poor wireless performance

i have an older linksys WAP54G, which honestly, is fairly reliable. i never have any trouble connecting with my FreeBSD laptop or my mac, or any other computer that visits my house.

but, ive been noticing, that my speed is topping out at 2.5MB a sec (i would guess about 15-20mbit or thereabouts). this is apparently consistant with my g4 ibook and my hp laptop (freebsd 6.2).

wtf do i need a new wap, or is this about the norm?

This is normal. The link speed is not the same as the application data transfer rate. For wireless there is a big difference between the two for various reasons. 22 Mb/s is about the best you can do with standard g, assuming no interference, short distances, etc., and it sounds like you're getting close to that.

You might be able to do better with draft-n, but in all cases, the actual throughput will be a lot less than the stated wireless link speed, and with wireless issues of distance, interference, crowding and obstructions apply.

If you really want speed and reliability, you could try going to wired gigabit.

yeah, both the mac and hp have gigabit... but kinda defeats the purpose. oh well, i just suffer knowing its normal