Wireless network

[Bglad]

I hate wireless and have never really used it. But now I'm in a position where I must, there is just little option in my new home short of hiring a contractor to seriously rip out some walls and ceilings. Wireless it is.

So I've been getting sustained DL speeds of ~6.5Mbps/840KBps from the internet when I'm hard wired. I first tried a Linksys 54G router and was getting ~2Mbps. I picked up a Buffalo the other night and I seem to be achieving ~4Mbps.

Is a 6.5Mbps transfer rate over wireless too much to ask in real world conditions? I don't even need to do lots of file transferring between computers or anything, I just don't want to slow down my internet speeds.

Thanks for any help.

By the way, the router is on a high shelf on the same floor as the computer about 30 ft away. However it is on the other side of a wall and I have cement over steel lathe construction (hence I can't run wires).

Thanks.

 

[spidey07]

Ideal conditions for 802.11g are around 22 Mbs. That's when you are buried in a faraday cage and have no other wireless devices within 10 miles.

Real world, you have other devices interferring with you. Try changing channels to 1, 6, 11. The 2.4 Ghz specturm is getting completely overun.

 

[JackBurton]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: spidey07
Ideal conditions for 802.11g are around 22 Mbs. That's when you are buried in a faraday cage and have no other wireless devices within 10 miles.

Real world, you have other devices interferring with you. Try changing channels to 1, 6, 11. The 2.4 Ghz specturm is getting completely overun.</end quote></div>

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Yep. I always use channels 1 or 11 as most wireless devices default to channel 6. I'll do a scan of the area to see what channel most people around me are using, and I'll change mine to a non overlapping channel, usually 1 or 11.

OP, get a D-Link DIR-655 and you should see some nice speeds. I've had great luck with D-Link 4300 and 655 wireless routers. Extremely stable and great range (not that excited about my Linksys routers including the 54G). Ideally, 802.11n would be your best wireless option as it provides the most throughput. Obviously this depends on distance and interference, but I think you should have some very nice results with the 655 wireless router.

 

[Bglad]

Like I said, I have little or no experience with wireless. I hate flapping in the wind, I like clear steps to identify and solve the problem. I suppose wireless just has so many variables that this is not possible?

I am living in an urban 24 story condo bldg with several other high rise apartment bldgs, condo bldgs, a couple of hotels and the board of trade within a block from me. When I run a scan, I usually get only 4-6 broadcasting SSIDs. Usually the hotels and a couple of Linksys's, presumably individuals in my bldg. I don't know how to tell how much else there is not broadcasting an SSID. Maybe this is the problem, but I thought, and given what you guys are telling me, that ~6-7Mbps is not unreasonoable to ask.

How should I test that interference is the problem? Would temporarily moving the router into the same room, i.e. getting it closer and removing the wall barrier tell me anything?

I'm still a little unclear on what is reasonable to expect and the logical steps to troubleshoot in my situation.

I'll try switching channels and see what that does also. What kind of sustained rates do you guys get?

 

[spidey07]

Without expensive/sophisticated tools you can't troubleshoot it like other things. You can't control the air. So just try different channels. Putting the AP in the same room can help, but you still can't control other radios and what they are doing.

Keep in mind that wireless speed is constantly fluctuating depending on conditions that are beyond your control. One thing you can try that could help is to force 802.11G only mode, it almost sounds like you are dropping down to 802.11b data rates.

 

[nweaver]

each "Channel" of 802.11 spec has a specific amount of "load" that channel can handle. The channel shares some b/w/frequency with the surrounding channels (4up, 4down), hence the "use 1, 6, or 11" as then you USUALLY are clean (most folks won't use the other channels). I have seen times where a noise test shows 20-30% used up, without me introducing load into the channel.

 

[Bglad]

OK, I have to leave town on business for a day or two. I'm going to test the channel theory and try moving the router into the same room and see what results I get. I'll report back for more help when I again become a complete failure on my own

 

[JackMDS]

As a frame of reference, http://www.ezlan.net/net_speed.html

 

[Bglad]

Thanks for the link. Doesn't give me an easy answer, but it does confirm that I am not chasing my tail by asking too much of the medium.

 

[engineereeyore]

You can use a tool like Ethereal to capture packets on your wireless adapter. This should give you and idea of how much traffic exist in your area.

You network speed is affected by several items. The type of encryption you use will affect your speed. Although your computer can typically keep up, your router may have difficulty decrypting and encrypting data fast enough. Additionally, you have collisions with your wireless adapter and the router to consider. With a wired connection, the only collision that can occur are between your router and your ISP. With wireless, you can get collisions from anyone else in the area sending out wireless packets.

So I wouldn't say it's unreasonable to get 6.5Mbps on wireless, but it would require a 802.11g connection and low network traffic in the area.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
You network speed is affected by several items. The type of encryption you use will affect your speed. Although your computer can typically keep up, your router may have difficulty decrypting and encrypting data fast enough.

This is wrong.....encryption does not affect performance on modern hardware. I have extensive tests to back this up. Running WPA2 versus Open/None yeilds speeds that are the same with modern hardware.

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: nweaver
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: engineereeyore
You network speed is affected by several items. The type of encryption you use will affect your speed. Although your computer can typically keep up, your router may have difficulty decrypting and encrypting data fast enough. </end quote></div>

This is wrong.....encryption does not affect performance on modern hardware. I have extensive tests to back this up. Running WPA2 versus Open/None yeilds speeds that are the same with modern hardware.

Well, all I know is the speed changed on my router. I can go in and switch encryption methods on my router and see consistent download speed changes. This may not be the case all the time, but it is for me.