So, here's my wired result:
 

 
And here's my wireless result:
 

 
 
We have personal APs in each room.  Don't even get me started on the interference thing.. In this hall alone, we have over fifty 802.11g networks.  It's insane.  But anyways, you can see that my speeds are dramatically different.  I'm running a plain old g network, and I know I can't expect that bandwidth, but it's crazy slow.  Sometimes I get less than 1Mbps DL, with pings of 200ms.
 
At the beginning of last semester, I was getting over 40Mbps DL/ 40Mbps UL with a <15ms ping on wireless, and now I'm reduced to this.  I'm only like, maybe, 10ft away from the AP (inside my room, it doesn't go through any concrete).
 
Any suggestions?  I only made it through one semester of CCNA prep before I switched my major, so, I'm no networking guru, hahaha.
 
EDIT: I should add that (for the most part) I'm the only one using this connection.  There's only a single Cat6 jack in the room, so I have a 100M switch that has the wireless and another Cat6 (that I used for wired) coming out of it.

Only thing I can thing of is making sure its on a different channel from the rest of the APs.

AzN-SoLjA


Only thing I can thing of is making sure its on a different channel from the rest of the APs.

 
 
Yeah, the school's tech people set all the APs at 6, and I set mine at 11. 

Beyond switching channels, I think you're out of luck.
The only way I could foresee finding a "clear channel" is to download a copy of inSSIDer: http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
Do a site survey and see if there are any unused channels.
 
Second, North America is somewhat strange in that it disallows the upper ranges of 802.11b/g/n. To read more about it, you can see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
 
If you have your own personal access point, you might be able to get away with flashing a custom firmware, say DD-WRT, and using higher channels (12,13,14) not typically found in north america. However, this is contingent on you having a receiving device capable of using the upper-end of the frequency spectrum.
 
Hope that makes sense :/
 

I'll check in to switching my channel to one of the higher ones.
 
I'm very familiar with DD-WRT (I use it at home), but I'll have to check and see if my Centrino card in my laptop can take it (along with my PS3 and Xbox..ugh)
 
But anyways, yeah, after checking out that program, looks like I'm the only AP (besides one that is from an entirely different residence hall) that is using channel 11.  The rest are channels 6 or 7.

Would it be better if I used a lower channel, lets say, 1?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/2.4_GHz_Wi-Fi_channels_%28802.11b%2Cg_WLAN%29.svg
 
That image shows the relative bandwidth of a given channel. If at all possible, select a channel that will not overlap with any other existing channels.
 
In your case, if activity is all on channels greater than 6, then 1 is your best option.

Yeah, I'll switch it to 1 here in a second, see how that works.

Ha, well, on channel 1:
 

Have you looked into using a 5.4GHz setup?

I would if I could.  I've thought about buying a new AP/router, but don't have the money right now.  That would solve my problems though.

Dorm wireless sucks, but wired is fine...

 
Is this one of those 'Doc, it hurts when I do this...' setups?
 
Why not use the wired connection (sounds like your room has one) for serious downloading/gaming/etc, and just switch to wireless when you do need to do something a few feet away from your desk in the same room?
 
Most laptops can enable both devices and switch between the two network types pretty painlessly.

Haha, um, that's what I do now...?
 
I'm trying to become all wireless because the Cat6 jack is next to the door - the opposite wall of where my desks are.
 
The only leftover cable I could crimp some ends on is only 4 feet long (if that), so that's what I'm using for wired.  You guys are probably thinking "this kid is a moron, it's not that hard" but you'd have to be here to understand the situation.  You can't stay wired in this damned room.
 
And no, I can't rearrange because I have a futon and everything barely fits this one way.

It sounds like this happened "all of a sudden".
I'm out of ideas at this point--but here are some things to consider to isolate your problem:
 
1. Does it get worse or better on various client PCs?
2. Does it get worse or better on another access point. Borrow (read: steal and subtly replace later while the victims are inebriated) another access point.
3. Cat 5 is cheap 
 
http://www.lowes.com/pl_Communication+Cable_4294821862_4294937087_
 
Never leave home without a 1000' pull box.

Yeah, it did happen all of a sudden.
 
Looking at your isolation list, haha, I thought of another thing that's happening - when I'm in her room, I can't connect to my girlfriend's AP, for more than 5 minutes at a time.
 
When I first connect, I can pull an IP and stuff, but after 4ish minutes, it's like the lease is up and when it tries to renew, it can't find the DHCP server.  When I look in ipconfig, the output is blank - an autoconfigured IP address, a *correct* subnet mask, but blank gateways, dhcp, and dns.
 
I wonder if my wireless card is just stupid... I'll run a Speedtest on my buddy's computer later today, using my IP.
 
And hahaha, I already went through two 1000' pull boxes when I wired my house back home!!!  Hahaha

School doesn't provide you with wireless?  Or do they put an AP in every room?

