Intel Wifi AX201 160Mhz slow speed on Dell Latitude

[PaulTelInt]

Dear,

I received new Dell Latitude 7310. In the room I am working around 5 m from the router this new laptop with Intel Chip Ax201 160Mhz has 4-10 TIMES LOWER performance than my other old devices (old laptops, PC, Mac, Iphones). They get 80Mbps, this Dell with Intel gets at max 20Mbps , that is not stable and drops to 1,2,3 Mbps.

I spent long hours with my corporation IT support, reinstalling software, drivers, reconfiguring the router. It gave nothing. So I spent same long hours with Dell - it gave nothing. Dell gave up and sent me a new machine Dell Latitude 7320 - that has exactly the same problem.  I also read here on one of the thread that a user had exactly the same problem but thread is marked as "solved" although there was no solution provided to the user ( no solution that would work).

Please advise what shall I do - I have two new computers where wireless is a complete crap .  As I am Msc Eng in Telecommunications it seems to me something is of very poor quality - so it can be the chipset/ card or the antenna design.

Did you Intel find the solution to the problem? Do you know what it is?

[Khun_Doug]

PaullTellnt,

You don't mention anything about the network you are connecting to. What model router or access point are you using? Is this a mesh setup? What band are you trying to use?

[PaulTelInt]

Hello Khun,

I use the modem Fritz Box 7350. No mesh. I used 2.4 Ghz band then 5Ghz ( result the same). I also forced different channels. I also played with settings on wlan card in Windows 10 ( use “n” , not use “n” etc).

[Khun_Doug]

Hi PaulTellnt,

You can search this forum looking for Fritz!Box, maybe just look for Fritz or Fritzbox. There have been numerous instances of people that had a Fritz!Box and never got the wireless to work. There is something about the Fritz!Box where it just will not work properly with some Intel wireless adapters. I always tell people that I am not trying to help them spend their money before I offer the solution. I would recommend getting an AX capable router and connect that to the Fritz!Box, and then just disable the wireless on the Fritz!Box. That way the Fritz!Box is your Internet gateway and then you will have a more capable wireless. Netgear and Asus have AX capable routers. I have the Asus RT-AX88U and no troubles with AX and AC links, including live gaming.

PS - I don't work for Intel. I am a retired IT network admin with over 30 years in this field. Please don't shoot the messenger

[PaulTelInt]

I just connected dlink router and the performance is the same bad.
Ps As I wrote if I keep my laptop 5 m from router no obstacles then the maximum internet speed 80Mbs is reached. It is if I go further than 5 m or to the room 5 m away where one wall is separating us.

I assume this is not a problem that intel chipset does not like Fritz or vice versa. More and more I am leaning towards poor antenna design.

[Khun_Doug]

PaulTellnt,

You may be running into interference with other devices. You can get NetSpot from the Microsoft Store and use that to see what other appliances are being received. You can also put NetSpot on a mobile phone and do the same thing. NetSpot will also show signal strength and channels. That will tell you quite a lot of information about signal quality.

One other thing is possible interference from other wireless devices on your network. I've seen cases where one device was able to really degrade the network for other devices. We never found out the cause. All we knew was that turning off wireless on this one laptop was enough to resolve the problem - it acted like a wireless killer but it would work fine. You would need to silence your other devices to see if that makes any difference.