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Cisco Valet M10 problem

Discussion in 'Networking (Hardware & Software)' started by sasjzl, 2011/11/26.

  1. 2011/11/26
    sasjzl

    sasjzl Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hi all,
    I just spent all morning on the phone with Cisco tech support and while they were very nice we did not get anywhere with my Valet M10 problem.

    The problem is that I can get connected but at what I consider a ridiculously slow speed wirelessly. On my hardwired desktop multiple speed tests show a download of about 10Mbps very consistently. On my wireless connection we fall all the way down to a pretty consistent .50Mbps. In fact the lasts tests I did shows the upload being faster than the download. Is that not a bit strange.

    I went from here to the sun and back with two tech reps on their chat line and did succeed in upgrading to the latest firmware version but it made absolutely no difference with my slow motion wireless problem. What they left me with, I had to break away after about 3 hours to continue with the rest of my life, was to try changing channels and giving it 5 minutes to get used to them.

    As you might imagine I do not have real high hopes for this breaking my internet speed barrier.

    Any thoughts or similar experiences would be most appreciated.

    Thanks very much,
    Jim Lee

    Cisco Valet M10 v2.0.03
     
    sasjzl,
    #1
  2. 2011/11/26
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    What type of Internet connection and what brand/model modem?
     
    TonyT,
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  4. 2011/11/26
    sasjzl

    sasjzl Inactive Thread Starter

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    Cisco Valet M10 v2.
    This is a wireless connection from two laptops in my home to that router.

    I think that I have made some progress though in at least narrowing down my issue. I went back to my internal adapters, instead of using my new USB allegedly 'N' type adapters and all of a sudden I get normal download speeds.
    Went from .50 to about 10Mbps which is what I was getting at my wired desktop.

    So I think that now my question is how can I go about diganosing the issue with this new, to me, adapter. The reason I got them was so that I could blow the doors off my wireless internet connection but they have done just the opposite. These are the adapters and as soon as I can figure out how to get an email to the seller I will ask him what might be going on. The setup.exe for the driver runs....sometimes. Also, the documentation for the adapter identifies it as being 'G' which is not 'N'

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/190532550814?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

    The adapter is identified in my Device Manager as:
    "Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11b/g 54 Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter "

    One other strange thing is that the USB dongle itself has "802.11N" written very clearly on it.

    Thanks very much,
    Jim Lee
     
    sasjzl,
    #3
  5. 2011/11/27
    Kid

    Kid Inactive

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    Hi:

    I just wanted to jot down "my experience" with Cisco's router: Sometime ago, when I was using Cisco's in the US, my connection went to way too slow; I called many people including a Cisco Tech. Nobody but one, suggested to stick another "firmware" in; Yes, that incident took place not so long after I put newer firmware.

    At any rate, a firmware solved "my connection" prob. I just wanted folks to know such thing happened.

    Kid
     
    Kid,
    #4
  6. 2011/11/27
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    I would never use one of those mini-usb wifi adapters. The most important part of wifi is the antenna(s). Those types of adapters have a very small internal antenna which as a result provides a limited range.

    As for wifi speeds, you will never get the speeds designated by the protocol specs. For example, 80211g, on paper, is up to 54 mb/s. But that's only on paper. Once the rest of the hardware enters the equation, the rates drop considerably, and getting 50% of that is more realistic.

    Also, the ISP caps its bandwidth. Thus, if your ISP provides "up to" 15 mb/s download, then that's the most you'll ever get when downloading, wired or wifi.

    The wifi rates apply only to transfers on the LAN, between computers. Each adapter in the equation will reduce the rate by almost 50%. A transfer between 2 wifi clients = 3 adapters, each client and the access point adapter.
     
    TonyT,
    #5
  7. 2011/11/27
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Realtek > RTL8187B

     
    SpywareDr,
    #6
  8. 2011/11/27
    sasjzl

    sasjzl Inactive Thread Starter

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    Need for N routers?

    Thanks guys.

    Actually, I was incorrect, the mini-usb adapter is listed in my device manager as:
    Realtek RTL8188CU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB2.0 Network adapter.

    I am starting to think about this speed stuff and am wondering why I would ever need or want a 'N' anything if the most speed my provider (Earthlink) can provide me with is about 10Mbps. The reason I got the alleged N adapter was because I upgraded my modem to "N" for the purposes of a tablet gadget that was getting a really poor signal. Like poor enough that I had to be right next to the router to use it...which pretty much defeated the purpose.

    So my larger question is why would I ever need the 'N' deal with rates alleged to be 150-300 or whatever....if my ISP maxes out at about 10Mbps?
    Should 'N' help in terms of range?

    Also I hope you guys can see this link but it is a record of some download testing that I did last night and it is all over the place. Hopefully you can see the graph that shows download rates going from just above 10 to almost nothing. Is this normal? Like download speed is just a **** shoot?

    Thanks very much,
    Jim Lee
     
    sasjzl,
    #7
  9. 2011/11/27
    SpywareDr

    SpywareDr SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Keep in mind that download speed can be intentionally or unintentionally restricted by the server on the other end. An example of intentional would be reserving bandwith for other customers, and for unintentional would be when a server is overloaded.

    Download speed can also be affected by any of the other pieces of internet equipment between your computer and the server sending the download.
     
    Last edited: 2011/11/27
    SpywareDr,
    #8
  10. 2011/11/27
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    1. You won't need 80211n for Internet speed increases. However, it will provide faster transfers between computers on your local network.

    2. 802.1n extends the 80211 standards which improve the quality of the wireless link and increases rates and range.
     
    TonyT,
    #9

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