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geronimo
Guest
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 Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:24 am Post subject: Linksys Wireless N is too slow! |
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I have cable internet with a cable modem. Windows XP on desktop,
windows Vosta on laptop. With a direct ethernet connection to the PC,
it is FAST! Windows reports that it is 100 mb/s, when you click on
the netwrok connection icon. Don't think this is actual speed, and I
haven't checked it with an on-line speed checker in this mode. Well I
recently got a Linksys wireless N router... WRT350N. Put a Netgear
RangeMax WN311B Wireless N PCI receiver in the PC. It is very funny
as the first day I used the new wireless connection, it seemed as fast
or faster then the old hard-wired connection. But from the second day
on, it has been slow! Not even half as fast downloading files! I went
to Pitstop.com, and the measured bandwidth speed is 240 kilobits/sec.
The Netgear connection app is lying....it says speed is 270 mb/s when
the Pitstop speed test says otherwise. Also , when you click on
STATISTICS, you get a real-time graph of performance, and it varies
from 0% up to max of 2%....pathetic.
I have a new Dell laptop. It is also wireless-N, also connected to the
Linksys wireless router. Running the same speed test it says
bandwidth is abt 2600 kb/s. I believe this speed is comparable with
direct cable modem speed.
Also, the connection fails quite often for both laptop and desktop.
But it is not the signal strength....both compters are in the same
tiny room and the desktop doesn't show that the sognal strength has
decreased when it stops communicating with the router.
Both are losing the connection at the same time, so that is the
router. I paid big bucks for this crummy router and PCI adapter at
CompUSA! Guess they are defective?
Whats up with this....what should my wireless speed be? |
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Andrew Smallshaw
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:24 am Post subject: Re: Linksys Wireless N is too slow! |
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On 2007-04-01, geronimo <Jamesw@grandecom.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
The Netgear connection app is lying....it says speed is 270 mb/s when
the Pitstop speed test says otherwise. Also , when you click on
STATISTICS, you get a real-time graph of performance, and it varies
from 0% up to max of 2%....pathetic.
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Not going to bother going through your post point by point since
your problem seems to be a pretty fundamental one of understanding.
That 2% utilisation figure is telling you something, namely that
the wireless link is operating at a tiny fraction of its capacity.
Why? Well, you talk exclusively in terms of web sites that you
can access. In this case the limiting factor is undoubtedly the
speed of your WAN connection. Upgrading the wireless link for the
final few feet of the connection to your computer will not address
the real problem, which is the miles of wire between you and your
ISP, and how fast a connection you are prepared to pay for.
--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org |
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kony
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:37 am Post subject: Re: Linksys Wireless N is too slow! |
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On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:24:01 -0500, geronimo
<Jamesw@grandecom.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
I have cable internet with a cable modem. Windows XP on desktop,
windows Vosta on laptop. With a direct ethernet connection to the PC,
it is FAST! Windows reports that it is 100 mb/s, when you click on
the netwrok connection icon. Don't think this is actual speed,
|
No it really is actual speed.
Actual speed means the speed of the connection between your
PC and the next thing it's connecting _TO_, which is the
modem, or a router if you had one inbetween the modem and
PC.
| Quote: | and I
haven't checked it with an on-line speed checker in this mode. Well I
recently got a Linksys wireless N router... WRT350N. Put a Netgear
RangeMax WN311B Wireless N PCI receiver in the PC. It is very funny
as the first day I used the new wireless connection, it seemed as fast
or faster then the old hard-wired connection.
|
Because it is, unless you have a very very fast internet
plan, or in a part of the world where relatively speaking,
all service is fast(er, than other parts like the US).
| Quote: | But from the second day
on, it has been slow! Not even half as fast downloading files! I went
to Pitstop.com, and the measured bandwidth speed is 240 kilobits/sec.
|
Forget bandwidth from only one site, or time of day, it's
subject to the site's server load and general internet
congestion. Google for "speed tests" if you want some, but
really you can completely ignore this as you are not
troubleshooting an internet connection at this point, you
are troubleshooting a wifi connection
Thus, you should check the connected speed reported by
windows, as it will drop down to a slower speed if the
connection isn't good. If it is below 54MBps, you have
cause for concern. If it is below 22MBps, you may have
occasional latencies that interfere even with a slower
internet connection because the lag may be in intermittent
periods of interruption rather than a constant continuous
cap.
| Quote: |
The Netgear connection app is lying....it says speed is 270 mb/s when
the Pitstop speed test says otherwise.
|
Wrong. Your network connection is a different thing
than your internet acess at any moment in time. Forget
trying to use one to judge the other.
