DescentBB

I was running an old Netgear that would freak out whenever I had a few devices connected to it.

Though I hadn't heard of Medialink, some people in the manufacturing shop where I worked asked me to boost the Wi-Fi signal so they could stream music better. Since Medialink was cheap and got good reviews, I installed and it's been working great for a year now.

I went ahead and bought the Medialink 300 Mbps for myself, running 2.4GHz on two internal antennas. I also bought a TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 PCI express wireless card - made for 2.4 or 5.8, has 3 external antennas.

My PC works great wired to the router, but wireless works horribly. It usually can't even get a valid IP, and when it does, everything loads very slow/times out. It shows a full 5 bars.

My phone (LG Optimus Android 4) connects almost instantly, and gets around 10Mpbs on the speedtest.

I tried using the drivers that came with it, and also downloaded fresh drivers. I even went through and delete every related driver, redownloaded the newest one, and still doesn't work. Tried resetting to factory defaults, tried open connection, different encryption modes, no dice!

What should I try now? I should note that a Turtle Beach PX5 wireless headset running on 2.4GHz was nearby, but was not paired with the headset. I don't see why the phone would work when it was on, and the pc wouldn't?

I should also note that I use SSIDinsider, and there aren't any overlapping channels in my area.

Cell phones are, unsurprisingly, designed for wireless connectivity. It also has the advantage of not having its antenna's on the back end of a large metal case.

try pointing the antennas on the PC straight out, parallel to the ground.

You might also try a couple different channels. I once had a similar issue with a PCI wireless card, and it turned out to be interference from a 2.4GHz wireless mouse.

Do a wireless survey to find a channel that's free and check for interference. 10Mbps is pretty pathetic.

Stay away from the common channels of 1,6,11

Computer speakers/subwoofer or cordless phone base station in close proximity will cause issues also

Grendel wrote:Do a wireless survey to find a channel that's free and check for interference. 10Mbps is pretty pathetic.

10Mbps over internet, not LAN.

I figured out the problem. My wireless headphones transmitter, even though the headphones were off and not paired, still screws up the signal. As soon as I shut it off, I was getting 20Mpbs, and could stream Netflix HD with no problems.

If I turned the channel all the way down to 1, I could get it to work ok, but only got 3Mpbs. I'm returning my router and getting a dual band router, since my PCI wireless supports dual bands. I'll get away from the 2.4GHz to the 5GHz.

Thanks for everyones help.