How to increase laptop WIFI speed

Gdetrailer wrote:

delwhjr wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:

delwhjr wrote:
I had an HP Laptop that used that wireless adapter. It had many issues over its life and one was slow speeds. I replaced it with an external adapter and all was right with the world.

Am using an HP laptop Though it Wi-Fi's at 5 Gig.. The speedometer wrapped the needle round the pin when I plugged in a CAT 5 adapter and hard wired it.

When mine is hard lined it performs great. When it was using the original WiFi adapter there were many issues. Adding an external USB solved these and gave me the 5ghz ability. The original adapter was only 2.4.

By using hardwired Ethernet or a USB external WiFi card you are bypassing the internal Broadcom WiFi adapter which from the complaints I found when looking up the model number the OP gave appears to be either a flakey adapter or possibly flakey drivers.

Has nothing to do with not being able to use 5ghz..

This seems to be a common and mainly a HP laptop issue with their WiFi radio cards.

I didn't find any other laptop manufacturers with this same common complaint (they most likely are using other WiFi radio card manufacturers, Dell is using Qualcomm WiFi cards).

Surprised the OP hasn't had this issue before although it is possible that their Frontier modem/router/AP 2.4ghz WiFi radio is going bad.

Rather than beating ones self to death trying to figure out why the HP WiFi isn't up to par anymore on old PC equipment, bypassing with pretty much any external USB WiFi radio will most likely fix the problem permanently.

On edit,

Since the speed problem is mainly the laptop, the OP could take the laptop to any place like McDs or a coffee shop that offers free WiFi to see if the laptop connects at speeds greater than 7 Mbps.

If they get a connection greater than 7 Mbps then it may be an issue with their ISPs modem/router/AP which may need replaced in this case.

If they continue to get speeds of 7 Mbps at other locations that offer free WiFi. Then the issue must be the internal Broadcom WiFi radio card. The fix would be bypass with an external USB WiFi radio and not bother trying to figure out why the internal one isn't working correctly..

In my case it doesn't bypass it because I removed it completely from the unit (has a nice little removable cover). The new external one is all the way to WiFi6 compatible.

delwhjr wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:

delwhjr wrote:
I had an HP Laptop that used that wireless adapter. It had many issues over its life and one was slow speeds. I replaced it with an external adapter and all was right with the world.

Am using an HP laptop Though it Wi-Fi's at 5 Gig.. The speedometer wrapped the needle round the pin when I plugged in a CAT 5 adapter and hard wired it.

When mine is hard lined it performs great. When it was using the original WiFi adapter there were many issues. Adding an external USB solved these and gave me the 5ghz ability. The original adapter was only 2.4.

By using hardwired Ethernet or a USB external WiFi card you are bypassing the internal Broadcom WiFi adapter which from the complaints I found when looking up the model number the OP gave appears to be either a flakey adapter or possibly flakey drivers.

Has nothing to do with not being able to use 5ghz..

This seems to be a common and mainly a HP laptop issue with their WiFi radio cards.

I didn't find any other laptop manufacturers with this same common complaint (they most likely are using other WiFi radio card manufacturers, Dell is using Qualcomm WiFi cards).

Surprised the OP hasn't had this issue before although it is possible that their Frontier modem/router/AP 2.4ghz WiFi radio is going bad.

Rather than beating ones self to death trying to figure out why the HP WiFi isn't up to par anymore on old PC equipment, bypassing with pretty much any external USB WiFi radio will most likely fix the problem permanently.

On edit,

Since the speed problem is mainly the laptop, the OP could take the laptop to any place like McDs or a coffee shop that offers free WiFi to see if the laptop connects at speeds greater than 7 Mbps.

If they get a connection greater than 7 Mbps then it may be an issue with their ISPs modem/router/AP which may need replaced in this case.

If they continue to get speeds of 7 Mbps at other locations that offer free WiFi. Then the issue must be the internal Broadcom WiFi radio card. The fix would be bypass with an external USB WiFi radio and not bother trying to figure out why the internal one isn't working correctly..

wa8yxm wrote:

delwhjr wrote:
I had an HP Laptop that used that wireless adapter. It had many issues over its life and one was slow speeds. I replaced it with an external adapter and all was right with the world.

Am using an HP laptop Though it Wi-Fi's at 5 Gig.. The speedometer wrapped the needle round the pin when I plugged in a CAT 5 adapter and hard wired it.

When mine is hard lined it performs great. When it was using the original WiFi adapter there were many issues. Adding an external USB solved these and gave me the 5ghz ability. The original adapter was only 2.4.

Gjac wrote:

Yes I get a full 12-14 MBPS from my ethernet cable. when I check for drivers in network apapter it just tells me I have the best on for my laptop. Besides a WiFi adapter is it possible that the laptop uses a different frequency than the Iphone and Ipad and that Frontier can adjust the frequency to increase speed on the laptop?

Frontier can't change anything on your PC or your phone, they may have the ability to manage your router/access point if it is their equipment.

It is possible that your laptop WiFi may be preferring 2.4ghz but even 2.4ghz Wifi is capable of far greater speeds of 54mbps.

If your other devices are using 5ghz WiFi then it is possible the 2.4ghz radio in the Frontier router/AP is failing.

As far as drivers on your laptop, it is normal for Windows to report you have the newest drivers available, but it doesn't mean the newest drivers are the best.. Win10 is designed to use only the drivers MS supplies, manufacturers submit drivers to MS, MS then includes the drivers into the OS package and driver updates.. This system tends to be problematic.

