Weāve all heard it before: āThe network is slow!ā Itās a classic complaint from users, and in most cases, itās followed by an exasperated IT engineer rolling their eyes becauseāguess what?āthe LAN isnāt to blame. More often than not, the culprit is the WiFi chip on a userās laptop, which is quietly sabotaging their experience.
The Great WiFi Deception
WiFi is an engineering marvel, but letās be realāitās not as reliable as a wired connection. Despite massive advancements in wireless technology, your laptopās built-in WiFi chipset remains one of the weakest links in the network chain. And when users experience sluggish internet speeds or random disconnections, they instinctively point fingers at the LAN, completely unaware that their own device is betraying them.
The biggest offender? Windows Power Saving Mode.
How Power Saving Mode Turns WiFi into a Tortoise
Windows laptops love to be eco-friendly, so much so that theyāll aggressively throttle power usageāespecially when running on battery. One of the first things to get nerfed? The WiFi adapter.
When power-saving kicks in, the laptop starts doing things like:
ā
Reducing the WiFi adapterās power output (weaker signal)
ā
Switching the adapter to a low-performance mode (slower speeds)
ā
Putting the adapter into sleep mode too aggressively (random disconnects)
To make things worse, Windows wonāt tell you that your WiFi is now crawling along at dial-up speeds. Youāll still see full signal bars, but your throughput is tanking in the background.
Result? A sluggish connection that has nothing to do with the network itself.
LAN vs. WiFi ā The Brutal Reality
For a moment, letās compare the actual speeds and reliability of LAN vs. WiFi:
| Connection Type | Latency | Speed | Reliability |
| Ethernet (Cable) | Low (~1ms) | High (1Gbps ā 10Gbps) | Rock solid |
| WiFi (Good Signal) | Medium (~10-20ms) | Decent (300Mbps ā 1Gbps) | Mostly stable |
| WiFi (Power-Saving Mode) | High (~100ms+) | Terrible (~10-50Mbps) | Unreliable |
Itās not even a contest. Plugging in an Ethernet cable is like switching from a donkey cart to a bullet train.
The Fix: Plug It In!
If your laptop is running slow on WiFi, donāt just curse the network. Do this instead:
1ļøā£ Plug in an Ethernet cable. Instantly, youāll bypass the sluggish WiFi chipset and get full-speed connectivity.
2ļøā£ Disable power-saving for WiFi.
Open Device Manager ā Network Adapters ā Your WiFi adapter
Go to Power Management
Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."
3ļøā£ Use a high-quality external WiFi adapter. Many built-in laptop WiFi chips are cheap and weak. A USB or PCIe adapter can make a big difference.
4ļøā£ Stay close to the access point. Walls, interference, and other WiFi users can degrade your connection.
Wrapping up | Stop Blaming the LAN
Next time someone shouts āThe network is slow!ā ask them:
ā” āAre you on WiFi or wired?ā
ā” āIs your laptop on battery?ā
ā” āDid you check power-saving settings?ā
Chances are, the network is perfectly fine, and their laptopās WiFi is just being lazy.
And if theyāre still moaning?
ā” Hand them an Ethernet cable. Problem solved. š¤š„
