Need help from an internet tech wizz.

[xylophone]

I'm wondering if there is anyone out there who can explain this for me, because it seems to defy logic!

 

Attached to my computer I had a TP-Link 150 Mbps high gain wireless USB adapter which was getting a signal from the router just outside of my apartment and it did well enough although not quite filling the "five bars" Internet signal indicator on my computer, so I thought I would upgrade to a new version.

 

I bought the TP-Link 300 Mbps high-power wireless USB adapter and installed it and sure enough the Internet signal indicator on my computer lit up all of the five bars and the signal strength was said to be "excellent".

 

Then the problems started; first of all none of the embedded videos in my browser would work, constantly buffering and not really working at all, then I tried to download the 365 sport program to watch an International football match, however that wouldn't work either and although I eventually got the program interface up on screen, there was absolutely no way that it would play, and this happened when I got onto YouTube as well.

 

I thought there might be some aspects of my computer/chrome which were corrupted, so I ran just about everything I could to put that right, and still the problem persisted. I had no reason to believe that the newly installed better/higher powered USB adapter would be to blame, but it seemed as if the problems started with the installation of this, so I uninstalled it and put the old one back in place – – AND lo and behold, everything worked, with no buffering. So I reinstalled the new one and got the same problems again, so now I'm back to square one having the old one in place and having purchased something which doesn't seem to be of any use.

 

So my question is, why is this happening and/or am I doing something wrong, or does a fact that I have a high-powered wireless adapter not necessarily mean that it is pulling in a strong signal even though it appears to say it is?? To be honest I am stumped!

[xylophone]

Sorry folks but this probably need to go into the WiFi wireless internet section......so how do I do that?

[CharlieH]

Moved to IT forum

[xylophone]

Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.

[55Jay]

What Operating System are you using?

 

When you say "install" the new adapter, are you using provided CD or getting the latest driver off the internet?

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1976880/wifi-adapter-slow.html

[Encid]

I had a similar problem with a USB air mouse/keyboard.

When I plugged it in the sound would cut off my media player.

Unplugged it and the sound would resume.

I can only assume that there is a conflict somewhere with the USB port.

[xylophone]

1 minute ago, 55Jay said:

What Operating System are you using?

 

When you say "install" the new adapter, are you using provided CD or getting the latest driver off the internet?

Thanks for replying.............

 

Windows 7 and I followed the instruction from the cd and the installation worked inasmuch as emails and browsers opened, but nothing would "operate" properly in the way of embedded videos or downloaded programs, this despite the "status" of the unit suggesting the speed was 130 Mbps!!

[Encid]

A better option to the TP-Link 300 Mbps high-power wireless USB adapter is the TP-Link 300 Mbps Wi-Fi Range Extender- AV500 Powerline Edition.

Connect the adapter to your router, plug it into a power point, plug the extender into a power point somewhere else in your house/apartment, and bingo... you not only have a stronger wi-fi signal but 2 ethernet ports so you can plug your media player straight in.

Media players/android boxes work much better if they are hard wired to a network rather than using wifi.

Your buffering days will be over.

[55Jay]

12 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Thanks for replying.............

 

Windows 7 and I followed the instruction from the cd and the installation worked inasmuch as emails and browsers opened, but nothing would "operate" properly in the way of embedded videos or downloaded programs, this despite the "status" of the unit suggesting the speed was 130 Mbps!!

OK.  I'm not a wiz but my first thought was let Win7 find and install and/or replace the CD driver with the latest driver, and see if that helps.   Sure you'll get other responses.  In the meantime, surf around the link I provided, even if a few years old, might provide other idea for process of elimination, like changing the channel, etc.

[xylophone]

3 minutes ago, Encid said:

A better option to the TP-Link 300 Mbps high-power wireless USB adapter is the TP-Link 300 Mbps Wi-Fi Range Extender- AV500 Powerline Edition.

Connect the adapter to your router, plug it into a power point, plug the extender into a power point somewhere else in you house/apartment, and bingo... you not only have a stronger wi-fi signal but 2 ethernet ports so you can plug your media player straight in.

Media players/android boxes work much better if they are hard wired to a network rather than using wifi.

Your buffering days will be over.

Thank you, however I do have a few problems with regards to this because the router is outside of my apartment and actually feeds about eight apartments, so I have no access to it (and it is in a sealed box mounted on a pole). Also there is no PowerPoint close to it as it is fed from one which is also enclosed under the building.

