Netgear WNA3100 N300 usb adapter problems

[Deleted]

I seem to be having speed issues with this adapter. I have installed the drivers given on cd, and even updated them via Netgears website, and when i initially connect to my router, the adapter says i recieve around 250mbps speed. After around 2 seconds of connecting, this drops to 80mbps, then after another 2 seconds, down to 11mbps, where it stays. This is surely not how its supposed to be, because this adapter is capable of picking up 300mbps speed, and my router is capable of dishing out 300mbps speeds, my other adapter connects with 150mbps to the same router.

Please help, picture related.
also worth noting im using Windows 7 -64bit.

http://imageshack.us/f/341/wirelessproblems.jpg/

I bought this adapter a few days ago, and im at a complete loss. Considering the moment i connect its anywhere from 200mbps-300mbps, then 5 seconds in its capped at 11mpbs, im sure theres some sort of block or cap or something, but i just dunno what to do or try. I've posted this on the netgear forums too, but no luck.

Its literally impossible playing games on 11mbps, especially when this adapter is capable of 30x what its giving me.

[Fuzzykins]

I seem to be having speed issues with this adapter. I have installed the drivers given on cd, and even updated them via Netgears website, and when i initially connect to my router, the adapter says i recieve around 250mbps speed. After around 2 seconds of connecting, this drops to 80mbps, then after another 2 seconds, down to 11mbps, where it stays. This is surely not how its supposed to be, because this adapter is capable of picking up 300mbps speed, and my router is capable of dishing out 300mbps speeds, my other adapter connects with 150mbps to the same router.

Please help, picture related.
also worth noting im using Windows 7 -64bit.

http://imageshack.us/f/341/wirelessproblems.jpg/

I bought this adapter a few days ago, and im at a complete loss. Considering the moment i connect its anywhere from 200mbps-300mbps, then 5 seconds in its capped at 11mpbs, im sure theres some sort of block or cap or something, but i just dunno what to do or try. I've posted this on the netgear forums too, but no luck.

Its literally impossible playing games on 11mbps, especially when this adapter is capable of 30x what its giving me.

I'm trying to decide if you're trolling or not. A lot of people game on significantly less than that, and even in League of Legends and Starcraft, 11Mbps has absolutley no lag. I have the same wireless adapter and am getting what I pay for, 20Mbps/2Mbps (Though it's been awfully shitty lately. I think its my router, however, since it's all the computers.)

[Deleted]

I'm trying to decide if you're trolling or not. A lot of people game on significantly less than that, and even in League of Legends and Starcraft, 11Mbps has absolutley no lag. I have the same wireless adapter and am getting what I pay for, 20Mbps/2Mbps (Though it's been awfully shitty lately. I think its my router, however, since it's all the computers.)

Right, well im getting a 2 second delay on any spell i cast, and web pages are taking ages to load, a simple google search has a 2 second delay and takes a further 2-3 seconds to load all the content, as opposed to my other adapter loading google searches pretty much instantly within a second.

[Fuzzykins]

Right, well im getting a 2 second delay on any spell i cast, and web pages are taking ages to load, a simple google search has a 2 second delay and takes a further 2-3 seconds to load all the content, as opposed to my other adapter loading google searches pretty much instantly within a second.

http://www.speedtest.net/
http://www.pingtest.net/
Post your results here.

[Realist Phill]

Hey there,

1. You could try re-installing the Netgear software (doubt it will fix anything), you could also try letting windows "control" the wireless connections instead of the netgear program.
2. Have you tried restarting/ resetting your router? (router could be at fault).
3. Remove the USB extension cable and plug the USB device straight into your computer.

See how that goes, good luck.

[Fuzzykins]

Hey there,

1. You could try re-installing the Netgear software (doubt it will fix anything), you could also try letting windows "control" the wireless connections instead of the netgear program.
2. Have you tried restarting/ resetting your router? (router could be at fault).
3. Remove the USB extension cable and plug the USB device straight into your computer.

See how that goes, good luck.

The netgear software for this thing is absolute trash. I didn't use it at all. Additionally, he said he reinstalled it already. I doubt his router is at fault if he gets faster speeds with another adapter. And the extension cable is simply a runthrough. I'm not sure how that could be hampering the connection at all. Either it works or it doesn't...

[Deleted]

The netgear software for this thing is absolute trash. I didn't use it at all. Additionally, he said he reinstalled it already. I doubt his router is at fault if he gets faster speeds with another adapter. And the extension cable is simply a runthrough. I'm not sure how that could be hampering the connection at all. Either it works or it doesn't...

I've tried without the software and without it, reinstalled it various times. I simply cannot comprehend whats happening, the signal strength is fine, it starts 300mbps but just works down over 5-6 seconds, its insane. I've also tried restarting my router, no luck.

