Vista Wireless-N Slow to a Crawl Please Help....

I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
and wireless is slow and unusable.

My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.

I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
forever.

I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
and does not install the newer one.

One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
it was done.

Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?

"Billy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> forever.
>
> I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> and does not install the newer one.
>
> One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> it was done.
>
> Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?

Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
Jim

On May 6, 2:18*pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
>
>
>
> >I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> > and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> > My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> > Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> > router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> > cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> > WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> > Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> > I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> > Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> > existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> > file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> > on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> > this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> > videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> > forever.
>
> > I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> > all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> > consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> > card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> > Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> > just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> > in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> > and does not install the newer one.
>
> > One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> > router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> > only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> > connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> > that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> > from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> > than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> > it was done.
>
> > Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> > Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?
>
> Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
> Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Jim - without being in front of the machine (im at work) I want to say
"yes" as I recall that driver directory as reference to the drivers
installed. The date I think was 9/2007 or maybe even earlier as driver
stamp. I will confirm all this tonight after 9pm EST from home an post
follow-up. What I was trying to do was to update the driver with the
BCM4321 which btw is a lesser number than you specify but is Dell
recommended on their site under my system and has a release date of
4/11/08 (very recent).

Do you know of an issue with the BC4322 driver and/or hardware? That
would help point me in the direction that I need to go....thanks!

"Billy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c05ca650-5fa3-48a9-8b4b-(E-Mail Removed)...
On May 6, 2:18 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
>
>
>
> >I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> > and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> > My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> > Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> > router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> > cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> > WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> > Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> > I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> > Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> > existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> > file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> > on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> > this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> > videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> > forever.
>
> > I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> > all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> > consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> > card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> > Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> > just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> > in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> > and does not install the newer one.
>
> > One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> > router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> > only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> > connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> > that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> > from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> > than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> > it was done.
>
> > Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> > Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?
>
> Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
> Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Jim - without being in front of the machine (im at work) I want to say
"yes" as I recall that driver directory as reference to the drivers
installed. The date I think was 9/2007 or maybe even earlier as driver
stamp. I will confirm all this tonight after 9pm EST from home an post
follow-up. What I was trying to do was to update the driver with the
BCM4321 which btw is a lesser number than you specify but is Dell
recommended on their site under my system and has a release date of
4/11/08 (very recent).

Do you know of an issue with the BC4322 driver and/or hardware? That
would help point me in the direction that I need to go....thanks!

Billy-- I *Do not* know of any issue with the BC 4322. I wanted to look at
the manual to see if you can drop back to G speeds. As it occures to me that
the router must be capable of N speeds if it wants to talk to you new card
at that speed.
Jim

On May 6, 2:49*pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:c05ca650-5fa3-48a9-8b4b-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On May 6, 2:18 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > >I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> > > and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> > > My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> > > Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> > > router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> > > cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> > > WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> > > Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> > > I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> > > Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> > > existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> > > file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> > > on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> > > this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> > > videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> > > forever.
>
> > > I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> > > all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> > > consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> > > card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> > > Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> > > just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> > > in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> > > and does not install the newer one.
>
> > > One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> > > router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> > > only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> > > connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> > > that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> > > from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> > > than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> > > it was done.
>
> > > Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> > > Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?
>
> > Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
> > Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Jim - without being in front of the machine (im at work) I want to say
> "yes" as I recall that driver directory as reference to the drivers
> installed. The date I think was 9/2007 or maybe even earlier as driver
> stamp. I will confirm all this tonight after 9pm EST from home an post
> follow-up. What I was trying to do was to update the driver with the
> BCM4321 which btw is a lesser number than you specify but is Dell
> recommended on their site under my system and has a release date of
> 4/11/08 (very recent).
>
> Do you know of an issue with the BC4322 driver and/or hardware? That
> would help point me in the direction that I need to go....thanks!
>
> Billy-- I *Do not* know of any issue with the BC 4322. I wanted to look at
> the manual to see if you can drop back to G speeds. As it occures to me that
> the router must be capable of N speeds if it wants to talk to you new card
> at that speed.
> Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Yes, the WRT150N router is capable of wireless-N draft specification.
It's a wireless N router. The other machines are using G on the client
end to talk to the N router and far outperform the speed of my newer N-
card within the offending machine. The issue is that not only do the
G's outperform the N card, they topple it by as much as 80% faster.
This is why I know there is something wrong.