 

I think I'm probably stuck with this USB adapter, having bought it a few days ago, however I'm at a loss to understand why the signal should be so weak as to constantly cause buffering, whereas the previous lower powered one didn't?? I suppose I could go back to the shop and see if they have an alternative and I did read somewhere that perhaps the 2.4 GHz band which my computer is on may be "crowded".

 

Still open to suggestions and I will keep yours in mind in case I have to make some radical changes, so thank you.

 

 

[lopburi3]

Could it be your ID to router has changed and no longer getting high priority service as an authorized customer?  I would check with whoever takes care of that access point first.

[jmd8800]

Are your neighbors having the same problems? If not then take it to your friendly virus/malware/trojan cleaner professional.

 

 

[moonseeker]

I know pretty much every model of Wifi adapters and extenders. This Alfa is still the one we get best performance and hardly any issues for the non-expert. You can buy a longer cable and move it to idea location.

For windows 10 need download proper driver from their Taiwan website, make sure pick the right one that matches exactly the specs 

on back of device.

But I suspect it might be a problem not related to your adapter at all. Grab your laptop and go next to the access-point and check speed and quality there. There is sooooooo many factors and reasons why internet might be slow or buffering. Really need to eliminate step by step.

I just installed a WiFi extender/repeater with dual-band - requires dual band wfi-card/adapter (Alfa is not!) -  and it is amazing. Whatever setup I am getting at least 5x more speed via a/c (5 Ghz.) than with the 2.4 Ghz in identical situation. I am actually getting much better speed/quality via the repeater, than connecting directly to my 600mb-Fiber Home router. Does not make sense, but a real expert would probably know the reason behind it :-)

Most phones now dualband and you can find cheap versions also on Lazada. Really can use generic, all the same electronics in the box.   Good luck!  MS>

[JaseTheBass]

Maybe the new adaptor isn't designed to work with an obselete version of Windows?

[xylophone]

I have just come back in after going out to see a man about some wine, so thank you for all the replies and I will try to answer them in this one post..........

 

– I will search the Internet to see what I can come up with however a quick preliminary search didn't throw much light on the subject, but I need to do more research.

 

– The ID to my router has not changed and the problem seems only to be with my setup.

 

– I'm running Windows 7 and it is a clean and virus/malware free installation as far as I know (have used Malwarebytes and Glary Utilities on it) and it is running Bitdefender anti virus.

 

– The point is that everything was working fine till I put in the new high-power wireless adapter and when that seemed to make everything slow and buffer, I changed back to the original one, all within a period of one day and the problem was solved. I then decided to see if it was "cockpit trouble" (me), so I changed back to the high-powered one and the same thing happened again (slow, buffering etc). So back to the original one and no problems.

 

That would appear to me to suggest that it is the new high-power wireless adapter which has a problem somehow........ but that somehow is what is flummoxing me! How can a 150 Mbps lower powered high gain wireless USB adapter work better (with regards to download speed and no buffering) versus a 300 Mbps high-powered wireless USB adapter??

 

If I can't solve it I am left with the original version which wasn't too bad and a brand-new high-power USB adapter which I can't use! Bugger.

 

 

[lopburi3]

My post was about the ID your USB device may be sending back to the router - that would be different than the password used (which is probably the same for everyone).  That router may be set up to give your previous unit priority service and require admin change.  Am no expert but that would be my check at this point.

[RichCor]

Each 'Link speed' will present varying characteristics.

 

Going from 150 to 300 usually means the device has half of much time to detect and interpret a shorter spaced signal.  Also, since this is a router being shared with other users, who are probably utilizing slower link speeds, your router is having to shift link protocols in order to talk to your 'faster' device.

 

Normally this isn't an issue. But if you have 8 people connected to one router, and each device is connected at a different speed or link protocol, then issues may arise.

 

What type of speed tests do the TP-Link adapters present on your machine? How do they compare?

[xylophone]

7 minutes ago, RichCor said:

Each 'Link speed' will present varying characteristics.

 

Going from 150 to 300 usually means the device has half of much time to detect and interpret a shorter spaced signal.  Also, since this is a router being shared with other users, who are probably utilizing slower link speeds, your router is having to shift link protocols in order to talk to your 'faster' device.

 

Normally this isn't an issue. But if you have 8 people connected to one router, and each device is connected at a different speed or link protocol, then issues may arise.

 

What type of speed tests do the TP-Link adapters present on your machine? How do they compare?

Thanks for your answer and just so that I don't go uninstalling one and installing another and then finding out it doesn't work etc etc, can I just ensure that we are on the same page!

