Only getting 72mbps wi-fi speed with 150Mbps card

My Card:

Wireless/Wired Networking WIRELESS 802.11N 150Mbps PCI-E CARD


My PC that I bought from here includes a wireless card with capabilities of up to 150mbps speed, currently however I only ever seem to get around half that at 72mbps and this even fluctuates as low as 52. This is nothing to do with the proximity of the PC to the router (virgin media superhub) as i've connected it a few feet away and get the same result.

Now I've done a bit of research and my basic understanding is that my router needs to be set to wireless N mode only (or 5Ghz Wireless Frequency) and then this card should hopefully get something closer to the advertised rate. However if I change the setting on my router my card is then unable to connect at all. Under the card properties I thought there might be a a setting I can change to make it transmit on the same frequency as the router but there doesn't seem to be anything.

I also can't find any documentation or anything online. Can you please advise how I can get my card working at the speed it's supposed to?

Thanks.

The rating of the card is the maximum speed it can handle. If it gets a slower signal from your router than that it can't generate more speed itself.
If you can get the router a few feet away make a ethernet cable connection to your PC and that will tell you the speed your Superhub receives. If there is a big difference homeplugs may be the best option if you can't make a permanent ethernet cable connection. If there is little difference you must just live in a poor area for internet speed. I wouldn't be surprised at 72mbps in a poor area.

The setting you can try changing in the Superhub is the channel and make sure you are connecting with the 5G signal. I don't think there are other settings that would improve your speeds.

Your wifi card might get 150Mbps in a lab. In the real world, 72 is pretty good.

grimsbymatt said:

In the real world, 72 is pretty good.

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A wifi card can't magically create speed that was never there. How much less speed it gives you than the hub sends is unknown unless you make a hard connection.
I get over 100 with my wifi card reception.

Spuff said:

A wifi card can't magically create speed that was never there. How much less speed it gives you than the hub sends is unknown unless you make a hard connection.
I get over 100 with my wifi card reception.

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Well, of course it won't get 150Mbps with a 54Mbps router (for example). But you won't get 150Mbps with a 150Mbps router, either. Connecting a cable will probably give you a 1Gbps connection.

grimsbymatt said:

But you won't get 150Mbps with a 150Mbps router, either. Connecting a cable will probably give you a 1Gbps connection.

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OK, but won't a cable be your best case scenario?
Are you saying a router sending 150 could only result in getting 100 on your PC with a cable?
Of course it is well known advertised internet speeds are not necessarily, and unlikely, what you will get.

Spuff said:

OK, but won't a cable be your best case scenario?
Are you saying a router sending 150 could only result in getting 100 on your PC with a cable?
Of course it is well known advertised internet speeds are not necessarily, and unlikely, what you will get.

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Haha, I think we're talking at cross purposes. I was saying that a cable will give you a very fast connection and won't be useful in telling you what the router is capable of providing wirelessly (which your previous post seemed to be suggesting).

What I'm saying is that even if you have a 150Mbps wi-fi card and a 150Mbps wi-fi router (i.e. they are sold as 150Mbps), you won't get that speed in the real world.

The card doesn't work on the 5Ghz frequency and yet that is seemingly the only way to unlock speeds higher than 72mbps.

How can it possibly be advertised as up to 150mbps if that is the case? Sounds like a massive rip-off.

I have a laptop with a better wifi card (up to 300mbps) and that is connected at 144mbps.

With a ethernet connection I get around 80 - 90 mbps. Laptop gets 50 - 60. PC gets 40 - 50.

grimsbymatt said:

Haha, I think we're talking at cross purposes. I was saying that a cable will give you a very fast connection and won't be useful in telling you what the router is capable of providing wirelessly (which your previous post seemed to be suggesting).
.

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My point was that the cable would tell you the best you can do, and then that will then tell you how much loss in speed using the wifi card makes in comparison. It would show whether the perceived 'slow' speed was being cause by the wifi card or whether the OP just has a slower internet speed whatever he might try.
I think you will always get a slower speed wirelessly compared to a cable connection, but how much slower you wouldn't know unless you try a cable connection.

Anyhow, that's all moot now given micpans post above because my theory doesn't seem to hold true for him.

micpan said:

The card doesn't work on the 5Ghz frequency and yet that is seemingly the only way to unlock speeds higher than 72mbps.

How can it possibly be advertised as up to 150mbps if that is the case? Sounds like a massive rip-off.

I have a laptop with a better wifi card (up to 300mbps) and that is connected at 144mbps.

With a ethernet connection I get around 80 - 90 mbps. Laptop gets 50 - 60. PC gets 40 - 50.

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Wifi cards aren't very expensive, you could get a 300 rated one cabable of 5G and try that. I have a three aerial TP Link PCIe one.
I don't know why you can get faster speeds wirelessly on your laptop than you can by using a cable connection on anything. Seems odd to me.

As grimsbymatt said the 150 wifi card can probably work at 150 in some esoteric laboratory condition.

Spuff said:

Wifi cards aren't very expensive, you could get a 300 rated one cabable of 5G and try that. I have a three aerial TP Link PCIe one.
I don't know why you can get faster speeds wirelessly on your laptop than you can by using a cable connection on anything. Seems odd to me.

As grimsbymatt said the 150 wifi card can probably work at 150 in some esoteric laboratory condition.

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I just wish I'd known before I got my PC built...or I would have included a better card. Nobody warned me about this when I posted my specs either before deciding on final build which is disappointing.

I don't get faster speeds wirelessly than wired. It looks to be about 10 - 15 mbps slower on the laptop which isnt bad at all. It must just be the 'up to' rate that it shows when you go to the connection status. I set my superhub to 5Ghz and dual band mode and then my laptop speed doubled and was purporting to be at 300mbps but in reality when I did a broadband speed test it was coming to about 70 - 80 mbps. Still, a decent improvement over the 50 - 60 i get at 2.4Ghz.

At least I know what to go for when I get a new card for the PC now.

80Mbps is faster than most broadband connections, so you won't be bottlenecking downloads by much. You might be bottlenecking transfers from other computers or NAS storage, assuming they have fast enough internal and network connections, but you could easily stream HD video over that speed.

I would say 80 is within the expected range of speeds you might get with the Superhub deal.

slightly off topic, I had a few issues with the superhub V2 and wireless connection. it is more noticeable when streaming (netflix, apple tv). I called virgin media and they recommended buying a router. It seems (from other post online) the range and speed of wireless connection with the superhub is not very good. I bought a netgear router , switch the superhub to modem mode and it works much better! no waiting to load movies or videos anymore.