Extremely Slow WLAN Speed

[amsgator]

I finally got my WLAN set up and I'm getting ridiculously slow speed according to LAN Speed Test. When I say ridiculously slow I mean like 10 Mbps slow.

The router and all of the wireless cards are 802.11n. I have an excellent signal on both computers. I've tried two different routers and it made no difference.

My desktop is running Windows 7 Home Premium and my laptop is running Mac OS X 10.6.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Britton30]

How much download speed does your ISP claim?

 

[amsgator]

My download speed is 6 Mbps. But I'm referring to WLAN computer to computer file transfer, not WAN internet speed.

I realize the 300 Mbps is theoretical, but 10?

 

[Britton30]

How far is the router from each machine? Wall and distance degrade transfers markedly.

 

[amsgator]

Maybe 30 feet. No walls between. There's also no other electronics near the router to cause any issues: phones, fluorescent lights, etc. I also used inSSIDer and the channel I'm using is vacant.

I'm not sure what a good network ping time is but mine average 3-4ms.

 

[Britton30]

All right, as an experiment can you place on or the other closer to the router to see how it affects it? I know if I'm 30' from mine speed drops.

 

[2xg]

Hi there,

I've been asked to jumped in to your Thread.

If the file transfer is quite slow, you may try changing the file encryption to 40 or 56-bit.
Use 40 or 56-bit Encryption File Sharing Connections ? MAXIMUMpcguides ? Windows 7 tips, tricks, help, and how-to guides

Please keep us posted.

 

[amsgator]

All right, as an experiment can you place on or the other closer to the router to see how it affects it? I know if I'm 30' from mine speed drops.

I moved the router and computers so the router was within 2 feet of each computer (about as close as I could get them without stacking them on top of each other).

The RSSI on the desktop was -25 and on the laptop was -33, so both are excellent signals. That said, I was only getting 20 Mbps.

 

[amsgator]

Hi there,

I've been asked to jumped in to your Thread.

If the file transfer is quite slow, you may try changing the file encryption to 40 or 56-bit.
Use 40 or 56-bit Encryption File Sharing Connections ? MAXIMUMpcguides ? Windows 7 tips, tricks, help, and how-to guides

Please keep us posted.

I changed it on my Windows machine and it didn't change anything. I can't find a setting to do it on my Mac laptop, so I'm not sure if that's why it didn't help?

 

[amsgator]

I was able to use my wife's computer and same thing. I tried transferring between my Mac and her Win 7 laptop, and the Win 7 desktop and her Win 7 laptop. Same thing.

EDIT: I can't find the specs on any of the network cards to see if they are 150 or 300Mbps cards. My best guess is the desktop is 300Mbps since it appears to be 2T2R. I'm unsure of the laptops, so they may be 150 which would limit it some, but I just can't see if knocking down to 10Mbps even then.

 

[chev65]

If the router isn't set to use the 802.11n Only setting then you can't get more than 54Mbps, the mixed wireless settings can really slow things down. You would also need to use WPA2 with AES encryption to achieve full wireless N speeds.

You can also try using the channel bonding feature which should show up in the routers wireless settings as 20Mhz-40Mhz, this setting can double your bandwidth.

It's possible for wireless N to achieve 450Mbps "status speed" but you need the right router and correct 3 antenna PCI NIC for this.

Besides those adjustments the signal strength etc. looks good here.

 

[amsgator]

If the router isn't set to use the 802.11n Only setting then you can't get more than 54Mbps, the mixed wireless settings can really slow things down. You would also need to use WPA2 with AES encryption to achieve full wireless N speeds.

You can also try using the channel bonding feature which should show up in the routers wireless settings as 20Mhz-40Mhz, this setting can double your bandwidth.

It's possible for wireless N to achieve 450Mbps "status speed" but you need the right router and correct 3 antenna PCI NIC for this.

Besides those adjustments the signal strength etc. looks good here.

Thanks. It looks like my router only offers mixed mode, no N only. I'll look into a new one. I am also already using the channel bonding.

If I take my two laptops to Starbucks, get on their wifi and set a unique workgroup so I'm not visible to anyone else, can I run a LAN test there? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm being limited by my cards, the router, something in my house, etc without buying and swapping things. If I can get a good speed over another Wifi network, I can eliminate my cards as the problem. This is a lot easier for me to do than borrow a friend.

 

[chev65]

If the router isn't set to use the 802.11n Only setting then you can't get more than 54Mbps, the mixed wireless settings can really slow things down. You would also need to use WPA2 with AES encryption to achieve full wireless N speeds.

You can also try using the channel bonding feature which should show up in the routers wireless settings as 20Mhz-40Mhz, this setting can double your bandwidth.

It's possible for wireless N to achieve 450Mbps "status speed" but you need the right router and correct 3 antenna PCI NIC for this.

Besides those adjustments the signal strength etc. looks good here.

Thanks. It looks like my router only offers mixed mode, no N only. I'll look into a new one. I am also already using the channel bonding.

If I take my two laptops to Starbucks, get on their wifi and set a unique workgroup so I'm not visible to anyone else, can I run a LAN test there? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm being limited by my cards, the router, something in my house, etc without buying and swapping things. If I can get a good speed over another Wifi network, I can eliminate my cards as the problem. This is a lot easier for me to do than borrow a friend.

If there is no N only option then you have found the source of the problem. In fact you are limiting every wireless NIC on your network to 54Mbps "status speed" unless this setting is enabled.

Maybe a firmware update would help in this regard but any router without this option would definitely cause the problems you are describing.

