Please help. When I connect my laptop to my docking station in order to use my dual monitors, my wifi speed is almost non-existent. I read one forum that suggested moving the laptop farther from the docking station or changing the channel for the router. Moving the laptop, as far as I would want to, away from the docking station does not help and I can’t seem to access my router account settings page to try and change channels. I am using Xfinity/Comcast Arris TG862G.
Hi Chelsea,
Thanks for posting, and I would be happy to help with your docking station.
Thank you for the great detail you provided and the troubleshooting you have already done, that helps a lot. Appreciate you going so far as to try and change the Wi-FI channel, and you are right Comcast does not make such an endeavor easy.
You don’t mention which specific model laptop you have, but assuming it has USB ports on both sides of the laptop can you try plugging the dock into the ‘other’ side to see if that helps?
If that doesn’t help can you try swapping the USB 3.0 cable we provide to a USB 2.0 cable such as one that would be used for a USB printer? Even though the connector on the end of the printer cable that will go into the dock is different, it will still work.
Thank you,
Bob
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support
I am using an HP Envy Touchsmart. I tried both of your suggestions but I still have horrible internet, no improvement. The only thing I notice is that the internet does seem to work properly for about 2 minutes after I connect the docking station. After that it slows. Note: it worked for about 2 minutes both before and after your suggestions, I just thought it might be worth mentioning,
Hi Chelsea,
Thanks for getting back with the update. Very strange the behavior you describe with the 2 minute window of things working properly and then degrading.
Any time you connect a USB 3.0 device to your system (not just our dock) there can be the potential for inference in the 2GHz band (Intel has a technical whitepaper on the behavior if you are curious -> http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/e…), but if the dock was connected to your system with a USB 2.0 cable from a printer there isn’t a way for that type of interference to be generated, so there must be some other variable at play.
By any chance is the Comcast router located physically close to your system and/or the dock?
Bob
Its about 25 feet away. I’m in a loft and the router is in the living room below, no wall interference. I’ll try moving it closer, as I thought about doing this anyway but the television in my bedroom is temper mental with wifi so I didn’t want to move the router farther than it already is. I’ll try moving the router and get back to you. Maybe I should just more upset with comcast than I am?!
I did some more rearranging to try and get the docking station as far as far away as possible from the laptop and began experiencing SLIGHTLY quicker response times. I believe that if I set my docking station on top of my hutch and the computer below I may be able to get the speed back up to par. However, the connection cord provided is not long enough and the only other one I have is a printer cord that I need to connect my printer since the plugable cord will not fit into the back of the printer. Would Plugable be willing to send me a longer connection cord?
Also - I did figure out how to change the channel in my router settings. Will this help my situation?
Update: I tried to move my router upstairs but the cable connection isn’t hooked to that cable outlet so it will require a technician from Comcast for $90. Any other suggestions? It wouldn’t be economical for me to pay the tech fee. I’d be better off returning the plugable and trying another dock.
Hi Chelsea,
Thanks for getting back with the multiple updates, and appreciate your patience. We certainly don’t want you to spend additional funds, so it is not a problem to return the docking station for refund at any point.
That said, we will certainly do our best to see if we can get to the bottom of things. Just to make absolutely sure I have the details correct, with the dock connected to your system using the USB 2.0 cable from your printer the poor performance is still present, correct?
I believe that to be the case and apologies if that is redundant, but when the dock is connected with a printer cable it cannot generate interference that can affect Wi-Fi (which would make this instance very unique)
Thank you again for your patience!
Bob