I have been racking my brain trying to figure out the issue that exists with my new laptop and my faithful old WRT54GS v1.1 (with the latest firmware). Just to preface, I am an above average PC user and usually can solve about anything with Google and enough time, but I am completely stumped.

 

I purchased my Dell XPS M1330 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium, but have never been able to get solid Internet performance with the wireless connection. Browsing websites is extremely slow and sometimes pages will not load until I click refresh a few times. With some websites, the images do not pull up unless I click "Show Picture" or refresh. My VPN connection drops frequently. Ironically, My bandwidth tests at speakeasy.net are fast.

 

All of my other PCs connect wirelessly without a hitch and perform as they always have. If I plug this new Dell into the router via good old CAT6, it performs like a champ. The new PC has the Intel 4965agn chipset and works well in other wireless networks. I have tried every possible thing on the PC to improve performance: reload OS, upgrade OS (to Vista Ultimate), disable netsh autotuning, set power settings to high perfomance, with/without AVG, with/without Windows Defender, disable Phishing filter, installed Firefox, etc. What the heck is wrong? I am going nuts. I am about (2) seconds from buying a new router, but cannot help but think there is some other solution.