For connection at Starbucks just turn off Network Discovery in the Advanced Sharing settings at the Network and Sharing Center. This will prevent others from seeing your machine or accessing it. Testing at Starbucks probably won't help as they are most likely using the mixed wireless settings to accommodate the mix of clients.

 

[amsgator]

If there is no N only option then you have found the source of the problem. In fact you are limiting every wireless NIC on your network to 54Mbps "status speed" unless this setting is enabled.

Maybe a firmware update would help in this regard but any router without this option would definitely cause the problems you are describing.

For connection at Starbucks just turn off Network Discovery in the Advanced Sharing settings at the Network and Sharing Center. This will prevent others from seeing your machine or accessing it. Testing at Starbucks probably won't help as they are most likely using the mixed wireless settings to accommodate the mix of clients.

One of the routers (actually a DSL wireless gateway) I tested previously has N only mode. I enable that and when connected I get ~20Mbps. That still seems awfully slow. Makes me wonder if something's wrong with my computers. I tried all three which seems farfetched for all three cards to be shot. They aren't dual band so maybe I'm expecting unrealistic throughput.

The original router, unfortunately, is discontinued and no longer updated so the firmware it's got is the last it'll get. Maybe it's time to get a new router.

 

[chev65]

If there is no N only option then you have found the source of the problem. In fact you are limiting every wireless NIC on your network to 54Mbps "status speed" unless this setting is enabled.

Maybe a firmware update would help in this regard but any router without this option would definitely cause the problems you are describing.

For connection at Starbucks just turn off Network Discovery in the Advanced Sharing settings at the Network and Sharing Center. This will prevent others from seeing your machine or accessing it. Testing at Starbucks probably won't help as they are most likely using the mixed wireless settings to accommodate the mix of clients.

One of the routers (actually a DSL wireless gateway) I tested previously has N only mode. I enable that and when connected I get ~20Mbps. That still seems awfully slow. Makes me wonder if something's wrong with my computers. I tried all three which seems farfetched for all three cards to be shot. They aren't dual band so maybe I'm expecting unrealistic throughput.

The original router, unfortunately, is discontinued and no longer updated so the firmware it's got is the last it'll get. Maybe it's time to get a new router.

That is twice as fast compared to the first router on your original post so it looks like we are getting somewhere.

I'm not completely sure what you are using to measure the WLAN speed with?

If you can post the wireless status speed it would give me a better idea of how this is working.

I might be able to help more if you could post the read out from inSSIDer rather than Xirrus.

I should add that I only get approx. 40Mbps when sending files from my Gb wired connection to my wireless AC connection which runs at 877.5Mbps "status speed" so I'd say that 20Mbps is about what you should expect for your current wireless connection.

The good thing is that your wireless connection speed has now doubled since you changed to the N only setting as was advised earlier.

 

[amsgator]

I am using a program called LAN Speed Test and am also timing it with a stop watch and dividing the time it takes to transfer a file of a given size, such as 20 MB. And when I ran it when I got home this morning I was getting an upload speed of ~3Mbps and a download speed ~15Mbps. So I have no clue what's going on.

What are you needing from inSSIDer? I'm running the free one so it might not have what you're looking for. If that image is windows file transfer, how do I view the histogram?

On your picture there you are getting about 40MB/s, which is 240 Mbps (40 x 8 bits per byte). I am getting about (2.5MB/s 20Mbps/8 bits per byte).

EDIT: I have a status speed of 300Mbps on my destop and 130Mbps on my laptop.

 

[amsgator]

If inSSIDer is reporting my RSSI as -35dbi, is it safe to say interference isn't an issue, or is that still a possibility?

 

[amsgator]

Here is the analysis from my bedroom on my Mac laptop. Both Virus and Guest are mine.

 

[chev65]

I am using a program called LAN Speed Test and am also timing it with a stop watch and dividing the time it takes to transfer a file of a given size, such as 20 MB. And when I ran it when I got home this morning I was getting an upload speed of ~3Mbps and a download speed ~15Mbps. So I have no clue what's going on.

What are you needing from inSSIDer? I'm running the free one so it might not have what you're looking for. If that image is windows file transfer, how do I view the histogram?

On your picture there you are getting about 40MB/s, which is 240 Mbps (40 x 8 bits per byte). I am getting about (2.5MB/s 20Mbps/8 bits per byte).

EDIT: I have a status speed of 300Mbps on my destop and 130Mbps on my laptop.

With those status speeds I'd say you are good as it will get for both of those devices. You are now getting exactly what you should be. Both of those devices are maxed out and doing exactly what they were designed for.

If you really want faster wireless then the only option is to upgrade everything to the newer wireless AC, that means the router and all the wireless NIC's would need to be updated as well "not cheap".

That is what I was using for my example,> Gb wired connection to wireless AC working at 877.5Mbps so of course it's going to be about twice as fast compared to wireless N.

You are showing exactly what you should be for a standard wireless network, no more, no less. There is no fix because nothing is broken besides the original problem with that old router which you have wisely changed out.

 

[amsgator]

I think there's some confusion about the speed I am getting. I am getting about 15-20 megabits per second, not megabytes per second.

In the image you posted you are getting about 42 megabytes per second which is about 20 times, not twice,the speed I am getting. While I understand you're is going to be faster with the AC, 2 megabytes per second, if I'm lucky, is insanely low. I've googled around and other threads/forums are indicating that 10 megabytes per second is slow for N speeds, and I'm getting about 1/5 of that.

If 2 MB/s is what wireless N speeds are supposed to be then I guess I'm about to get in my attic and wire my entire house with Cat5e or Cat6 cable.