Wireless internet set-up - very slow!

[Champloo]

First things first, we have an office in the house, and a couple of private computers so it's quite a complex set-up - five computers in all, along with a few voip phones on a seperate internet line and going through a seperate router. Three of the computers are connected by lan, and for the last year or so, we've also had two connected wirelessly. Our broadband is with BT, and I think it's 8 meg.

The computers connected by LAN are fine (although our internet does have a tendency to go sometimes - I think that's BT). The wireless tends to be a problem, however. I get very low speeds, and it constantly cuts out, so I'm having to restart the connection in the toolbar, or simply turn off the router.

We've been through three routers (not just because of the slow speeds). One wasn't bad, one constantly cut out, and the last (netgear DG834GT), which I fitted a couple of days ago, is slow but a little better than the last.

Anyone know what it might be that's causing the slow speeds? I've tried different channels in the router set-up and it doesn't seem to make much difference. I've also tried placing the router and dongle in different places which doesn't seem to make a difference either. Do I need a new dongle? The one I have now isn't the same brand as my router, and it's only 54mbps whereas the router can support 108mbps. Is that likely to make much difference?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[VR46]

Not very PC/BroadBand technical myself, have you tried running a speed test to see if it's BT causing you a headache.

https://www.speedtest.net

[KIT786]

How far away are the wireless computers from the router? also if there a lot of walls between the computers and routers that could cause a problem.

Don't think it has anything to do with BT because then the interent would be slow on all computers connected to the router. But may have something to do with what connection speed you are connected at. If you've got a slow connection speeds then the computers connected directly to the router (those on the LAN),will likely get priority when tansferring data over the net. Disconnect the LAN computers from the router and then see of the speed improves on the wireless connected computers.

[Champloo]

Thanks for the help. I think it is largely interference that's causing the slow speeds. I popped into town today and picked up a better wireless dongle and it is giving me better speeds. This one records the signal strength, and mine is around 30-40% which I'm guessing is pretty bad. I've tried the router and dongle in different positions (it's only feasible to move them so far though) and it doesn't seem to make much difference. Nevertheless, it is fast enough so I'm not overly fussed about this.

But... I'm still getting random cuts every now and again. To get it back on I simply have to restart my computer. I don't know what's causing this. I can't imagine its signal interference because the internet will be fine before suddenly cutting abruptly. I was downloading some large files today which I guess might cause problems (?), but since stopping them its happened again...

I really do miss having a fully wired set-up.

[Champloo]

Not very PC/BroadBand technical myself, have you tried running a speed test to see if it's BT causing you a headache.

www.speedtest.net

I did this today and yesterday, but don't really know what to make of the results. My download speeds were fast on each occasion (3000-4000kbps) and the upload speeds were very low at about 300kbps.

[Number45]

They're about average results for a DSL connection I'd say. Have you tested putting one of the wireless devices right next to the access point and seeing if the signal strength improves? You might want to consider changing the wireless channel from the default, as it's possible you have some interference from another wireless network somewhere.

[plopboy]

If I read your post right, you are using a netgear DG834GT, I had the same disconnect problem until I upgraded the router firmware. That might be worth a try. Oh and the router does sit on or near anything metal as this can cause problems.