The school has campus-wide wireless in educational buildings... In non-honors residence halls, they only provide a wired connection.
 
They then try and tell all the students to buy the "FSU Approved" AP... $80 for an outdated 54 meg Netgear AP.

My roommate last semester went ahead and bought one before I could say I had many APs laying around at home... And when he moved out at the beginning of this semester, he left the AP.
 
So, yeah, long story short, there is a Netgear 802.11g Access Point in every damn room.

When I was in college I just got a 100 ft cat 6 ethernet cable and ran it up the wall and then removed the roof panels and ran it through the roofing over to my desk then put the roof panels back in. That way I had a wired connection without the messy wires. Only works if have that industrial square tile roofing though. 

Yeah, our dorms are 100% concrete brick.  Even the ceiling.

=/ What a ripoff.

Yup. Hahaha

No wireless? That sucks. Could you buy a switch and several long ethernet cables and run them behind dressers and stuff to keep them out of the way? I was fortunate to get a single gigabit drop in my room at RIT (most rooms only have two 100 Mbps drops, mine has an additional gig drop), and I got a switch and some cables to provide gigabit access to two desktops and an Xbox.  

@Billy-

Yeah, I actually have a gig line nw. Its pretty nice, my friends and I can use the school's LAN to swap files at around 110MB/s, across campus.

But yeah, I have a switch and everything. I'm just hellbent on the wireless for right now. The semester is close to over.

Next year, I'm an RA, so I'll have a permanent single room...and I'm gonna bring my desktop and server up, along with my gig switch... it's gonna be nice. ;)

Touche if you don't mind answering, I was wondering where you go.  Where I go (University of Colorado @ Colorado Springs), they completely don't allow any networking other than what IT does inside the dorms.  If the port in your room sees more than two mac addresses it shuts off and IT has to reset it.  Merely curious I am surprised they would let some 50+ wireless networks just get setup on a floor.
Also nice wired speed!  I am surprised they don't throttle you guys down from that.

Kingandruler


Touche if you don't mind answering, I was wondering where you go.  Where I go (University of Colorado @ Colorado Springs), they completely don't allow any networking other than what IT does inside the dorms.  If the port in your room sees more than two mac addresses it shuts off and IT has to reset it.  Merely curious I am surprised they would let some 50+ wireless networks just get setup on a floor.
Also nice wired speed!  I am surprised they don't throttle you guys down from that.

I would assume many universities do it that way, at least where I'm at right now.  I work at IT and if we see more than one mac address on a port, it'll be disabled.  Wireless routers are not permitted since we provide wireless nearly everywhere on campus.  Also. All MAC address must be registered to someone 

Kingandruler


Touche if you don't mind answering, I was wondering where you go.  Where I go (University of Colorado @ Colorado Springs), they completely don't allow any networking other than what IT does inside the dorms.  If the port in your room sees more than two mac addresses it shuts off and IT has to reset it.  Merely curious I am surprised they would let some 50+ wireless networks just get setup on a floor.
Also nice wired speed!  I am surprised they don't throttle you guys down from that.

 
I go to Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.  From what I've been told, Ferris State is a part owner in Merit Network, who is the main educational Internet backbone in Michigan, so we pretty much have all the bandwidth we'd ever need. 
 
And yeah, here we (as Xtrem said) have to register the MACs of all our devices, and we have a 5 device limit (with unlimited addresses per device...it's stupid).  As for the ports, we can have as many things as we want on each port...they only give us one per room, but on my switch and AP I probably have around 15 things pulling addresses, and they don't care.  And they don't provide wireless, which I assume is a great fundraiser for the IT department here.

heh if they only allow 5 mac i would just use a router and create my own lan in a lan

moose517


heh if they only allow 5 mac i would just use a router and create my own lan in a lan

 
Well, it's not 5 MACs, it's five devices.  I had the IT people explain it to me, 'cause I was confused too.  I guess you can only have five different TYPES of devices, and then unlimited MACs per type of device.  So, I can have an Xbox, a PS3, Phone, Laptop, and Desktop, and then unlimited MACs within those categories.  But if I want to add a Wii, they decline it because it's a sixth device.  Really dumb.
 
And about my own little LAN... I'm working on that.. 
 
I'm having a little trouble because I seem to be overriding their router's DHCP broadcast with mine... Everybody on south campus pulls a 192.168 from my router, not a public 161.57 from Ferris'.  I'm just too lazy to figure out the commands in DD-WRT to limit which ports the broadcast goes out on... Or maybe I'm going about it the wrong way, I'm not sure.  Hahaha

if you use a router with NAT i don't know how they would know the difference.  they should only see it as one device more or less
 

moose517


if you use a router with NAT i don't know how they would know the difference.  they should only see it as one device more or less

 
Yeah, I know that, I was just elaborating about the 5 MAC limit you said.  The problem I'm having with my router is irrelevant to the MAC thing I explained, haha.