 

I got onto something called Ookla speed test and the results of that for the original/older USB adapter I am back to using were: – download 18 Mbps and upload 21 Mbps.

 

Is this the sort of answer you're looking for, because if it is I will go through the process of installing the new faster one and see what happens.

[jmd8800]

You might try hitting 3 keys ctrl-atl-del and bringing up a box where you can choose 'task manager' I think this will give a page of 'resources'. I don't use Windows so I'm doing this from memory.

 

This should allow you to view network traffic in Bits/Bytes per second. You might find something there.

 

You might also look in the same panel under resources to see if anything is excessively consuming CPU cycles or memory. Example watch the CPU graph when you start one of the applications you have trouble with.

 

As someone else mentioned, often times the supplied driver from the manufacturer does not play well with the kernel. Doesn't windows have a certified driver data base you could check with? Windows 7 updates stopped a while ago and it could be that the manufacturer doesn't support Win7 even if printed on the box.

[johng]

Something to try set the new wireless adapter to a slower speed 54Mbps (802.11g) if that works then increase speed until you start getting problems again.

[Jai Dee]

9 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I got onto something called Ookla speed test and the results of that for the original/older USB adapter I am back to using were: – download 18 Mbps and upload 21 Mbps.

Try using testmy.net and select a US based server.

[xylophone]

3 minutes ago, Jai Dee said:

Try using testmy.net and select a US based server.

Those results were: – download 14.3 Mbps and upload 11.3 Mbps

 

If that's the same sort of thing that RichCor was suggesting in his post, then once I get the nod on that I will try and install the other one and see what happens. Thank you.

[Jai Dee]

5 hours ago, xylophone said:

Then the problems started; first of all none of the embedded videos in my browser would work, constantly buffering and not really working at all, then I tried to download the 365 sport program to watch an International football match, however that wouldn't work either and although I eventually got the program interface up on screen, there was absolutely no way that it would play, and this happened when I got onto YouTube as well.

You should not be experiencing any buffering at all with those download speeds.

[RichCor]

19 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I got onto something called Ookla speed test and the results of that for the original/older USB adapter I am back to using were: – download 18 Mbps and upload 21 Mbps.

 

Is this the sort of answer you're looking for, because if it is I will go through the process of installing the new faster one and see what happens.

Once you install a driver for a device, you shouldn't have to reload that driver/software again, unless some incompatibility requires its removal.

 

Technically, you should be able to unplug the TP-Link 150, wait for the computer to acknowledge its removal, and plug the TP-Link 300 in while the computer is still running. Only under some odd circumstances would you ever need to reboot to recover/regain a network connection.

 

What I was looking for in my original response to you was confirmation that both TP-Link devices were connecting to the router, establishing a link, at whatever link speed, and both gave the same results when doing Internet Speed Test to 1) Local Internet Provider speedtest server, 2) Nearby Internet Provider speedtest server, and 3) International Provider speedtest server.  (They may not be exact, but should be similar).

[xylophone]

Just now, Jai Dee said:

You should not be experiencing any buffering at all with those download speeds.

Those speeds were those achieved with the original TP link 150 Mbps adapter because I've got it plugged back in again and sure a huge percentage of the time there was no buffering, but it wasn't perfect that's why I elected to buy the superduper 300 Mbps USB adapter and its when this one is plugged in that the problems occur, when to all intents and purposes that shouldn't be the case.

 

I will reinstall the other one and see what happens with the test.

[xylophone]

Just now, RichCor said:

Once you install a driver for a device, you shouldn't have to reload that driver/software again, unless some incompatibility requires its removal.

 

Technically, you should be able to unplug the TP-Link 150, wait for the computer to acknowledge its removal, and plug the TP-Link 300 in while the computer is still running. Only under some odd circumstances would you ever need to reboot to recover/regain a network connection.

 

What I was looking for in my original response to you was confirmation that both TP-Link devices were connecting to the router, establishing a link, at whatever link speed, and both gave the same results when doing Internet Speed Test to 1) Local Internet Provider speedtest server, 2) Nearby Internet Provider speedtest server, and 3) International Provider speedtest server.  (They may not be exact, but should be similar).

Thanks again, and now I know what you're looking for I will get the other one up and running.

 

They both have different installation CDs with them and I reasoned that there would be different drivers, and I did experience a little download problem with one of them so I uninstalled it! I thought this might help.