For instance, I ran into a issue with a new MB that only has USB3.0 hardware ports, No legacy USB2/1 hardware the USB2 and USB1 speeds are simulated from the USB3 ports. MS with Win10 has packaged a broken USB3 driver for Intel boards that does not play well with devices that are USB2/1.. There is a long workaround for this issue which involves a third party that figured out how to install the USB3 driver from Windows 7 which fixes the broken driver issue.

Gdetrailer wrote:

Gjac wrote:
Ed and Gdtrailer, checking with ethernet cable I get 14 MBPS out of router from Frontier, I am only paying for 12. This will vary throughout the day seems lower in the morning. As long as it stay above 6-8 everything works fine. Yes I have tried turning off the wifi on phone and Ipad but that does not increase speed on laptop. The real question is even when I get max MBPS from the router the I phone will read 14 MBPS while the laptop only reads half that. Laptop has a Broadcom BCM43142.802.11bgnWiFi-M.2 adapter and a Realtek PCLE FE family Controller #2.

Roger that.

Do you get full 14Mbps with the direct Ethernet?

If so, then it is possible the Broadcom WiFi adapter is failing, a setting on the adapter has recently changed or driver has been updated/changed recently via MS updates.. That Broadcom from the model number gives me the feeling it is a M.2 interface adapter, M.2 interface can be problematic with drivers and Win10.

A quick search netted this complaint on the same broadcom model having speed issue from back in 2018..

HERE

Found another speed complaint on same card HERE Marked as solved but it is temporary since they seem to have to reinstall the drivers often..

Seems to be a common complaint which seems to be driver related..

Broadcom at one time used to make very solid netwroking products but its looking like driver stability is an issue now days.

Personally, for what it is worth for the hassle, you can buy a USB wireless WiFi adapter pretty cheap and most likely fix the issue for good. Plenty out there for $20 and up..

Yes I get a full 12-14 MBPS from my ethernet cable. when I check for drivers in network apapter it just tells me I have the best on for my laptop. Besides a WiFi adapter is it possible that the laptop uses a different frequency than the Iphone and Ipad and that Frontier can adjust the frequency to increase speed on the laptop?

wa8yxm wrote:

delwhjr wrote:
I had an HP Laptop that used that wireless adapter. It had many issues over its life and one was slow speeds. I replaced it with an external adapter and all was right with the world.

Am using an HP laptop Though it Wi-Fi's at 5 Gig.. The speedometer wrapped the needle round the pin when I plugged in a CAT 5 adapter and hard wired it.

Yeah, I prefer leaving all of my PCs hardwired when possible, much, much faster and reliable. The 5ghz Wifi specs boast of UP TO 1300 Mbps they often will never achieve a fraction of that.

It is hard to beat a hardwired Gigabit Ethernet card, but many buy laptops to not be "tethered" via a wire so I do understand why folks want the WiFi to work and work well.

OP needs to determine if they had a recent Windows update or a driver update happen. If the WiFi Radio has a newer driver then rolling back the driver may fix the problem. Alternately they can also search the Broadcom website to see if there is a driver with a different date and build to try..

Trying to update through Windows update often doesn't work, it will simply tell you that the driver is the "newest" and won't allow you to forcefully change it. Windows manages the drivers versions which makes it a real pain in the behind when it insists on using it's own broken drivers. To forcefully replace the driver it often takes a driver package which uses a installer.. Sometimes if you take the PC offline you might be able to switch drivers, but it is not guaranteed it will work.

Something else to consider, with many security updates, they are not 100% fully tested and as implied, security updates are designed to increase the security of your PC.. This sometimes leads to new issues with breaking things that used to work by not allowing (removing) or hiding certain security settings..

delwhjr wrote:
I had an HP Laptop that used that wireless adapter. It had many issues over its life and one was slow speeds. I replaced it with an external adapter and all was right with the world.

Am using an HP laptop Though it Wi-Fi's at 5 Gig.. The speedometer wrapped the needle round the pin when I plugged in a CAT 5 adapter and hard wired it.

Gjac wrote:
Ed and Gdtrailer, checking with ethernet cable I get 14 MBPS out of router from Frontier, I am only paying for 12. This will vary throughout the day seems lower in the morning. As long as it stay above 6-8 everything works fine. Yes I have tried turning off the wifi on phone and Ipad but that does not increase speed on laptop. The real question is even when I get max MBPS from the router the I phone will read 14 MBPS while the laptop only reads half that. Laptop has a Broadcom BCM43142.802.11bgnWiFi-M.2 adapter and a Realtek PCLE FE family Controller #2.

Roger that.

Do you get full 14Mbps with the direct Ethernet?

If so, then it is possible the Broadcom WiFi adapter is failing, a setting on the adapter has recently changed or driver has been updated/changed recently via MS updates.. That Broadcom from the model number gives me the feeling it is a M.2 interface adapter, M.2 interface can be problematic with drivers and Win10.

A quick search netted this complaint on the same broadcom model having speed issue from back in 2018..

HERE

Found another speed complaint on same card HERE Marked as solved but it is temporary since they seem to have to reinstall the drivers often..

Seems to be a common complaint which seems to be driver related..

Broadcom at one time used to make very solid netwroking products but its looking like driver stability is an issue now days.

Personally, for what it is worth for the hassle, you can buy a USB wireless WiFi adapter pretty cheap and most likely fix the issue for good. Plenty out there for $20 and up..

Gjac wrote:
Ed and Gdtrailer, checking with ethernet cable I get 14 MBPS out of router from Frontier, I am only paying for 12.

From the OP's earlier post.

Which provider? Who's modem? Make and model of modem? What type of wiring from provider to modem?
Have you tried connecting with ethernet cable?
Is the modem in a well-ventilated location?
Connect laptop to modem/wireless router and check speed.
Sitting here on laptop I am getting 42 MBPS.