Thanks for the luck realistphil, this is really getting annoying -.- my weekend should be full of playing TEH GAIMZ, not messing around with my new wireless adapter :/

[Fuzzykins]

I've tried without the software and without it, reinstalled it various times. I simply cannot comprehend whats happening, the signal strength is fine, it starts 300mbps but just works down over 5-6 seconds, its insane. I've also tried restarting my router, no luck.

Thanks for the luck realistphil, this is really getting annoying -.- my weekend should be full of playing TEH GAIMZ, not messing around with my new wireless adapter :/

300mbps is pretty much impossible if you live in America. Our internet connections are simply too shitty. Run the speed and pingtests.

[Realist Phill]

The netgear software for this thing is absolute trash. I didn't use it at all. Additionally, he said he reinstalled it already. I doubt his router is at fault if he gets faster speeds with another adapter. And the extension cable is simply a runthrough. I'm not sure how that could be hampering the connection at all. Either it works or it doesn't...

No, he said he updated the drivers via the netgear site, which isn't re-installing it. I also doubt the router is at fault and i also highly doubt the USB extension cable is at fault, however, its best to eliminate every possibly, unless you have brighter ideas?

---------- Post added 2012-01-22 at 04:04 AM ----------

I've tried without the software and without it, reinstalled it various times. I simply cannot comprehend whats happening, the signal strength is fine, it starts 300mbps but just works down over 5-6 seconds, its insane. I've also tried restarting my router, no luck.

Thanks for the luck realistphil, this is really getting annoying -.- my weekend should be full of playing TEH GAIMZ, not messing around with my new wireless adapter :/

Ok that being said, i have another suggestion. Do you have access to another computer that you can install this wireless device on simply just to test it out and see how it runs?

[Deleted]

Ive uninstalled the driver software completely, and reinstalled from disk. I've also uninstalled again, and re-installed from the netgear site, same issue. I've just put my usb stick into the computer now instead of in the extension, same problem. I live in the UK.

Speedtest results
Ping: 47ms Download speed: 0.59ms Upload speed 0.19ms.

Pingtest website wont even load...

---------- Post added 2012-01-21 at 05:12 PM ----------

Heres a ping test i did to google about 10 minutes back.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...problems2.jpg/

[chadashcroft22]

check control panel>all control panel items>network and sharing center>change adapter settings Check in here if windows has installed some sort of wireless share driver if it has disable it and anything else that isn't your wireless card. Also make sure you use the latest driver from the website don't use the control utility it install with it.... conflicts quite a bit with windows one and it's a pos to be honest. Next I would make sure you have the latest firmware for you router. I have this wireless stick and once you get it going it's awesome.

[Realist Phill]

To what Synthaxx said:

Very true, but even so your speed shouldn't be as slow as it is now unless there is something seriously wrong with the wireless device OR your computer.

[Deleted]

How many people are connected to the same network? That 300MB/s you get, that's shared equally between users.
How far are you away from the wireless access point/router?

Also, just because your other adapter is capable of 150MB/s, it doesn't mean the new one is. Not all wireless adapters are born equally. I can't tell you how many there are out there that while they theoretically can receive 300MB/s, have such terrible signal dropoffs that in a realistic setting, they'll be receiving barely any of the advertised speed. You know, most of those 300MB/s advertisements are based on the specification they're made to during manufacturing and most of them aren't truly tested in typical situations before being shipped out. At best, they might test it from 10 metres with nothing in between the adapter and the router.

Some companies do test, but since there's no standard on speed from a specific distance, they're not forced to test it in those situations. It's one reason you'll only ever see distance and speed, and not a combination such as "you will get X speed at Y distance".

Also, you need to note that upon initialising any network connection or activity, there's an initial surge in speed. Just as with file copying, the speed starts off real high, but soon settles down to what it's actually getting. In reality, you're never actually getting that initial speed, it's just the software calculating your real speed. Some software starts off at 0 and calculated up, other starts off at a high value and calculates down.

Judging from Netgear's forum, it's not uncommon that people have reported issues with their products not reaching advertised speeds. Although it's not the same product as yours, here's a thread from 2010 indicating speed issues with a similar product.

It is possible there's something we're missing, but it's not as black and white as "my other dongle can manage this speed so why can't this one".

Right now, im the only person connected to my network. Im not too far from the router, its around 3-4 meters away, which shouldn't be an issue considering my signal strength is on 80%. Im pretty sure N technology has to live up to a certain expectation to be classified as N though right? N being based on the network speed?

[Realist Phill]

Brosicle, have you tried connecting the wireless device to a different computer to see if your actual computer is at fault? Because if it works fine on a different computer, then it could most likely be a problem with your main computer. Once again, its another process to try to eliminate possible problems.

