Wireless Data Rates

[Ozzy2k7]

Hi

Just wondered what sort of data rates I should be getting from my network.

I'm transfering from one machine to the other and from one machine to a usb drive attached to another machine and I'm getting between 500K to 1.1 Meg.

The network is using WPA and its a 802.11g network.

I've tried changing the channel and its making no difference. It seems really slow

Ozzy

[zebulebu]

What speed is your wlan? In my experience, that is painfully slow indeed. Without encryption my transfer rates are about 20-35 mbps depending on where I am in my house. WPA slows the transfer down somewhat, but I still get around 15-20 mbps. TBH, I haven't had my wireless on for months, but I'm pretty sure those figures are accurate, and representative of most other speeds.

If you're mixing & matching vendors that could cause a problem as they never seem to 'play' well with each other.

Could be that your AP is situated next to something that is blocking signals - try moving it around and see if it makes a difference.

Sit closer to the AP and see if its faster than sat further away.

Failing that, just use a CAT5 cable like me

[grim]

what's the signal strength like ?

grim

[Ozzy2k7]

Its a 54Mb access point.

All of my adapters say the signal is either strong or V strong.

It doesn't seem to make much sense. I would go to CAT 5 but the machines are too far apart for that. I would need to run cable all over the house.

Ozzy

[grim]

my experience with wireless isnt too great either, all i use it for is to surf. trying to transfer large amounts of data just never seems to go well even on a 108mbps streaming video to my xbox lags out

grim

[hbroomhall]

The problem with WiFi is that the rates can be so variable.

802.11g should be able to shift data at about 20Mbps when you are near the AP and have no other problems. Putting walls in the way *can* reduce this dramaticaly. And interference from nearby networks can also reduce the throughput.

Don't forget that there are only 3 non-mutualy interfereing channels, so other APs on nearby channels can affect the speed.

Windows can reduce the speed by quite a bit under some circumstances - Windows Explorer seems to get in a muddle when the channel isn't as fast as it expects. And USB is always slow, it takes time to write to flash memory.

One way I have found of getting good speeds to other machines in the house is to use a 'Homeplug' pair of units. Ethernet over the mains in effect.

Harry.

[Ozzy2k7]

Originally Posted by hbroomhall

One way I have found of getting good speeds to other machines in the house is to use a 'Homeplug' pair of units. Ethernet over the mains in effect.

Harry.

Ah thats something I didn't think of. what sort of connection speeds do you get.

Ozzy

[hbroomhall]

I have one of the original ones with 'turbo mode' and get about 50Mbps at home.

Harry.

[Mr.Cheeks]

i stick with cat5 for transfer of large files, and wireless for net access... atleast then you know there *shouldn't* be a lot of fluctuation in speed