really poor wireless speed

[Sharaz Jek]

i did a quick search to see if this has been discusssed recently, but i didnt see anything pertinent. ive been having really poor wireless speeds lately.

i have 4 laptops, 3 that are G capable, and one thats a B only. my wap is an older linksys wap54g (original version, actually). the computers connect and notate they are connected at 54mbps, but realistically, i have clocked them in a only a fraction of that. i tested each of my 4 laptops, and wrote down their speed while doing an ftp transfer.

2 of the G laptops top out about 16-19 mbit, the B only tops out at 2.78. my other G laptop (running a freebsd beta, using a driver for the intel 2200 thats fairly fresh i believe) connects at G, states 54mbit, but transfers at B speeds.

so WTF? is 16-19mbit par for the course? do i need a new wap? should i run 2 waps, and segregate the B's from the G's?

 

[axan]

16-20mb/s transfer speed is actually about max for 54mbs G network, yes the connection is 54mb/s but wifi is one directional(as in you can either send or receive data at one time not both), that plus wifi protocol overhead and the max transfer speed is less then 25mb/s

as for the b network the connection is 11mb/s so in reality transfer speed is about 4mb/s max

 

[Sharaz Jek]

k! im glad to hear it something as simple a limitation in the protocol, rather than "that i need to run out and dump money on new hardware"!

thanks,

 

[shaft]

i thought when u have a wireless client "b" on a "g" network, all clients, even those with "g" cards max out at "b" speeds, anyone else remeber this?

 

[axan]

it depends on router most can do b and g at the same time

 

[Christopher]

i thought when u have a wireless client "b" on a "g" network, all clients, even those with "g" cards max out at "b" speeds, anyone else remeber this?

When a 802.11b device associates with a 802.11g network, the access point and all devices need to transmit the header of the datagram at b speeds, so that way the b device can read the datagram's header. The payload of the datagram can be transmitted at g speeds though. This is necessary so the b device can determine if the datagram is intended for it or not.

On a g network, 20-25mbit/sec is about what you would get. With a b device registered on the network, 15-20mbit/sec for g devices is expected.