Wireless adapter defunct?

Question

I have a Netopia 54Mbps Wireless USB adapter and bellsouth DSL extreme 6.0. I used to get FREAKING BREAKNECK DOWNLOAD SPEEDS OF almost 3 megaBYTES per second. However, recently, I had to reinstall the operating system for my computer. After I got the wireless card hooked up, it goes SLOW AS HECK giving me this crap of 200 kilobytes per second. It is that SAME adapter, SAME dsl service...WHY won't it give me the speeds it used to give me? the only thing different this time was I had to change the security settings (40bit) a little so it could connect to the modem (westell 32W) is this what is slowing me down or what? Also, there is no interference from other wireless devices.

Items: Netopia with 3D reach (54mbps) and a Westell 32W.
Before: transfer rate: 2.98 MB/s
Now: transfer rate: 200 KB/s

The only thing that's changed is the 40 bit security info in the wireless computer.

Answer 1

Well here is what I would do. Login to the 32W and disable the security settings so you can trouble shoot the WIFI. Then reconnect without the encryption and see if the issue goes away. (What exactly enabled security now if it wasnt enabled before?)

You may have some unwanted visitors on your wifi it it hasn't been secured previously.

You may have found an issue of compatiblity between your card and the modems security settings. It might be that the two in encrypted mode dont like each other at all. (Rare but I have seen that) If you can change the security from WEP to say TKIP or some other version see what happens between them.

Normally security on wireless will slow the system slightly but not that much.