Smartphones

try altering the settings of the router

the one you need to look at is the wireless channel. Sometimes changing which channel the router transmits on can fix little problems like these.

That you may be the ONLY component in life's equation that has 802.11n at present.

Your older Toshiba certainly didn't have 802.11n and, as you said, it performed a lot faster.

That is more than likely because it was 'talking the same language' as whatever it was connecting to. But your new Acer isn't - it's talking in 802.11n and NOT getting the response it is expecting.

So, rather than changing the settings on your router (which, by the way you can't anyway - it's too old) you ought to be changing the settings on the Acer!

You ought to be setting the wireless to transcieve in 802.11b/g mixed mode, which would be what the old Toshiba was transmitting and receiving on. :)

That didn't illuminate a little lightbulb in your skull? It would've in mine - why was the price so good?

Generally speaking, if it's too good to be true - it is (too good to be true).

Usually this dichotomy can be easily ratified, one way or the other by doing something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/ycoqwat

Also, as I mentioned previously in my other post, don't forget that for 802.11n to work at maximum efficiency it needs to use TWO router channels simultaneously which, if you've not got a router capable of at least 'n draft' speeds will mean the Acer wireless is translating by stepping-down its speed of reception to try and make sense of what it's got coming in, while transmitting on the same channel rather than the other one (that it doesn't have access to due to the age of the router).

Acer weren't far off the mark if they advise changing the router. You can't buy into bleeding edge technology and just expect that all the old dross you've got already, will be able to keep up.

First, I don't believe this is a PC versus Mac issue. This laptop has a lot of features. I could easily see that orientation might affect wireless range. Try rotating the laptop and see if signal strength changes.

Second, it is possible that the wireless antenna is not connected or has another physical problem.

As Older Mycroft pointed out, this has N-draft wireless. Your older laptop has just B/G wireless. From the specification sheet.

"Intel? Wireless WiFi Link network connection supporting 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN, Acer? SignalUp technology for enhanced antenna efficiency, WI-FI CERTIFIED?"

I also see that Acer posted a BIOS update on 12/14. Contact Acer tech support and see if they recommend the BIOS update.

While you are at it, it may be a good idea to update the driver for the Intel 5100 wireless. There might be an error in how the laptop is handling the change over to G signals.

The quick-start guide was lacking in information. Check the Acer Guide on the laptop to see if there are settings that you need to configure so that G works better or is your default wireless connection.

Chas

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I have a client with that same model and problem. I replaced the Wi-Fi client with Intel ProWireless and the problem pretty much went away.