Hi all, I am posting about your idea on what's wrong with my Lifebook S6010. It comes with a built-in Intersil PRISM wireless NIC card which I use constantly. Just recently, I get very very slow speeds when trying to access a website or anything. It appears as "Very Low" and at a speed of 1.0 Mbps according to Windows Wireless Network Manager. It takes forever to surf the net and is very inconsistent. Sometimes pages will load quicker (despite the amount of content) and other times it takes a minute to load the text (excluding images). On a somewhat consistent basis (roughly every 15-20 minutes) it will disconnect and re-connect again taking about a minute to do so. I know it's not the network since multiple computers are connected and roughly the same distance away. Currently I have my desktop with a wireless card picking up a strong signal but my Lifebook picks up a very weak signal even though they're both not that far apart from the network. Could the NIC card be weak or running on its last leg? Or is there some reputation with PRISM NIC cards? Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated! Thanks, Todd

Is there another NIC installed to that system and is that NIC activated and connected also to the same network. Because this can cause trouble, if 2 NICs are in the same network. Simply deactivate the second NIC and see what happens. Please send a reply, if you solved the problem !!!

There's just the one NIC card. Is it just a poor NIC card brand? I tried disabling SpeedStep to see if maybe it wasn't giving enough power to pick up a strong signal. There's a minor difference but no major improvement.

Are you able to test this with another NIC from another computer and vice versa, you mentioned above? So you might figure out, whether the NIC has a problem. Please send a reply, if you solved the problem !!!

I replaced the NIC card with another PRISM brand. Still very inconsistent. I think it might just be the NIC card brand. PCMCIA cards pick up a stronger signal so I think the antenna on the PRISM NICs are just weak. I think I'll either learn to live with it or just buy another NIC card for it. Thanks for all your help!

Take the laptop to another location and see, what happens with the signal strength. Turn the laptop one meter left and check, then turn it one meter right and check again. Please send a reply, if you solved the problem !!!

I did notice a change. It could be some sort of interference. When I change the direction of the laptop, it usually changes by 7%. If I face it closer to the router it goes up to 33% while facing it away it goes down to 26%. I did take it to the library and it picks up the connection fine. Although the library has a much powerful router and more of them throughout the area. ;-)