Your idea about bumping the N down to G is a good test though to see
if this changes things - If I can only find the darn documentation on
any of this equipment I'd likely be farther ahead. Let me know what
you find......

"Billy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cd5e3a7a-c7e6-4db8-a8cc-(E-Mail Removed)...
On May 6, 2:49 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:c05ca650-5fa3-48a9-8b4b-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On May 6, 2:18 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > >I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> > > and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> > > My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> > > Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> > > router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> > > cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> > > WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> > > Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> > > I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> > > Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> > > existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> > > file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> > > on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> > > this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> > > videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> > > forever.
>
> > > I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> > > all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> > > consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> > > card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> > > Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> > > just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> > > in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> > > and does not install the newer one.
>
> > > One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> > > router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> > > only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> > > connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> > > that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> > > from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> > > than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> > > it was done.
>
> > > Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> > > Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?
>
> > Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
> > Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Jim - without being in front of the machine (im at work) I want to say
> "yes" as I recall that driver directory as reference to the drivers
> installed. The date I think was 9/2007 or maybe even earlier as driver
> stamp. I will confirm all this tonight after 9pm EST from home an post
> follow-up. What I was trying to do was to update the driver with the
> BCM4321 which btw is a lesser number than you specify but is Dell
> recommended on their site under my system and has a release date of
> 4/11/08 (very recent).
>
> Do you know of an issue with the BC4322 driver and/or hardware? That
> would help point me in the direction that I need to go....thanks!
>
> Billy-- I *Do not* know of any issue with the BC 4322. I wanted to look at
> the manual to see if you can drop back to G speeds. As it occures to me
> that
> the router must be capable of N speeds if it wants to talk to you new card
> at that speed.
> Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Yes, the WRT150N router is capable of wireless-N draft specification.
It's a wireless N router. The other machines are using G on the client
end to talk to the N router and far outperform the speed of my newer N-
card within the offending machine. The issue is that not only do the
G's outperform the N card, they topple it by as much as 80% faster.
This is why I know there is something wrong.

Your idea about bumping the N down to G is a good test though to see
if this changes things - If I can only find the darn documentation on
any of this equipment I'd likely be farther ahead. Let me know what
you find......

I didn't find much because I still don't know the model number of the WIFI
card. We were speculating that it is the DCM4322. By the way, did you
disable the NIC in the Dell?

Jim

On May 6, 8:29*pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:cd5e3a7a-c7e6-4db8-a8cc-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On May 6, 2:49 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:c05ca650-5fa3-48a9-8b4b-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > On May 6, 2:18 pm, "jpsga" <jp...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > > "Billy" <UseN...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> > >news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)....
>
> > > >I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
> > > > and wireless is slow and unusable.
>
> > > > My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
> > > > Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
> > > > router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
> > > > cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
> > > > WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
> > > > Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>
> > > > I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
> > > > Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
> > > > existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
> > > > file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
> > > > on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
> > > > this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
> > > > videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
> > > > forever.
>
> > > > I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
> > > > all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
> > > > consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
> > > > card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
> > > > Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
> > > > just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
> > > > in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing driver)
> > > > and does not install the newer one.
>
> > > > One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
> > > > router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
> > > > only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
> > > > connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
> > > > that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
> > > > from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
> > > > than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
> > > > it was done.
>
> > > > Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
> > > > Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?
>
> > > Billy-- Is this the Broadcom BC4322?
> > > Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> > > - Show quoted text -
>
> > Jim - without being in front of the machine (im at work) I want to say
> > "yes" as I recall that driver directory as reference to the drivers
> > installed. The date I think was 9/2007 or maybe even earlier as driver
> > stamp. I will confirm all this tonight after 9pm EST from home an post
> > follow-up. What I was trying to do was to update the driver with the
> > BCM4321 which btw is a lesser number than you specify but is Dell
> > recommended on their site under my system and has a release date of
> > 4/11/08 (very recent).
>
> > Do you know of an issue with the BC4322 driver and/or hardware? That
> > would help point me in the direction that I need to go....thanks!
>
> > Billy-- I *Do not* know of any issue with the BC 4322. I wanted to look at
> > the manual to see if you can drop back to G speeds. As it occures to me
> > that
> > the router must be capable of N speeds if it wants to talk to you new card
> > at that speed.
> > Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Yes, the WRT150N router is capable of wireless-N draft specification.
> It's a wireless N router. The other machines are using G on the client
> end to talk to the N router and far outperform the speed of my newer N-
> card within the offending machine. The issue is that not only do the
> G's outperform the N card, they topple it by as much as 80% faster.
> This is why I know there is something wrong.
>
> Your idea about bumping the N down to G is a good test though to see
> if this changes things - If I can only find the darn documentation on
> any of this equipment I'd likely be farther ahead. Let me know what
> you find......
>
> I didn't find much because I still don't know the model number of the WIFI
> card. We were speculating that it is the DCM4322. By the way, did you
> disable the NIC in the Dell?
>
> Jim- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

