wifi questions

[Andy.]

I have just got a new router with wireless N. The box says "upto 300 mbps" but I can't get it over 135mbps, even if the PC is next to the router. I have tried all the channels, checked to see if there were any other connections in the neighbourhood on similar channels and moved the router around the house. Nothing gets the connection above 135.

1. Has anybody else got a wireless N router and do you actually see 300mbps in the task manager?
   
2. Does you wireless speed drop when you are downloading? Mine heads down to 40mbps when under heavy load.
   
3. 
   

Anybody have any clues as to where I can look to solve it? Google has brought up nothing useful, which is rare, the sitecom website offers zero support and I have tried everything that I can think of short of taking it back to the shop.

 

[mradam87]

Does the PC have a wireless N receiver? Girfriend bought a belkin one and has never had the quoted speed, think it depends on your broadband speed too.

 

[Andy.]

Yep. Same make as the router. In the device manager/ dongle properties I cannot see anything about wireless N though, just wireless a & g. I dont know if that is normal.

Have checked for new drivers too but there is nothing.

 

[Andy.]

Sounds like it might be becase the router only works on 2.4ghz and not 2.4 & 5. @#@$@#@$ @$#@ $#@ $@#@$ @$# back to the shop for the second time and this time I am going to have to fork out even more cash. b****cks. Might just run a cable up two floors instead,

 

[KDF]

Does the PC have a wireless N receiver? Girfriend bought a belkin one and has never had the quoted speed, think it depends on your broadband speed too.

Are you serious ?

What standard home wifi other than N will give more than 108mb/s ?

What has his broadband speed got to do with anything ?

Are you from the past ?

 

[KDF]

Sounds like it might be becase the router only works on 2.4ghz and not 2.4 & 5. @#@$@#@$ @$#@ $#@ $@#@$ @$# back to the shop for the second time and this time I am going to have to fork out even more cash. b****cks. Might just run a cable up two floors instead,

If your looking for all out speed then you would be better with the cable.

Wifi is CSMA/CA and although cat5/6 uses CSMA/CD you can get full duplex 1GB/s and if you use a switch there are no collisions ergo you will get great speed. If you use direct connect using crossover then theorectically would get even faster as there is less overhead.

 

[Andy.]

It is just a hassle with concrete floors and no easy way to hide it through the rooms. Ah well, cable is probably the only way. In 2 months my connection goes up to 40mb and there is no way that I can use that with my s**t reception through wireless.

100mbps through cat 5 should be fine for steaming HD movies though right? My laptop only has a 100 card so I dont really have much choice anyway!

 

[KDF]

Why not get the 200mbit powerline adaptors then ? no cables as they use the existing mains infrastructure.

 

[Andy.]

That is also a theoretical speed isn't it? I will look into it though, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[KDF]

Theoretical as in stupid marketing people.

What they actually mean is 100mbit full duplex, from what I have heard they are pretty damn good though and will handle HD streaming video no probs.

There is more than one brand, make sure you get decent ones (and remember to get two of the same brand as they are not always compatible)

 

[Andy.]

I think I am just going to "borrow" a long cable from work and get happy with my drill TBH. At least it is tried and tested and I know what I am getting myself in for. I've already taken one router back for being shite and if I get a third option which doesn't work, I'll be banned from going in the shop again when I return another opened box...

Is there any way that I can stop my wireless from dropping from 135mbps to 11mbps when I am downloading? Just browsing the internet does not affect it but putting a load on it does. I guess it is something to do with the packets but it is not really my field of expertise TBH. Changing "Fragment Threshold", "RTS Threshold", "Beacon interval" or preamble wouldn't help would it?

 

[mradam87]

Are you serious ?

What standard home wifi other than N will give more than 108mb/s ?

What has his broadband speed got to do with anything ?

Are you from the past ?

Did I say what it would give? No, I simply asked a question and made a statement.

Wireless N only supports 300 mbps in the very best conditions, but for homes in general 130 is probably tops, and to achieve speeds like that the adapters and the router would need to be set up as channel bonding - only that can interfere with other nearby networks.

As said, maximum speed is still gonna come from a cable though...

 

[KDF]

Does the PC have a wireless N receiver?

Did I say what it would give? No, I simply asked a question and made a statement.

What what would give ? You asked if the PC had an N NIC.. if he had a A/B/G NIC he wouldn't be getting 135mbit now would he ? duh ! and if by statement you mean ...

think it depends on your broadband speed too.

Then, no. It really doesn't

Wireless N only supports 300 mbps in the very best conditions, but for homes in general 130 is probably tops, and to achieve speeds like that the adapters and the router would need to be set up as channel bonding - only that can interfere with other nearby networks.

Why are you telling me this ?

As said, maximum speed is still gonna come from a cable though...

Who said otherwise ?

 

[jpaine85]

are then any other devices connecting to the network via wireless, as if you set it on say b/g/n and a b client connects it will use .11b rather than n which would give you 11mbps which is about 4-5mbps throughput.

Also keep it away from any other radio devices like next doors ap or your car if it uses wireless key entrance etc or has fancy alarm system even wireless mouse and keyboard could affect it. .11n 2.4ghz and 5ghz both run at the same speed just as it bonds channels together its harder to find availble channels so this is the reason for .11n being able to use 5ghz.

Also when picking channels its better to be on the same channel as other aps raher than one either side of it. In a perfect world you would be on channel 1, neigbour 1 would be on channel 6 and neighbour 2 would be on channel 11 but this is harder to do when using .11n as it would use the whole of 1 to 6 for example which is a bugger.

At the end of the day unless you are doing huge data transfer on your internal network it doesnt really matter as you will just hit a bottle neck at your router.

Just a few things to keep in mind :rasp:

Image of 2.4 wifi channels vv

 

[Andy.]

Went back to the shop today, swapped my router for the top of the range Cisco/ Linksys effort. Everything is now working as it should. I just needed the double band to be able to get the higher speed. Although, even on 2.4, the connection does not drop off under load like it did on the Sitecom one.

Third time lucky!

 

[KDF]

Buy cheap, buy twice.