Huge performance drop when using WEP

[dementedlemur]

2 weeks ago our DSL was down at least once a day so we bridged the router after talking with our ISP tech and the problem went away. My wireless network has been setup since January and I just started having major problems this week. Download speed dropped to ~130kb/s. I started messing with the settings on my D-Link 624 super G router and tested the connection with a WRT54G router as well. I've had the same results with both; ~1400 kb/s without WEP and ~130kb/s with WEP enabled.
Any ideas what could suddenly cause this to happen?

 

[Kelemvor]

Did you try with WPA or different versions of WEP (64, 128, Ascii, hex, etc)?

It might cause a tiny delay since it has to authenticate but nothing like that.

Also is this just one PC? What about hardwired PCs, other laptops, etc? Coudl also check for updated NIC drivers on the client and/or updated firmware on the routers.

 

[JackMDS]

Yeah it s possible that WEP would incur big loses.

 

[dementedlemur]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Did you try with WPA or different versions of WEP (64, 128, Ascii, hex, etc)?

It might cause a tiny delay since it has to authenticate but nothing like that.

Also is this just one PC? What about hardwired PCs, other laptops, etc? Coudl also check for updated NIC drivers on the client and/or updated firmware on the routers.

I've had the same 64 hex WEP setup since January, and the same key for at least 2 months.
I tried another laptop with a clean vista install and got 696kb/s w/the WEP enabled, and 1450kb/s w/WEP disabled.

I'm just puzzled by why it would suddenly start doing this after working properly for so long.

 

[spidey07]

What client card are you using.

Any card within the last 3 years should not suffer ANY performance hit as it's all done in hardware.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: spidey07
What client card are you using.

Any card within the last 3 years should not suffer ANY performance hit as it's all done in hardware.

This is the truth. There is something else wrong, and it's not WEP. Also, does WPA slow down as well? Because WEP stands for Worthless Encryption Protocol.