is 54Mbps possible on a wireless network?

[Gigahurtz]

I have a wireless network here at home with 4 desktop computers, each with linksys wireless G PCI cards(54 mbps) in each of them and 2 Linksys Wireless G notebook adapters(also 54mbps) for the two laptops. All of these computers are conected to the heart of the network, the linksys wireless G Access Point(54 mbps). Now the problem I'm having is I don't get 54 mbps in my network anywhere, even when the signal strength is excellent. I even tested to transfer files between two computers with excellent signal strength and the maximum rate I ever saw was 13 mbps. Is this normal (like is the 54 mbps speed divided amoung the number of computers you have)? Does anyone else who have wireless G (54 mbps)networks travel any faster than 13 mbps?

 

[pandamoan]

I have a wireless network here at home with 4 desktop computers, each with linksys wireless G PCI cards(54 mbps) in each of them and 2 Linksys Wireless G notebook adapters(also 54mbps) for the two laptops. All of these computers are conected to the heart of the network, the linksys wireless G Access Point(54 mbps). Now the problem I'm having is I don't get 54 mbps in my network anywhere, even when the signal strength is excellent. I even tested to transfer files between two computers with excellent signal strength and the maximum rate I ever saw was 13 mbps. Is this normal (like is the 54 mbps speed divided amoung the number of computers you have)? Does anyone else who have wireless G (54 mbps)networks travel any faster than 13 mbps?

i'm not a g expert, but that should be better than that!

i get a very solid 11 with my b network, but that's not fast enough for streaming movies... nothing beats a real cat 5 cable, eh?

jamie

 

[Malcolm]

I have a wireless network here at home with 4 desktop computers, each with linksys wireless G PCI cards(54 mbps) in each of them and 2 Linksys Wireless G notebook adapters(also 54mbps) for the two laptops. All of these computers are conected to the heart of the network, the linksys wireless G Access Point(54 mbps). Now the problem I'm having is I don't get 54 mbps in my network anywhere, even when the signal strength is excellent. I even tested to transfer files between two computers with excellent signal strength and the maximum rate I ever saw was 13 mbps. Is this normal (like is the 54 mbps speed divided amoung the number of computers you have)? Does anyone else who have wireless G (54 mbps)networks travel any faster than 13 mbps?

An access points works exactly like a hub. With a hub the maximum line bandwidth (most likely 100mbps) gets cut into peices where each line recieves the same amount of bandwidth. So your access points maximum bandwith is being cut into equal peices for each wireless connection its hosting.

Your best be: grab a wireless router or live with the chunck of bandwidth you get


To conferm this have only 2 computers on and test the bandwidth, you should get ~27mbps

 

[Riven]

I have a wireless network here at home with 4 desktop computers, each with linksys wireless G PCI cards(54 mbps) in each of them and 2 Linksys Wireless G notebook adapters(also 54mbps) for the two laptops. All of these computers are conected to the heart of the network, the linksys wireless G Access Point(54 mbps). Now the problem I'm having is I don't get 54 mbps in my network anywhere, even when the signal strength is excellent. I even tested to transfer files between two computers with excellent signal strength and the maximum rate I ever saw was 13 mbps. Is this normal (like is the 54 mbps speed divided amoung the number of computers you have)? Does anyone else who have wireless G (54 mbps)networks travel any faster than 13 mbps?

I have 4 computers connected to server through a 54 mbps wireless lan and I got 54 mbps. Probably your access point is configured to be 802.11b compatible and then you don't get all your mbps

 

[Gigahurtz]

Well, I have tried just running two computers on the network, the two that report "excellent strength", but I still don't see any improvement. I know that I have set my access point to wireless G only mode and so is the case on each computer I have. Riven, do you get to send and receive at 54 mbps or is it 27 mbps upload and 27 mbps download. My network also says that I'm connected at "54 mbps" but I don't see the results. Well thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

 

[nephalim]

i'm using 802.11b and get 24mbps, some special thing...D-Link. No problems at all (had some problems getting encryption to work, however, but I got it the second time setting up the wireless router, didn't seem to save the settings the first time.) How can you test the network speed? I only use it to connect to the internet, of which I get at maximum 2mbps, so I have PLENTY of room in that regard...

 

[pandamoan]

i'm using 802.11b and get 24mbps, some special thing...D-Link. No problems at all (had some problems getting encryption to work, however, but I got it the second time setting up the wireless router, didn't seem to save the settings the first time.) How can you test the network speed? I only use it to connect to the internet, of which I get at maximum 2mbps, so I have PLENTY of room in that regard...

one thing that makes my 802.11b network wonky is playing mp3s through a playlist on a diff machine. maybe there is a better solution, like setting up shoutcast? then i could have the whole house playing the same songs? any ideas on this peeps?

thanks!

SHP

 

[Gigahurtz]

i'm using 802.11b and get 24mbps, some special thing...D-Link. No problems at all (had some problems getting encryption to work, however, but I got it the second time setting up the wireless router, didn't seem to save the settings the first time.) How can you test the network speed? I only use it to connect to the internet, of which I get at maximum 2mbps, so I have PLENTY of room in that regard...

