Dell XPS 13 ultrabook - poor wireless performance. Advice please.

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Dell XPS 13 ultrabook - poor wireless performance. Advice please.

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#190720 10-Jan-2016 13:19

I have recently upgraded my 5-year-old Vaio notebook to a Dell XPS 13 9350 netbook running Windows 10.

The reason for the upgrade was that my Vaio battery is dying (again) and because the Dell had wireless ac.

The Dell comes highly recommended, and is a fine little unit with one major weakness - its wireless performance - which is markedly inferior to the Vaio.

I have a good home office wifi setup with a strong signal:

HFC cable 100/10 Mbps > Cisco modem > Ubiquiti Edge router > Cisco switch > Ubiquiti UniFi WAP

The WAP is the latest second-generation UniFi AP-AC-LR with the latest firmware.

I have installed inSSIDer on the old Vaio and the new Dell - both show link scores of 100 on both the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands, with no overlapping channels. Signal strength is better than -50dBm.

The old Viao (wireless n) gives me 100% of line speed - 100/10Mbps.

The new Dell (wireless ac) gives me 50% of line speed or (much) less - as bad as 10 Mbps - used in the same location.

The Dell has a Broadcom network controller (Device PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_43A3&SUBSYS_00211028&REV_08).

I am using the latest Dell Wireless 1820A 802.11ac driver (version: 1.555.0.0 - 26 Nov 2015)

Am I missing something obvious? - or do I just have to wait for a better driver?

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#1466973 10-Jan-2016 13:26

If the network card is removable, install an Intel AC7260

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#1466974 10-Jan-2016 13:27

I don't understand how you are measuring the "speed".

I have a Dell XPS 15 2x2 AC radio. Which means maxed out should give around 860Mbps wifi connection speed. Which it does.

What is your wifi connection speed?

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#1466975 10-Jan-2016 13:28

right click the wifi icon, select open network sharing centre, then click on the wifi SSID, it should give you the connection speed.

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#1466976 10-Jan-2016 13:35

download lan speed test: http://www.totusoft.com/lanspeed.html

setup a shared folder on a ethernet connected computer then open LAN speed test and browse to that folder, then hit start test, enter the amount of megabytes you want to test with (i recomend anything over 250MB, then click go

this should give you an indication of the actual through put of the connection

also check the status of your network connection on the devices and see what the link speed is saying

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#1466983 10-Jan-2016 13:51

The actual throughput over wifi is usually around 33-50% of connection speed, I don't have the science to explain but is the general consensus.

Eg mine is 750-850Mbps and I reliably get 250Mbps up and down (to NZ servers)

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#1466988 10-Jan-2016 14:07

50-60% is more relaistic, and your testing over the internet which adds its own set of variables which can hamper speeds. if you want to test your wifi speed elimiante all other variables, ie dont test over the internet.

using lan speed test eliminates other variables and tests over you LAN. for me its laptop -> router -> desktop. if there is an issue its going to be within one of those 3 things.

I connect at 390mbps and the throughput i normally get its about 210mbps

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#1466992 10-Jan-2016 14:26

Oh I remember now - the throughput depends on the router - my router is the el-cheapo Huawei HG659. On a good router it's closer to 50-60. But on mine 33% tops.

Also be mindful when doing the LAN test that one computer needs to be on Ethernet, as two computers sharing the wifi will make it even lower [about 1/2] than 33% (in my case) throughput.

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#1467015 10-Jan-2016 15:34

joker97: Oh I remember now - the throughput depends on the router - my router is the el-cheapo Huawei HG659. On a good router it's closer to 50-60. But on mine 33% tops.

Also be mindful when doing the LAN test that one computer needs to be on Ethernet, as two computers sharing the wifi will make it even lower [about 1/2] than 33% (in my case) throughput.

did you read my post?

the numbers you mentioned earlier are over the internet and are not a good representation of your wifi connection.

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#1467064 10-Jan-2016 16:19

Thank you all for your input.

What do I mean by "slow"?

Internet performance:

Using nPerf to test speeds from Auckland, my Vaio shows a perfect result (the dotted line is the averaged speed of 101 Mbps)...

... but my Dell shows an ugly switchback ride (the dotted line is the averaged speed of 19 Mbps) ...

The Network Sharing Centre gives a speed of 144Mbps for the Dell.

inSSIDer shows a max rate of 216 for the 2.4GHz band and only 54 for the 5GHz band.

Totusoft LAN Speed Test v3.5 to a SSD on an ethernet-connected PC gives very variable results, from 11 to 51 Mbps down:

(click to view)

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#1467085 10-Jan-2016 16:42

If you are connected at 144Mbps to your router, that is one issue [either at router end or Dell end] ... may or may not explain everything.

If connected at "N", should be 300Mbps, if "AC", should be 750-850Mbps.

Can you disable 2.4GHz on your router and ensure enable WWM/QOS and 20/40/80MHz enabled on the 5GHz channel

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#1467096 10-Jan-2016 16:49

maybe try one of these threads too in case the issue is at the Dell's end

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#1467097 10-Jan-2016 16:55

dont read into ISSiders max speed

are you connected to the 5GHz network? do they have different names?

what is the bandwidth on the 5ghz band? 20,40 or 80? needs to be 80 to get max speed, 144 suggests that its only a 20mhz band, and that your devices max speed on an 80mhz band will be 433mhz

in the wireless card properties, celect configure, then under advanced set preferred band to be 5ghz, also check some of the other values there

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#1467098 10-Jan-2016 16:56

joker97:

If connected at "N", should be 300Mbps, if "AC", should be 750-850Mbps.

the speed depends on the MIMO of the laptop, it may only be 1:1, which it looks to be, so it doesnt matter if the router is 2:2 or 3:3.

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#1467130 10-Jan-2016 17:57

My dell also has terrible wifi performance. I believe it is the AC chip dell have used, or the antenna position. Most manufacturers used to put the aerial in the display surround, but dells I believe is in the keyboard part. Strangely it performs better under windows 10, although I have to mainly use windows 8 and dual boot it, as it doesn't shut down or sleep properly in windows 10, and drains the battery.

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#1467133 10-Jan-2016 18:04

If it's less than 30 days old you can return for full refund if they cannot sort out the problem.

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