Speeding up that damn wireless.

Mutant_Fruit

I'm the (resonably) proud owner of a Linksys WRT54g router, and a Latitude D505 laptop equiped with the IntelProWireless 2200BG wireless card.

The best transfer speed i seem to be able to get out of the dastardly thing is about 1.8 megabytes a second (average value). Is there any settings i can flick to make it go a bit faster? Its just i'm a tad disappointed with the speed of it, considaring it is rated at 54mbps, so i should get at least twice that speed, maybe more if i'm lucky.

Any firmware that might help, or drivers that might perform better? Or is this perfectly normal?

Shrimp

ok, I need to know a few things!

Where are you(the laptop) in relation to the wireless router?(upstairs or downstairs?)
Could it be damaged?
what speeds are the wireless router and card?

Mutant_Fruit

Card is a B/G, so i assume that means the card is 54mbps. The router is also B/G, so i assume thats 54mbps aswell. They're in the same room, about a 2 metre distance from the transmitter to the laptop.

As for being damaged, i hope not. But i can't really test, and don't have another router/laptop to test with.

Webmonkey

You say its rated 54mbps but that i take it is 54mbit which = 6.75MByte Per second.
A 100mbit wired network whouldn't be able to get 54mb/sec.
Besides 54mbit is the speed of 802.11g or 108Mbit TURBO

So the max speed you can should be 6.75Mbyte P/S. You are sell well below what you should be getting out of it. 2 metres a part is close, they should be able to work on this speed.
You could have it set to 11mbit one either the card or the router which means both will go at that speed or you have it on auto speed which selects the recommended speed itself. Check manuals for stuff like this - force it to 54mbit.

Tell me how you get on.

Webmonkey

Mutant_Fruit

i take it is 54mbit which = 6.75MByte Per second.

Yup, which is why i expected to get at least 3.5megabytes a second (twice 1.75 :P). Thats about 50% efficiency. I'm currently getting less than 25% efficiency.

All the encryption is off, so its not overhead due to encryption. When i check the connection status, its listed as 54mbps, excellant strength. So i don't think the router is setting a slow speed. And its not interference thats causing the prob.

padraigf

a 100mb wired network would easily be able to do flat out 54 mbs. Stop talking out of your ass.

Earlier on there I was throwing files across at 10 megs a second (80mbs).

Mutant_Fruit

Never even noticed he said that.... I'd just like to point out that when i hook in my 100mbps wired ethernet card to my friends laptop, and run a minilan, we get a disappointingly slow speed of a mere 90mbps. Yes, 90% efficient. Can transfer at over 10megabytes a second.

NotMe

Go to the Linksys admin page and click on the 'Wireless' tab and make sure it is set to 'G-only'.

Webmonkey

padraigf wrote:

a 100mb wired network would easily be able to do flat out 54 mbs. Stop talking out of your ass.

Earlier on there I was throwing files across at 10 megs a second (80mbs).

Did i say it wouldn't? It said it wouldn't transfer 54Megabytes a second (IF you care to read my post properly) so why don't you stop talking out of your ass and get your facts right first.
Do you know your bits and bytes?

Mutant_Fruit

NotMe wrote:

Go to the Linksys admin page and click on the 'Wireless' tab and make sure it is set to 'G-only'.

Just switched it. The graph in the ctrl-alt-del window is a hellofalot more stable now. (it used to jump up and down a lot), but unfortunately transfer speeds are still the same. I just downloaded new firmware for it, sveasoft stuff, with an "afterburner" feature, i'm going to turn it on and see what happens

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

card is 54mbps.

I believe i did use a little b, meaning bits. I believe my facts were right. And before we get into the whole 'b' vs 'B' thing, can i point out you used a little b, meaning bits when you were saying a wired network couldn't transfer at 54mb/sec Its all rediculous if you ask me

Webmonkey

Hey not yelling at you , just your other man.
Yeah bits bytes confusing but i must say I ment MBytes by MB/Sec in 54mb/sec which is right, if it was mbit it would be 54mbit.
Anyhow, all i was saying it is not possible to transfer 54Megabytes a second through a 100mBIT lan. Meaning 100mbit, 12.5 or what ever mbytes per sec.

Anyhow good luck, make sure u dont get a powercut when flashing it

hostyle

At home I've never got above 800KB/s at 802.11b. Theres a mix of b- and g- cards there, but your g- speed sounds fine to me.

At b- speeds 1.375 MB/s is the theoretical limit, but thats duplex IIRC, so ~800 both ways is about right.

At g- speeds 6.75 MB/s is the theoretical limit under perfect conditions and unless I'm missing something this is again shared both ways - implying 3.4 would your maximum speed. If your conditions arent perfect then you'll get less.

If I'm completely wrong, could someone point out as such with relevant links please, so I can be educated

bambam

here's some suggestions (these are based on my Buffalo router):
1) turn on framebursting (a.k.a Xpress)
2) set the '54g mode' to performance.
3) turn off "54g protection"
4) turn off "AP Isolation"
5) last resort, maybe change to another channel

jesus_thats_gre

NotMe wrote:

Go to the Linksys admin page and click on the 'Wireless' tab and make sure it is set to 'G-only'.

Was gonna suggest this myself...

Shrimp

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

2 metre distance from the transmitter to the laptop.

I find that if it's possible always use a lead.. much faster

snappieT

hostyle wrote:

At home I've never got above 800KB/s at 802.11b. Theres a mix of b- and g- cards there, but your g- speed sounds fine to me.

At b- speeds 1.375 MB/s is the theoretical limit, but thats duplex IIRC, so ~800 both ways is about right.

At g- speeds 6.75 MB/s is the theoretical limit under perfect conditions and unless I'm missing something this is again shared both ways - implying 3.4 would your maximum speed. If your conditions arent perfect then you'll get less.

If I'm completely wrong, could someone point out as such with relevant links please, so I can be educated

You're exactly right.

The reason you get such crappy speeds is the fact that you do have b apparatus. The speed of your network is based on the weakest link, and if the router insists on sending data so that EVERYBODY is happy, not just the PC it's communicating to, hence 11Mbps always (when the 802.11b card is on anyways)

rsynnott

It might be environmental. What attenuation are you getting? Some wireless equipment (particularly in desktop replacement laptops; some have a little USB thing inside) just isn't particularly good, of course.