First off, I thought 802.11b could have max 11 mbps but I did hear somewhere that it can go up to 22 somehow (i'm not sure about 24 though). Well, i guess that's something not to complain about but to accept happily . To measure network speed, I use Netpersec, a freeware I found in the past. Windows XP's Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) also shows you how much of your network is being utilized. (Unfortunately, I haven't seen mine go over 17% .

one thing that makes my 802.11b network wonky is playing mp3s through a playlist on a diff machine. maybe there is a better solution, like setting up shoutcast? then i could have the whole house playing the same songs? any ideas on this peeps?

thanks!

By "wonky", do you mean playing mp3s through a network sounds choppy (like pauses in the song)? I don't think this is necessarily a software problem but probably your network isn't sending data fast enough between the two computers.

One more thing, I don't have WEP enabled (don't really need it in my area) but if I do enable it, would that help transfer speeds?

 

[Riven]

First off, I thought 802.11b could have max 11 mbps but I did hear somewhere that it can go up to 22 somehow (i'm not sure about 24 though). Well, i guess that's something not to complain about but to accept happily . To measure network speed, I use Netpersec, a freeware I found in the past. Windows XP's Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) also shows you how much of your network is being utilized. (Unfortunately, I haven't seen mine go over 17% .



By "wonky", do you mean playing mp3s through a network sounds choppy (like pauses in the song)? I don't think this is necessarily a software problem but probably your network isn't sending data fast enough between the two computers.

One more thing, I don't have WEP enabled (don't really need it in my area) but if I do enable it, would that help transfer speeds?

802.11b has a special feature that can double the speed to 22 mbps. D-Link and SMC have this feature.

WEP is a password security to prevent someone to connect to your LAN.

 

[Cyberman]

Wireless networking..

All righty.. don't confuse me with facts!

Anyhow
Switches/Routers
Each system is POINT TO POINT that is none of the bandwidth is shared unless 2 machines are trying to access the same machine. Machines only see data destined to that machine in otherwords.

Hub
Nothing is point to point it's ALL shared. The hub allows for multiple machines to access each othe rand be connected however ALL machines see ALL data irregardless of it's destination.

so if you are using a wireless HUB.. guess what your bandwidth will depend on where access is ocuring. Here is a scenario that is entirely plausable. You are reading a movie from machine A and watching it on machine B. Machine C is connected to the internet and idle. Machine D you are using to download things from the internet (machine C is your gateway). This means essentially your bandwidth will be divided by two. Depending on transmission frequency etc. Your bandwidht can be even less.

Windows can have a drastic affect as well. I can't move more than 24mbs on a 100T network myself with windows. However Linux can move about 96mbs .. SO you have a lot of factors here.

It behoves one to plan carefully before sinking money into the network abyse these days

Cyb

 

[Gigahurtz]

All righty.. don't confuse me with facts!

Anyhow
Switches/Routers
Each system is POINT TO POINT that is none of the bandwidth is shared unless 2 machines are trying to access the same machine. Machines only see data destined to that machine in otherwords.

Hub
Nothing is point to point it's ALL shared. The hub allows for multiple machines to access each othe rand be connected however ALL machines see ALL data irregardless of it's destination.

so if you are using a wireless HUB.. guess what your bandwidth will depend on where access is ocuring. Here is a scenario that is entirely plausable. You are reading a movie from machine A and watching it on machine B. Machine C is connected to the internet and idle. Machine D you are using to download things from the internet (machine C is your gateway). This means essentially your bandwidth will be divided by two. Depending on transmission frequency etc. Your bandwidht can be even less.

Windows can have a drastic affect as well. I can't move more than 24mbs on a 100T network myself with windows. However Linux can move about 96mbs .. SO you have a lot of factors here.

It behoves one to plan carefully before sinking money into the network abyse these days

I'm setup in infrastructure mode (uses an access point for the communication). But I have been searching on the web and I have found out that even if I am in an all wireless G environment, the expected throughput rate is 23 mbps, which is quite low from what I expected :angry: But I'm still under the expected rate but I guess that will be between me and Linksys now (Unless any of you know good ways on how to possibly increase network performance). Thanks for all the help! :satisfied

 

[Malcolm]

Windows can have a drastic affect as well. I can't move more than 24mbs on a 100T...
Cyb

Not that I like windows or anything but the main reason for this is because the windows driver for your device must suck; windows can use up your max bandwidth just the same as linux can, it's all about the drivers... or modules in linux

 

[pandamoan]

those of you not on /. and into networking may want to read this startling and alarming essay:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/

eat that conspiracy alpha wolf.

 

[AlphaWolf]

My 54g card always connects fine at 54mbits/sec. File transfers generally stay around 5 megabytes per second.

 

[Riven]

My 54g card always connects fine at 54mbits/sec. File transfers generally stay around 5 megabytes per second.

Yeah Alphawolf you're right, maybe we have to explain the differences between bytes and bits. 1 byte = 8 bits. Then 54 mbits/s = 6.75 mbytes/s MAXIMUM

 

[Gigahurtz]

My 54g card always connects fine at 54mbits/sec. File transfers generally stay around 5 megabytes per second.

What hardware or brand do you use for your network? Are you in Ad-hoc mode or infrastrucure? Man, 5 megabytes/sec would be a dream for my network...I get an average transfer speed of near 1 megabyte/sec usually.

 

[AlphaWolf]

They are all linksys, running infrastructure mode. I currently use WPA, but I am about to switch to VPN soon, which gives far more security not only within my own network, but I can use my server as a secure endpoint for ditching internet filters on any computer that I happen to be using.