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Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:01 am
by Major_A
How do you see how fast your adapter is running? I can see the bars but that doesn't get to the meat and potatoes. 4 bars is worthless to me if my 300Mbps adapter is only working at 40Mbps.
See example:
- NIC_Speed.png (33.07 KiB) Viewed 18915 times
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:18 am
by kenc51
The bars represent the signal quality, the speed below that is how fast the link is currently.
You can in theory get 5x full bars and a link speed of only 1Mbit.
The best (free) way to test network speed/throughput is using "iPerf" or "jPerf".
http://iperf.sourceforge.net/
I use it for modem testing in work. You'll need a second pc as it's uses the server/client model to work.
Don't change the defaults as incorrect options will give seriously slow results.
Tutorial here
http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php
To help poor signal issues, first change the following settings on the router.
Output power: This is easy --> 100% (Don't go higher if you have the option too!)
Channel: use 1, then 6 then 11. In that order, don't bother trying the other channels unless these don't help.
"netstumbler" (think its called vistumbler now) can show you what channels other networks are on.
"Fragmentation threshold" - Lowering this can help, drop by ~256bytes at a time.
"RTS Threshold" - Lowering can help, if you have interferance from other networks, baby monitors etc.
Drop by 256bytes at a time.
If you've no wireless G clients, set to N only and if not N clients; G-only.
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:17 pm
by Major_A
The problem is I don't know how to see how fast the adapter is working in Windows 8. That's why I posted a pic of what I'm looking for in Win 8 (using a ss of Win 7). I went to download that program but Sourceforge wants me to create an account. First time I've ever needed to do that with sourceforge. I have the app
Lan Speed Test but that only shows transfer speeds, not what my adapter is "running at".
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:33 pm
by kenc51
Sorry, i havent tried Win8 yet and presumed that screenshot was from there.
You could try via command line
Open a command prompt and try the above. It's a Win7/Vista command and might work.
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:43 pm
by Major_A
Thanks, I'll give it a shot tomorrow.
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:33 am
by Major_A
I guess it worked...
There is 1 interface on the system:
Name : Wi-Fi
Description : Belkin F5D8053 N Wireless USB Adapter
GUID : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Physical address : 00:17:3f:c3:8c:f9
State : connected
SSID : Linksys_E2500
BSSID : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : 802.11b
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : CCMP
Connection mode : Auto Connect
Channel : 11
Receive rate (Mbps) : 144
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 144
Signal : 63%
Profile : Linksys_E2500
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:33 am
by kappage
Why are you using 802.11b?
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:22 am
by Major_A
No idea... kenc51 is the resident network expert. But it can't be B or it wouldn't be working at 144 Mbps.
Re: Win 8 WiFi Signal Strength
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:16 pm
by kenc51
kappage wrote:Why are you using 802.11b?
Most likely it's either a bug in the driver reporting b when queried by netsh, or windows 8 doesn't report it as an N adapter due to either a bug or just not implemented yet (it is beta afterall)
As Major says, he connects at >100mbps so..............
Major_A wrote:No idea... kenc51 is the resident network expert. But it can't be B or it wouldn't be working at 144 Mbps.
Sucks, thanks; but im far from an expert. Networking and supporting it on windows used to be my job.
Thankfully I've (almost) moved on from that, now work with dsl/fibre modems and sometimes get to work on some high-end production servers (Sun/IBM et al)