Windows 10: For anyone having trouble with throttled wifi speed/protocol 802.11n instead of 802.11ac,...

This isn't a question, but a helpful tip. I'd wager based on other threads I've come upon https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/ac-wifi-connecting-as-n-protocol-windows-10-64-bit/83746a3c-7e75-4984-abd5-b7c12ffe3ffe to name one that many of you have seen Windows kindly update your 802.11ac networking adapter to 802.11n speeds.


It happened to me, presumably as a result of a February driver update. I have a Broadcom BCM43XAC WiFi Adapter built into my Asus Maximus VI Formula what a mouthful!, and I have recently noticed windows has it using the 802.11n protocol, on 2.4 rather than 5 GHz, and at 866/144 Mbps. Not cool.


Turns out the driver got over-written by windows auto-updates, but thankfully I was able to select my old driver from the old ones already on my system. From your Device Manager, find the Network Adapter in questions, right click, go to Properties Driver tab Update Driver Browse my computer for drivers Let me pick from a list... and then choose the correct driver. This step might require some trial and error on your part, but in my case, I had two Broadcom drivers, and one Microsoft, and I just chose the first Broadcom on the list. My recommendation would be to choose one of the manufacturer drivers, NOT the Microsoft one.


The Microsoft driver was updated in Feb 2020, while the Broadcom driver I just reverted back to is from 2014. Well, newer isn't always better: immediately after installing, I'm back to normal AC speeds, 5 Ghz band, and a test on speedtest saw me go from 80.69 Mbps down, to 331.54 Mbps. Upload is the same at around 11.5 Mbps, but that's no surprise since the lower band wouldn't affect such low throughput anyway.


I get that some of Microsoft's all-in-one drivers can be super handy, the prevailing idea being that they work with the vast majority of devices. Monitors for example--I just let it use the default Generic PnP Monitor, cause frankly, I got sick of reinstalling the Samsung Drivers manually after every major Windows update. Those default drivers work fine, support 4K and correct refresh rate, etc., so no biggie. Not the case with WiFi adapters though, as the implementations are all so dramatically different.


A quick plea to Microsoft: maybe don't cause all our legacy hardware to update to new drivers that may cripple them. I've had the option to automatically update that stuff disabled for months, but it appears to have happened despite my prohibition.


Alright, that's all I've got. Hope that helps some of you.


Best wishes. Be well.

:)

 

Looking to find a wireless card to utilise new internet speeds

Standards vs theoretical and actual speeds:
How Fast Is a Wi-Fi Network?

Here's a Wi-Fi speed chart that compares the actual and theoretical speeds of most current Wi-Fi networks:
[table][tr][td][/td] [td]Theoretical[/td] [td]Actual[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]802.11b[/td] [td]11 Mbps[/td] [td]5.5 Mbps[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]802.11a[/td] [td]54 Mbps[/td] [td]20 Mbps[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]802.11g[/td] [td]54 Mbps[/td] [td]20 Mbps[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]802.11n[/td] [td]600 Mbps[/td] [td]100 Mbps[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]802.11ac[/td] [td]1,300 Mbps[/td] [td]200 Mbps[/td] [/tr] [/table]


Then there's this- if you can get something that implements it:
What is 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and how much faster than 802.11n is it? - ExtremeTech

 

NETGEAR Introduces the Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi Router

Review - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2050...s-802-11ac-router-sets-lan-speed-records.html

 

Network speed issue - Phone achieves much faster speeds than my laptop on the same network

It appears the iPhone 8 supports the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard (Apple iPhone 8 - Full phone specifications) which has a theoretical maximum throughput about 3 times that of 802.11n which your laptop supports (802.11ac vs 802.11n WiFi: What's The Difference?).

Yes, your laptop is achieving far less than the theoretical maximum speed of 802.11n, but that could be to do with a number of things. 802.11ac on your iPhone could be using a different frequency band (5GHz), and maybe the 2.4GHz band is saturated by a lot of devices, leaving the 5GHz band relatively free. It could also just be related to the Wi-Fi hardware installed at your school.

It's difficult to pinpoint the actual cause without a lot more information, but suggest plugging in a USB 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter to your laptop, switch over to that rather than the onboard Realtek, and see if your speeds improve. You can find the adapters for under $20 (T4U V2 | AC1300 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter | TP-Link)