[D_K_night]

OK a few things:

1) first off, do you know how the wireless access point is configured(do you administer that AP or know someone who does)? Just need to rule out the possibility of any kind of QoS configuration. I am guessing at this point but what if the AP is configured to throttle you? It's probably not, but can we please check that out?

2) You truly don't need THAT much bandwidth to play League, SC2, or just about any multiplayer game. The most important thing that you'll be concerned with is the following:

- low latency. You could be on a 100Mbps connection and have garbage latency, which does you no good whatsoever for gaming purposes
- consistent upload bandwidth which does not increase/decrease too dramatically. When you hit that ability, you NEED sufficient upload bandwidth to deliver your keypress in a timely manner or else you'll get laggy input to the game server. In most cases it's not very much data you're sending to be frank. 11Mbps is more than enough bandwidth(even if we hypothetically split that to 100k upload, and the rest download)

3) the symptoms you describe reminds me of the good ol' days of modem gaming back in the 1990's. Certain US Robotics Sportster modems and other brands of modems had the dreaded "spiral of death" where the bandwidth starts off high(remember, 33.6k was awesome for that time), then spirals lower and lower until finally you have a pittance of the expected bandwidth.

So here's what I recommend:

Go into the configuration of your USB adapter and start setting very specific settings, such as:

- Wireless-N or G
- get rid of "auto detect" where the adapter is trying negotiate max speed. Hard code it to a value, say 10Mbps. Start low.
- get rid of "auto detect" and set it to Full-Duplex

You're gonna have to step through these things one step at a time until you nail which variable corrects the issue. It sounds to me like the adapter is trying and trying to negotiate with the AP, succeeding, then failing, then succeeding, then failing, and as a result your bandwidth drops like a fly.

[Deleted]

OK a few things:

1) first off, do you know how the wireless access point is configured(do you administer that AP or know someone who does)? Just need to rule out the possibility of any kind of QoS configuration. I am guessing at this point but what if the AP is configured to throttle you? It's probably not, but can we please check that out?

2) You truly don't need THAT much bandwidth to play League, SC2, or just about any multiplayer game. The most important thing that you'll be concerned with is the following:

- low latency. You could be on a 100Mbps connection and have garbage latency, which does you no good whatsoever for gaming purposes
- consistent upload bandwidth which does not increase/decrease too dramatically. When you hit that ability, you NEED sufficient upload bandwidth to deliver your keypress in a timely manner or else you'll get laggy input to the game server. In most cases it's not very much data you're sending to be frank. 11Mbps is more than enough bandwidth(even if we hypothetically split that to 100k upload, and the rest download)

3) the symptoms you describe reminds me of the good ol' days of modem gaming back in the 1990's. Certain US Robotics Sportster modems and other brands of modems had the dreaded "spiral of death" where the bandwidth starts off high(remember, 33.6k was awesome for that time), then spirals lower and lower until finally you have a pittance of the expected bandwidth.

So here's what I recommend:

Go into the configuration of your USB adapter and start setting very specific settings, such as:

- Wireless-N or G
- get rid of "auto detect" where the adapter is trying negotiate max speed. Hard code it to a value, say 10Mbps. Start low.
- get rid of "auto detect" and set it to Full-Duplex

You're gonna have to step through these things one step at a time until you nail which variable corrects the issue. It sounds to me like the adapter is trying and trying to negotiate with the AP, succeeding, then failing, then succeeding, then failing, and as a result your bandwidth drops like a fly.

Much appreciation for writing this, but your expecting an incredible amount of knowledge im an IT noob :/

[Deleted]

hi. i have bougth a new NETGEAR WNA3100 Wireless USB Adapter. Before this i was using ethernet cable for internet to connect with my Huawei HG530 modem/router. I have 2mbps connection. Wehn i was using ethernet cable or a usb modem with cable i was downloading with 200kb/s. Now with WNA3100 Wireless USB Adapter the maximum speed is 120-130kb/sec and sometimes the speed is below 100kb/sec.
Sometimes the speed is 10kb/sec or under this value and i can't browsing pages via firefox.
the distance between NETGEAR WNA3100 Wireless USB Adapter and modem/router is about 2 meters without obstacle.
i am using windows xp sp2. i Also try to use other wi-fi channels between 1-13 but nothing better.
what do u think is the problem? thank u.

[rosaandreas78]

I think your system doesn't compatible with your Netgear wifi adapter. Sometimes, it's happens like wifi adapters supports the system but system is not capable of it. So, adapters speed down-grid at that moment.

[aliabhaat]

Informative for me.

[davidmarton]

Please make sure that your system is compatible with Netgear Router or not and check the cable connection too.