Wireless is really weak, no ideas

[trickymickey]

First let me say I'm using windows vista on my own computer for the first time, so please give me a reasonable amount of explanation if it's something confusing with vista.

I just built a new computer and I have a strange issue with my wireless card. I have a ZyXEL M-302 wireless card. When I first booted up the computer I could not connect to my friends network, but I think that's because I couldn't figure out how to let vista connect to an unsecured network (it would ask me if this was ok, connect and then right after it finished it would disconnect).

On the next network (WPA security) I tried it worked perfectly, loaded pages quickly, downloaded updates super fast. Finally when I got it home it's acting really strangely (at least to a noobie like me). I connected to my apartment router and everything seemed fine. I got on vent, started streaming some music at 256kbs, got on aim, and was surfing the web. After 5 or 10 minutes everything started crapping out. I figured maybe it was the router so I went and reset it, no problems for another 5-10 minutes. I ran some speedtest things online and my computer was only getting like .5-1 mbs download, and >.1mbs upload so I got out my old laptop and ran speedtest on it. My old laptop was getting 7-8 mbs download and like .4mbs upload (which is what my cable company is supposed to be providing us). I tried changing the security (i'm not sure why this would matter, but hey WPA worked and WEP didn't seem to, so might as well make sure). I tried resetting the router/modem. I made sure I had the most up to date drivers on their website (2.0 is the newest as far as I can tell). Also when my internet starts to die, I'm still connected to the router and can still change settings, I just can't do anything online. The internet seems to work fine until I start to stream stuff ie phone calls on skype, music (even at 128kbs). For AIM, and browsing it seems to work fine, it also seems to work fine for downloading windows updates and playing Warcraft III (although that's a fairly old game.

If anything isn't clear or anyone has an idea please let me know and I'll try clarify the problem or try your suggestion. Computer specs are below.

Antec 900
AMD PII X4 955 BE
Corsair 750W TX
ASUS M4A79T Deluxe 790FX
WD 640GB Caviar Black
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1gig
2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600
ZyXEL M-302 Wireless Card

 

[spidey07]

Sounds like interference (especially in an apartment setting). Change channels to 1, 6 or 11 and read sticky about antenna position (don't "point" them at each other and interference.

 

[trickymickey]

Both antennas on the router are pointing up as is the one on my wireless cards. There is one interior wall (just drywall) between my computer and the router. I'll try changing the channel and see if that helps.

 

[trickymickey]

I tried changing channels as well and it didn't make any difference.

 

[spidey07]

One wall of drywall shouldn't be that big of a deal. Make sure the AP and client aren't too close to each other, as in your client antenna is on the direct other side of the AP. From your OP this really sounds like environment.

 

[trickymickey]

I believe you mean my router by AP, in which case it is about 20 feet away from the wall, and the client (my computer) is about 10 feet away from the wall. So a total of 30 feet with 1 wall in between. Also when I use my laptop it's in an almost identical position (on top of the desk instead of underneath it) and it gets very good speeds as I described in the original post.

 

[trickymickey]

I called ZyXEL today and found out that apparently the M-302 isn't compatible with Vista. They were surprised it was working at all. Thanks for the help anyway.