Wireless not at full speed?

[playafly187]

Myself and striker777 went out this weekend and I picked up a Netgear 'G' 54 mbps Wireless Router and the matching 'G' wireless card for my laptop. We got everything set up and i ran a speed test with the laptop sitting right near the router, full signal strength, etc etc and I was only able to get 1/4 of the speed that a hardwired system was getting in the house.

Any ideas on why it is that slow? I mean, its not slow, but its 1/4 the speed of the hardwired system. Is this normal?

[Beemer]

1st I would make sure that you are indeed using 'G' as G can be used as A. (If you are connected at 54mbs then it is G) Keep in mind that hard wire connections will inheriently be faster as it is 100mbs as compared to 54mbs. There is a lot of overhead associated with wireless and that has a lot to do with loss of speed. Also, if you were both using it at the same time it becomes split between the two connections. It is 54mbs total.
So if you were on it together it is half of the 54mbs which would be roughly 1/4 a hard wired connection. That may be the issue.

Still, cable modem (assuming your on cable modem) wouldn't come close to using that bandwith so it sounds a little flakey to me.

[playafly187]

i just cleared my cookies and cache and redid the tests on the laptop and on my main rig.

MAIN RIG: dslreports.com speed test:

http://www.ocia.net/playafly187/mainspeed1.jpg

MAIN RIG: local roadrunner server speed test:

http://www.ocia.net/playafly187/mainspeed2.jpg

LAPTOP: dslreports.com speed test:

http://www.ocia.net/playafly187/lapspeed1.jpg

LAPTOP: local roadrunner server speed test:

http://www.ocia.net/playafly187/lapspeed2.jpg

the results seem a little better here than when we tested at striker777's house. do these numbers seem more along the right lines?

[Beemer]

Looks alright but I am a little confused, you picked up on the roadrunner test but the other test it said your d/l was cut in half?

[playafly187]

yeah, that puzzled me too....

[Beemer]

Acording to road runner it looks like you were able to pull around 350k from both boxes, which makes sense to me. Do you notice a speed difference (d/l slower, slower page loads, etc?) Or is it just in the benchmarks your running?

[silenze]

I hate wireless!@#$$@$#%

[T-shirt]

1st I would make sure that you are indeed using 'G' as G can be used as A. (If you are connected at 54mbs then it is G) Keep in mind that hard wire connections will inheriently be faster as it is 100mbs as compared to 54mbs. There is a lot of overhead associated with wireless and that has a lot to do with loss of speed. Also, if you were both using it at the same time it becomes split between the two connections. It is 54mbs total.
So if you were on it together it is half of the 54mbs which would be roughly 1/4 a hard wired connection. That may be the issue.

Still, cable modem (assuming your on cable modem) wouldn't come close to using that bandwith so it sounds a little flakey to me.
G & B are actually the ones that share a frequence, (around 2.4 gigahertz) A is up around 5.8 (/) and is not directly compatable (some G cards add an A reciever)
There are many other factors here
encryption will add a substanial hit to throughput (but don't turn it off, except for brief tests!!!!)
interferrance form cordless phones,microwaves, some garage door openers, radar, and some radar detectors. etc, AND other WLAN's (this is a big one) can slow or stall your connection. Also RAM, disk speed, background programs etc. will effect the trnsfer speed,
even the best cable connection will not stress a full speed B WLAN, so the next thing to look at is your TCP/IP settings (ie MTU, recieve window, AV and firewall setting.
use system /performance monitor or download NETPERSEC (free from ZDnet) and test transfers between your desktop and laptop for a better idea of the true local speed capability then tune for best Inet results.

[ericxw]

Wireless will never beat ur average Cat5 cable conections.

Cables don't have much interference or encryption data going around.

Efficiency is a big problem these days, even if ur signal strength is 100%, you won't get anywhere close to that 54Mbps rating.

There is a solution from Dlink however........that allows a max of 108Mbps transfers on their ExtremeG like products. I think it was data compression or something.

[jurtje]

If I recall correctly, Dlink uses two channels at the same time.