Wireless Speed Always 54 Mbps Regardless of Signal Strength

[killerwhale]

Hi, guys!
I have a problem with my wireless connection which always stays at 54 Mbps even though signal strength drops to a low value. There are many lost packets, and sometimes it just disconnects altogether without first dropping to 1 Mbps.
I have an Asus G73JH laptop with an Atheros AR9285 wireless network adapter plus a wireless dongle (Sagem XG-760A) which behaves in exactly the same way.
What is strange is that before I bought the Asus laptop, I had another laptop with an Intel 3945ABG wireless card plus the same wireless dongle, and their speed was not fixed at 54 Mbps with changing signal strength.
Both laptops have had clean Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installs and both were used with the same wireless access point at the same place.
So, I'm wondering if Windows has a registry setting or something of the kind that prevents a wireless card from dropping to a lower speed if the signal strength goes down. Anyway, it doesn't seem to be a driver problem since both Atheros and Sagem devices have the same behavior. It's probably not an access point problem either, since I can replicate the same behavior with several wireless routers.
Does anyone have a suggestion?
Thanks.

[jason2074]

So, I'm wondering if Windows has a registry setting or something of the kind that prevents a wireless card from dropping to a lower speed if the signal strength goes down

AFAIK, None or not True. 54 Mbps for a wireless signal is a max or set depending on your Network card support plus your ISP shared(other computer) connection speed. 1 Mbps= 1024 kbps

[killerwhale]

Hi, jason2074!
I'm really at a loss as to why it behaves this way. As I say, I have another laptop with win7 and if I plug the wireless dongle, its behavior is normal, i.e. the speed fluctuates with changing signal strength. Both computers have the same driver for the dongle, so I really don't know why this is so.

[Geek-9pm]

You are not the firsts to notice that the signal strength indicator is not always a reliable indicator of signal quality. At low signal level it should drop down the link speed. But it does not always work that way.
This has been a popular topic on some forums. Here is just one.
Wireless Internet forum: Signal strength variation
BTW, this is a behavior also with many cell phones. The signal bars only give a proximate indication of signal quality.

[killerwhale]

Hi, Geek-9pm!
Yes, I know it is very approximate. But as I said the link is dropping packets and the percentage of dropped packets correlates well (inversely) with the indicated signal strength. The behavior of my wireless dongle is different in that respect depending on the laptop I hook it to. My opinion is it is a windows 7/driver issue. But where exactly this issue is I'm unable to find out.