Ultranote III Wifi limited to G?

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bfranklin

Active member
Hi all,

Hoping someone has had the same problem in the past and knows how to sort this.

I've noticed that my Ultranote III with Windows 10 that is a month old is only connecting to my router with 802.11g. The card is the Intel AC-8260 and the router is Wireless-N (D-Link DIR-655) so I should be able to get an N connection.

Router firmware and Windows drivers are all up to date. Router is configured for a mixed G and N network, I tried switching it to N only and the laptop couldn't connect. InSSIDer reports my network as 802.11n single channel with a max rate of 130Mbps, which is correct.

Any ideas?
 
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bfranklin

Active member
Thanks for the link but I'm already using the Intel 19.20.3 drivers with no joy :(

I'm hoping that it's not just that the router and card might simply not be interoperable for 802.11n as the router was released while N was still in draft 1 or 2 from memory, I'm not sure it was ever updated to the fully ratified spec.
 
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Tony1044

Prolific Poster
I don't know much about those routers and I note you said you've tried to broadcast on just N.

Have you tried a completely separate SSID and have you tried a different channel/gap?
 
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bfranklin

Active member
I've tried different channels yes, that's actually what I was trying to optimise when I noticed the laptop was only connecting using 802.11g. Turns out channel 1 is hellishly congested, 6 and 11 are about equally congested but both less than channel 1, but I digress...

I didn't try a different SSID, will experiment with that later on tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
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Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Yeah I don't know your router but I know some broadcast 5 and 2.4 on the same SSID's...the idea is devices connect to the same one regardless. In my experience, though, it causes more issues than it solves, hence the suggestion.

Otherwise you may have either a dodgy card or, more likely, compatibility problems.
 
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bfranklin

Active member
Ah, my current router is 2.4GHz only, not dual-band so that's not the problem. There's only one other 5GHz network in the vicinity though so it might be time to upgrade purely from that point of view.
 
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bfranklin

Active member
I've been trying to crack this problem this evening and have frustratingly not been able to do so despite thinking I had found the solution several times :(

I'm recording the steps tried so far partly for my own reference but also in the hope that they might help someone else in future.

I found this page on the Intel website which details their recommended advanced driver settings for 802.11n connectivity. I double checked that my settings matched and they do, but at the bottom of the page is a link to another page on the Intel website entitled "Data rate won't exceed 54Mbps when WEP or TKIP is configured". My router was configured for auto WPA or WPA2 with AES encryption, and auto is supposed to only allow WPA connections from clients that don't support WPA2. I've now changed this setting to WPA2 only with AES just in case this was the problem and all my clients can still connect - but the laptop's still stuck at 54Mbps :(

Next I checked D-Link's website and to my surprise there was a newer firmware listed than the router was currently running, despite the router's self-update GUI utility telling me the newest version was currently installed. I downloaded the newer version and manually upgraded, but I'm STILL stuck at 54Mbps. Now I'm stuck, and strongly suspecting incompatibility between router and client :(

I'm visiting my parents this weekend so will be taking the laptop to see if I can connect to their Virgin router with 802.11n to rule out a faulty card in the laptop. Last ditch attempt to get it working will be to investigate open source firmware for the router, and if that doesn't work then it's time to go shopping.
 
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bfranklin

Active member
The Intel card worked fine connected at 300Mbps in N mode at my parents house with the Virgin Superhub 2, so it now looks like a specific incompatibility between the Intel AC-8260 NIC and D-Link DIR-655 router. Bugger.

DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato aren't an option because of the Ubicom chipset used by the router, so it looks like I'm going to be forced into buying a new router. G can't even utilise half the speed of my connection.
 
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