It's the Broadcom Wireless (US) WLAN Card, v.4.170.25.14, A00
BCM4321 WLAN driver that is installed.

> "Billy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:8289601c-3dbd-456d-afef-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I recently bought a Dell XPS One with a Broadcom 802.11n Network card
>> and wireless is slow and unusable.
>>
>> My home network consists of a Motorola Surfboard cable modem via
>> Comcast broadband service connected to a Linksys Wireless-N WRT150N
>> router (configured w/ no WEP or Encryption - it's open) via CAT5E
>> cable. The LAN has two WiFi-G enabled laptops and w/ Desktop all w/
>> WinXP Pro working efficiently and flawlessly for over a year. This
>> Dell XPS One is a new machine introduced.
>>
>> I connect the Dell XPS One w/ the Broadcom 802.11n Network card and
>> Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and the issue begins. BTW, the issues
>> existed before applying the Vista SP1. For example, downloading a 3mb
>> file takes over 3 to 5 minutes on this machine via WiFi. In contrast,
>> on one of the other home LAN machines w/ XP and differant hardware,
>> this takes less than 30 seconds. Also, I have skipping in YouTube
>> videos and file copys from machine to machine in the LAN taking
>> forever.
>>
>> I checked the Wireless card properties on the offending machine and
>> all settings look correct - im registering at 130 Mbps speed
>> consistently according to the WiFi status. I looked at the wireless
>> card driver and it appears to be the latest, however when I checked
>> Dell's website it looks like their may be a newer one that arrived
>> just this month. However, when I download and go to update the driver
>> in device manager it says that I have the latest (the existing
>> driver) and does not install the newer one.
>>
>> One other test I did was to plug in a cat6 ethernet cable from the
>> router to the back of the machine. It appears that my WRT150N router
>> only has 100/Full from the LAN ports so I received a 100Mbps
>> connection vi auto-negotiate setting. This is slower than the 10Mbps
>> that the WiFi card status was reporting, btw. So, I did a download
>> from the same site and bam, slower than XP machine, but way faster
>> than the troubled WiFi connection - maybe 45 seconds to a minutes and
>> it was done.
>>
>> Do you think this is a bad WiFi card in the machine, driver issue,
>> Windows Vista compatability, or any of the above?

user error and a salesdroids lies......

From Dell
<http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_one?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19>
Dell-branded and internally installed Wi-Fi: (802.11 a/b/g/n Draft 2.0)
standard

notice it is *DRAFT*

From linksys
<http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout &cid=1175233984378&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVis itorWrapper&lid=8437836001B01>
The Access Point built into the Router uses the very latest wireless
networking technology: Wireless-N (draft 802.11n)

Notice it is also *DRAFT*

however, drafts do not always talk to each other at full speed, specially
when they are from different manufacturers....

no way in H that wireless will ever ever ever be faster than wired, if you
buy into the numbers the sales people/liars stick in their literature,
claiming an impossible number, that you beleive cause you see some silly
lying number on a driver/on the screen,
and think it must really be that fast cuz it says so, I got a bridge I'll
sell you cheap.... Trust me, it's in writing!

at any rate, set everything to b/g only, it won't waste a lot of time trying
to negotiate a non existant/incompatible n....