802.11N (300Mbit) - What speeds do you get?

[thewhat]

I'm using a Netgear 3500L router and TL-WN821N wifi adapter.
Transferring files between a wired and a wireless PC I usually get around 5-6 MB/s. Occasionally I get around 8-9 MB/s.

Moving the thing closer with no walls between didn't help, last time I checked.

Of course, I wasn't expecting the full 300Mb. But a third of the rated speed? Yeah, I'd expect that.


What kind of speeds do you get and are there any tricks for achieving higher speeds? (Besides the usual proximity and less obstacles.)

 

[mosco]

I have been able to get a consistent 15-18 MB/sec using a 5ghz bridge running WPA2-AES. The same distance at 2.4 I would get like 8. But I also have 15 different wireless signals where I am so 2.4 was pretty crowded. I am the only 5ghz network.

 

[JackMDS]

What you get is as good as it gets.

It is kind like Wireless 802.11g states 300 feed indoor.

802.11n says x10 better than 802.11g.

Would you expect 802.11n to yield 3000 feet indoor?

 

[wirednuts]

generally i think of wireless as half duplex, so any 300mbs connection really only would be about 150mbs real world speed. then, figure a significant drop for every wall and other interference in the way... so yes, 1/3 rated speed is about norm.

 

[bobdole369]

generally i think of wireless as half duplex, so any 300mbs connection really only would be about 150mbs real world speed. then, figure a significant drop for every wall and other interference in the way... so yes, 1/3 rated speed is about norm.

Its like saying your car has a 400mph top speed. Its retarded why the marketing folks do this. (Hmm, 85mph top speed. If we took out the air resistance and simply did the math than the top speed is 100mph. But we have 4 wheels going 100mph so that makes 400mph).

802.11N - I have a dedicated bridge set from a major consumer equipment maker (can't honestly recall the brand right now). Those devices are the only things on the link, with a couple PC's and a tivo on one end, and the rest of my network on the other.

I push consistently 60-90mbps across that link. (that is 5-8 Megabytes per second as reported by win 7 on file transfers). So what you are seeing is a little slow, but not so much that I think anything is wrong.

 

[alkemyst]

It's 300Mbps (megabits)....there is a lot of overhead with wireless so you lose some to that.

There are write ups of router tests that report the bandwidth.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_wireless/Itemid,200

 

[thewhat]

generally i think of wireless as half duplex, so any 300mbs connection really only would be about 150mbs real world speed. then, figure a significant drop for every wall and other interference in the way... so yes, 1/3 rated speed is about norm.

But people with 802.11g often get 2/3 of the rated speed. At least that's what they say..

 

[fuzzymath10]

But people with 802.11g often get 2/3 of the rated speed. At least that's what they say..

On 802.11g I never got more than 20Mbit/sec (about 2.5MB/sec)
On 802.11n I occasionally maxed out the wired switch (100Mbit/sec) but realistically got between 6-10MB/sec.

Consistent 1/3 efficiency is pretty good in my books. However, it was still not good enough so I just put cat6 in my condo and now I have gigabit through the walls

You'll probably have more luck with 5GHz bands (802.11a or 802.11n) since everyone has wireless routers and they don't know how to turn the power down.

 

[JackMDS]

Consistent 1/3 efficiency is pretty good in my books. However, it was still not good enough so I just put cat6 in my condo and now I have gigabit through the walls

+1

If someone will tell you that they believe that in few decades people will be 20 feet tall.

You probably will laugh at their face.

Unfortunately, with all the advances of technology we forgot the laws of physics.

At the moment, I do not see any End-users Wireless technology that will be able to do what current end users want it to do.

The 802.11n is a puny improvement over 802.11g.

Something very different will have to emerge in order to achieve future Wireless goals.

The marketing stories of 802.11n and users dreaming are like assuming that people are 20 feet tall.

 

[mammador]

I've had an 802.11n standard router for over a year, and I haven't noticed a difference from by 802.11g router. I'm not a heavy downloader though, so it makes no difference to me in the long run. As long as pages load quickly, and I get a generally fast web experience, that's what counts and that's usually what I get now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I get 30mbit/sec download over my 802.11N wireless in WDS mode, connected at either 65 or 130Mbit/sec connect rate. (It like to fluctuate for some reason.)

 

[crisscross]

Can you do HD Wireless streaming over Wifi? or is CAT5 the way to go for that?

 

[Matt1970]

Can you do HD Wireless streaming over Wifi? or is CAT5 the way to go for that?

Always go hardwire of you can, but most Wifi is fast enough for HD streaming.

 

[bobdole369]

Can you do HD Wireless streaming over Wifi? or is CAT5 the way to go for that?

Full speed "over the air" (rabbit ears) 1080i is 19.2mbits max bitrate. quite a bit lower than that most of the time.

1080p can be 4x that, but most x264/h.264 encoded stuff is max 10-20mbits.

TL;DR
Yes, wireless is sufficient in most cases.

 

[JackMDS]

Yes, wireless is sufficient in most cases.

May be for a single user while experimenting with one specific issue, which is Not the typical setting that most people are working under.

 

[fuzzymath10]

At best, 720p will work and 1080p will be flaky. That's what happened in my case.

Even 100mbps wired is a huge huge improvement (streaming issues will disappear) and gigabit helps further with large transfers.

 

[boomhower]

Around 7.5MB/s as reported by Windows 7 to my WHS. Properly encoded 1080P stuff streams fine. I use 5Ghz for streaming and 2.4Ghz for downloading.

 

[syzygy]

i would love to eliminate the wire . .. so i'm looking at establishing one connection between router and
HTPC adapter that are about 15 ft apart, going around one corner between two doors that is partially
through a wall.

i'm thinking it might prove helpful if both the adapter and router have antennas to direct and/or spray
the signal out better.

 

[freegeeks]

I get around 120 Mbit all the time, streams 1080p HD without a problem

 

[James Bond]

generally i think of wireless as half duplex, so any 300mbs connection really only would be about 150mbs real world speed. then, figure a significant drop for every wall and other interference in the way... so yes, 1/3 rated speed is about norm.

Wireless is half-duplex.

 

[alent1234]

But people with 802.11g often get 2/3 of the rated speed. At least that's what they say..

i recently enabled the n on my linksys e1000 and tested with my inspire 4G phone. the speedtest.net went from around 3 to 4 mbps to 15 or so. since my router is near my TV, x-box and PS3 i'm thinking of turning off the wifi on those and just running cat5

 

[alent1234]

to all the MIMO people, how does it work through walls and around corners? since i moved my wifi doesn't work that good in the bedrooms since the router is in the living room. my wife works at home sometimes and has to do so in the bedroom. she's been bugging me about buying a MIMO router and laptop. i'm curious to know how good it works first

 

[kevnich2]

to all the MIMO people, how does it work through walls and around corners? since i moved my wifi doesn't work that good in the bedrooms since the router is in the living room. my wife works at home sometimes and has to do so in the bedroom. she's been bugging me about buying a MIMO router and laptop. i'm curious to know how good it works first

What router do you currently use for your wireless? You could either upgrade to a new N router or buy a separate device that can extend your wireless into your weaker areas.