 

No matter, I will install the new superduper high-powered while and see how that compares with regard to the speed tests. Thanks again.

[rijb]

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

I have just come back in after going out to see a man about some wine, so thank you for all the replies and I will try to answer them in this one post..........

 

– I will search the Internet to see what I can come up with however a quick preliminary search didn't throw much light on the subject, but I need to do more research.

 

– The ID to my router has not changed and the problem seems only to be with my setup.

 

– I'm running Windows 7 and it is a clean and virus/malware free installation as far as I know (have used Malwarebytes and Glary Utilities on it) and it is running Bitdefender anti virus.

 

– The point is that everything was working fine till I put in the new high-power wireless adapter and when that seemed to make everything slow and buffer, I changed back to the original one, all within a period of one day and the problem was solved. I then decided to see if it was "cockpit trouble" (me), so I changed back to the high-powered one and the same thing happened again (slow, buffering etc). So back to the original one and no problems.

 

That would appear to me to suggest that it is the new high-power wireless adapter which has a problem somehow........ but that somehow is what is flummoxing me! How can a 150 Mbps lower powered high gain wireless USB adapter work better (with regards to download speed and no buffering) versus a 300 Mbps high-powered wireless USB adapter??

 

If I can't solve it I am left with the original version which wasn't too bad and a brand-new high-power USB adapter which I can't use! Bugger.

 

 

Try installing/running the new high-power wireless adapter without the anti virus apps.

[RichCor]

8 minutes ago, rijb said:

Try installing/running the new high-power wireless adapter without the anti virus apps.

 

...and check the TP-Link website and see if there is a more recent driver release.

[xylophone]

40 minutes ago, RichCor said:

 

...and check the TP-Link website and see if there is a more recent driver release.

Thank you to everybody who replied and I think that RichCor may have nailed it with this post – –

 

Going from 150 to 300 usually means the device has half of much time to detect and interpret a shorter spaced signal.  Also, since this is a router being shared with other users, who are probably utilizing slower link speeds, your router is having to shift link protocols in order to talk to your 'faster' device.

 

Normally this isn't an issue. But if you have 8 people connected to one router, and each device is connected at a different speed or link protocol, then issues may arise.

 

After trying to reinstall the superduper fast adapter several times, to no avail, I took the advice above and checked on the TP Link website and sure enough my adapter was there, as an "end of life" product (thank you to Powerbuy Patong for selling outdated goods) but it did have an updated driver, which I downloaded and installed and sure enough the superduper USB adapter then worked.

 

Then I took the advice of others including Jai Dee and did speed tests and would you believe the speed tests with this new more powerful one were about half of what I was getting with the old one – – go figure!

 

It would seem that the explanation by RichCor has a lot of merit, so I will uninstall the drivers etc for this new fast USB adapter and stick with my old one. I suppose I could have adhered to the old adage, "leave well enough alone" however I did see a little room for improvement but that has proven to be very misguided.

 

Thanks again and I now have a 300 Mbps TP-Link High Power Wireless USB Adapter surplus to requirements and I don't suppose for one minute that Powerbuy will give me a credit note for this piece of outdated equipment!!

 

Oh well, live and learn and thanks again to all who replied, and that is one of the good things about Thaivisa because there are some great contributors and good folk who will try and help others out and in this day and age and in a country like this, they can be "lifesavers".

[RichCor]

18 minutes ago, xylophone said:

however I did see a little room for improvement but that has proven to be very misguided.

 

The higher link speeds of 150 - 300mbps really only come into play when you are transferring data over a local network to do things like watch movies you've downloaded to your PC on your Laptop or largescreen connected TV.  But when connecting to the Internet, you're limited (bottle-necked) to the speed of that connection. At most you'd only need to connect at double the Internet speed.

 

So, as @johng suggested previously:

 

Something to try set the new wireless adapter to a slower speed 54Mbps (802.11g) if that works then increase speed until you start getting problems again.

See if the different 'link speeds' have an effect on your speedtests and connection reliability.

 

BOTH your adapters should be giving you the same connection experience, each using the same connection profile and protocols to connect to the router (except the faster one has the higher-speed link options). There's no reason the 'higher speed capable' adapter wouldn't function just as well as the other unless the adapter+router combination has a link issue at the higher speeds. 

 

If someone really wants to improve their wireless network performance I'd suggest going for a USB adapter with an external antenna, preferably a 'directional/panel' rather than an omni-directional stick.  But you'd only see an improvement if your connection suffered from lower signal levels or signal congestion interference.