joaquimjssoares said:
I still don't understand why the mac has no problem at all. And the wireless card on the mac is a G card.

Any ideas before I go with the cable solution?

Thanks
JS
Click to expand...

There is one big problem, the TCP/IP protocol stack is the same on both but then the windows laptop has to use windows to process everything else. :p

In all honesty, I have laptops both Dells and Lenovos at my office that have the same problem periodically... ghosting them usually fixes it. The MAC's never seem to have problems with their wireless. Other Windows laptops go forever with no problems also...

I'm sure the problem will go away wired, otherwise you could try a re-install of the tcp/ip stack or re-install windows.
 
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