Slow WiFi on ASUS N551JK-CN130H

[Eleandor]

I just waited 2 minutes for the text editor to load on this very forum...

So I bought an ASUS N551JK-CN130H 2 days ago. WiFi is very slow.

First, let's look at my old situation:
I used to have an old HP laptop with windows 7.
WiFi strength usually indicated 3/5 bars
Speeds were around 20mbps DL / 5mbps UL according to speedtest.net.
Overall, speeds "felt" fast.

Today, I have an asus on windows 8.1.
WiFi strength indicates a consistent 4/5 bars at the same location
Download speed now sucks (Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results).
Curious enough, upload speeds are still 5mbps, which is better than my download speeds??
Anything I do feels slow. I can barely watch 480p youtube videos without constant buffering, whereas 1080p was no problem before.

Option 1: my internet is suddenly broken
Nope, internet is just fine. When connecting through ethernet I get 40mbps DL / 6mbps UL, which is pretty much in line with what my ISP promises.

Option 2: my router is broken
Doesn't seem to be the case. I used my old laptop, and I'm still getting 20mbps / 5mbps, which is what I expected to see.

Option 3: update your drivers, dude
According to windows, they're already at the most recent version.
So I tried rolling back to 2013. No difference.
Then I searched google and downloaded a driver that was more recent anyway (thanks, windows update?). No difference.
I tried older drivers, newer drivers, and no change.

So yeah, why do I have crappy speeds?
Physically, nothing really changed. I'm at the same location as before, my router is at the same location, and my signal strength actually indicates an improvement.

WiFi adapter: Atheros AR9485WB
Driver Version: 10.0.0.298

I currently have following networking items:
- Client for microsoft networks (enabled)
- File and printer sharing for microsoft networks (disabled, was enabled)
- QoS Packed Scheduler (enabled)
- Microsoft network adapter Multiplexor Protocol (disabled)
- Microsoft LLDP protocol driver (disabled)
- Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver (disabled, was enabled)
- Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder (disabled, was enabled)
- IPv6 (enabled)
- IPv4 (enabled)

Power management: already disabled the option to turn off the adapter to save power

I feel like I've already tried the standard solutions, so I'm looking for a more "expert" opinion...

 

[popeye]

Curious what kind of result you get when you ping 8.8.8.8 ? I have QoS Packet Scheduler installed and enabled in WiFi setting also, don't know if it will help.

Also look at Tweak #5 here: How to Speed Up Your Internet in Windows 8 (8.1) | Registry Recycler Blog

 

[Eleandor]

Woops, I forgot to add QoS (enabled).

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=198ms TTL=54
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=54


Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 40ms, Maximum = 198ms, Average = 80ms

Btw, I've already tried switching to google DNS and open DNS. Currently I'm on google DNS.

Also look at Tweak #5 here

There's no gpedit.msc on my windows installation. Probably something for pro editions?
Edit: should have continued reading because there's an alternative option. Will report back if this works.

 

[popeye]

Yea sorry about that, gpedit is a pro thing. Guess we can't rule out your Atheros card being bad. How close re you to the router? What is TX power set to on router and Atheros card? Do you have a friend with a USB wifi adapter you can try?

Do you have QoS Packet Scheduler enabled?

Also, you can still adjust the QoS limiter by editing the registry but if you are not comfortable with that don't do it.

 

[Leathran]

Is there anything new about this topic? I'm also experiencing Wi-Fi problems..

 

[Eleandor]

Nope, still have the same problems.
I've bought a few powerline adapters. It's a stupid solution to a problem I shouldn't even have in the first place, but it takes care of my problems at home. Not an ideal solution considering how I'm often mobile, but I pretty much gave up trying to solve this.