WiFi Adapter

I bought a wifi adapter ( Linksys Max Stream AC 600 ) for a low end laptop I have to improve the wireless capability.

I thought it might help with the reception and the speed.

I inserted the adapter in the USB port and it went from yellow to white.

No problem there I guess.

Then I inserted the disc to download the software.

The disc loads and it instructs me to double click to download the software.

Then I get a message that it is prohibited to contact the administrator.

It is a personal laptop and I am the only one that uses it. I am the administrator.

I have never seen this on a personal pc.

I have tried everything to reload the disc and the adapter. I have tried to download the software online.

Nothing is working. Any suggestions ?

 

I downloaded a link but that did not work.
But I used the one you provided and it works just fine.

Everything is setup. I tried speedtest but there was not change.
But the real test will be next week when I take it with me out of town.

The wifi I have in my laptop is BGN, the Linksys adapter is AC.
Supposedly, it is 3X better than N.
It has to be better than what I have installed.

Thanks for your help.
If you ever need a part time job with the Geek Squad at Best Buy, let me know, and I'll give you a recommendation...........

 

Run the Setup on the PC by right clicking mouse and choose Run as Admin or something equally as similar sounding, should sort it.

Unless your transferring movies around I doubt you'll notice much difference.

AC is 2 x N bans and 1 x G Band at the same time I see and auto switched between if you go out of N's range.

 

The speed has not changed, but it is loading faster.
So, that is a plus.

When I get a new laptop, next year or so........I was going to look for an I7 processor. And either 720P or 1080P. I don't need 4K on a 13 or 15 inch laptop. Other than that, is there a certain wifi card I should look for? Or, are they the same as long as they run AC?

 

WIFI 6 is the new standard. AC is WiFi 5.

 

You have to measure it from the same place.

So if you use a speedtest from city X before, you should use the same speed test after.

Additionally if you are on a residential line your speeds are not guaranteed and during peak times (which can be any time, really) your ISP will cap your total speed. It's important to factor this into your measurements and take multiple readings throughout the day.

 

Yeah, I understand about measuring. All I have to do is pull the USB adapter out of the laptop and test it with the original, installed card.

I have never understood how wifi providers can get away with slower speeds because of
'peak time - your neighbors are using too much bandwidth online'.

Imagine if the electric company said that you were going to have rolling black outs or diminished service because your neighbor down the road was using too much electricity.

It's just a bunch of 0 and 1 electrons traveling down an electrical line.

It is similar to the electricity, cable-vision and the telephone.

It's the only industry I am aware of that can provide 30%, 50%, 75% of the service you pay for and get away with it. There should be laws against it, but the service providers are more influential than I am.

 

Wifi also is generally not guaranteed because based on firmware, packet QoS algorithms, etc your speeds could be greatly reduced. Additionally, the version you use (G, N, AC, etc) puts an upper bound on your maximum experienced speed.

There are fundamental limitations of the hardware that are accounted for. I do believe there is a cartel of internet providers fixing speeds - but this case does not appear to be that.

 

The speed with which your laptop can communicate via wifi to your router depends not only on the wifi card in your laptop but also on the one in the router. Example: your laptop has AC, but your router's maximum is N. In that case will your router be the bottleneck. The second bottleneck is how many pieces of equipment are connected to this same router via wifi. All these pieces of equipment share the same bandwidth.
So, if you want to measure the maximum communication speed possible you have to place your laptop right next to your router, and switch off all other equipment that use wifi. Then you can run your test.
However, if the speed from your ISP to your router is lower than the wifi speed all of the above doesn't matter: in that case is your ISP your bottleneck.