However, the 270 is only the theoretical max, not a
realizable max. Similarly, nobody gets 1Gb/s on a wired
Gigabit, or 100Mb/s on (100Mb) wire lan either, when
comparing delivered files (there's TCP/IP overhead) except
that with wifi, the difference between hypothetical and
realized is even larger.
| Quote: | Also , when you click on
STATISTICS, you get a real-time graph of performance, and it varies
from 0% up to max of 2%....pathetic.
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Click on statistics of what?
I will just stop short and say now, forget about internet.
Don't ever again mention anything relating to internet
connection if you want ot troubleshoot your LAN performance,
as it will only interfere with the process.
| Quote: |
I have a new Dell laptop. It is also wireless-N, also connected to the
Linksys wireless router. Running the same speed test it says
bandwidth is abt 2600 kb/s. I believe this speed is comparable with
direct cable modem speed.
|
As mentioned above, forget internet speed tests.
If you want to do a test moving a file from one place to
another, do it from one of your systems on the lan to
another on the lan. Preferribly you will make one system
wireless and the other wired, 100Mb or faster wired I mean,
so as to isolate the thing you are trying to test.
| Quote: |
Also, the connection fails quite often for both laptop and desktop.
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Then the signal strengh may be poor.
| Quote: | But it is not the signal strength....both compters are in the same
tiny room
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Doesn't matter, a signal may be too poor for a normal
quality wifi card, but work a bit better on a very good
card. That doesn't make the normal quality card bad, it
means the signal is poor. On the other hand you would have
to be able to qualify the first card as normal quality to
make such an assessment, part of why I suggest the above
test to a wired system, to see what either can do without
another bottleneck present.
| Quote: | ...and the desktop doesn't show that the sognal strength has
decreased when it stops communicating with the router.
Both are losing the connection at the same time, so that is the
router.
|
Maybe the router is locking up, or maybe not, it might just
be interference from something else using same radio
spectrum. When this happens, I suggest you access the
router from a wired system and see if you can, and if so,
see if it improves after being rebooted. If you can't
access it and you're SURE you are doing that correct, and
you regain access after manually power cycling it, suspect
the router.
Otherwise, you may just have the same problem as many
people, your signal is merely too weak at some moments.
| Quote: | I paid big bucks for this crummy router and PCI adapter at
CompUSA! Guess they are defective?
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Insufficient information to conclude that, but I would say
no they are not since they do work to a point. They might
not be the best of breed, other -N routers might do better
but it depends on how much your environment plays a role in
the problem.
| Quote: |
Whats up with this....what should my wireless speed be?
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No easy answer, try the test I suggested above from one
wired system on your lan to one wireless.
How far away is the router from the clients? How many walls
or floors inbetween them, and how thick are those walls,
what're they made of, or what angle is the signal going
through them?
Have you tried adjusting the antenna? I suspect you have no
particular problem, more of a general wifi-too-weak,
problem. There are several ways to fix this like different
product or different antenna, or destroying all 2.4GHz
cordless phones and microwaves within a several mile radius.
Anyway, if you can situation the router somewhere else, try
that. Try adjusting the antennas. If you know someone in
your residence is using a phone (which you may have some
control over, versus neighbors' use of phones), replace the
phone with one using a different frequency. If these don't
work (or work well enough), take back the products you just
bought and try something else. If after trying another -N
product or two, you have similar problems, you might try one
of the better rated 802.11g products like a Buffalo
WHR-HP-G54. |
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