Wireless speed

[GT]

Is there a free downloadable bit of software to test the actual transfer
speeds of a wireless connection? I want to know if my 11Mbs 802.11b
connection is fast enough for me to use the full 8MB of my broadband
connection, or whether I should upgrade to 802.11g (54Mb) or even 802.11n
(?). Obviously I could try it and see, but if it doesn't run at full speed,
i won't know if it is the wireless connection or the website that is holding
things up.

 

[Paul]

Is there a free downloadable bit of software to test the actual transfer
speeds of a wireless connection? I want to know if my 11Mbs 802.11b
connection is fast enough for me to use the full 8MB of my broadband
connection, or whether I should upgrade to 802.11g (54Mb) or even 802.11n
(?). Obviously I could try it and see, but if it doesn't run at full speed,
i won't know if it is the wireless connection or the website that is holding
things up.

If you have a wireless router, that also has a few wired ports
on the back, you could set up an FTP server on one computer, and an
FTP client on the other computer. One computer gets plugged into a wired
port on the router. The second computer uses wireless. By only running
one computer in a wireless mode, you know you are testing the wireless
capability in as good conditions as possible. Do an FTP transfer and
see what rate it reports.

One article I read, said to expect 11b to typically run at the first
step down from full rate, or 5.5Mb/sec. Rather than the full 11Mb/sec.
So chances are you'll see a problem. And the problem may not be "weak
signal", it can be interference from other devices operating in the
same frequency band, or it can even be multipath. Sometimes, an overly
strong signal is just as bad as a weak signal.

And using 11n could create problems for others. If everyone in a
neighborhood switched to 11n, nobody would win.

Paul

 

[Mike Walsh]

802.11b is not fast enough for a 8 Mb/sec connection.
No data transfer protocol has continuous transfer at the rated speed. DSL runs at 80% to 85% of rated speed. I have not tested cable internet access. 802.11 is the worst; you can expect 30% to 40% of rated speed depending on the router and adapter. Even with 802.11b the bottleneck will be the website, unless you are doing several simultaneous downloads.
Because your connection is so fast, any speed tests you do will probably be limited by some bottleneck other than your internet connection. The best way to test the speed of a wireless connection is to see how long it takes to copy a large file between a wireless PC and a wired PC. To test the internet connection speed do several simultaneous download using a wired PC or 802.11g.

 

[Grinder]

Is there a free downloadable bit of software to test the actual transfer
speeds of a wireless connection? I want to know if my 11Mbs 802.11b
connection is fast enough for me to use the full 8MB of my broadband
connection, or whether I should upgrade to 802.11g (54Mb) or even 802.11n
(?). Obviously I could try it and see, but if it doesn't run at full speed,
i won't know if it is the wireless connection or the website that is holding
things up.

It's been my strictly anecdotal, non-analytical experience that 802.11b
will limit the throughput of a decently performing broadband
connection. The wired PC on that network will almost always be peppier.

 

[kony]

Is there a free downloadable bit of software to test the actual transfer
speeds of a wireless connection? I want to know if my 11Mbs 802.11b
connection is fast enough for me to use the full 8MB of my broadband
connection,

Is it really 8MB or is it 8Mb?

or whether I should upgrade to 802.11g (54Mb) or even 802.11n
(?).

The actual performance you see will depend not only on what
you connect to over the WAN (internet, usually), that end's
throughput, but also the signal quality on premises. 11b
will fall back to 5.5Mb if signal gets low, or fall back
even further. So will 11g, your primary limitation with any
of them is not usually going to be the letter after "11",
it's going to be the quality of your wifi connection.

The secondary benefit to a good wifi connection is it
improves your lan speeds as well, though since those have
such a great speed potential relative to the 8 M(b?)
internet connection, in that case it is all the more
beneficial to have 11g or n, and highest signal quality...
but signal quality is always the first priority.

Obviously I could try it and see, but if it doesn't run at full speed,
i won't know if it is the wireless connection or the website that is holding
things up.

You could connect the system via TP wire to the router to
check any particular remote system's throughput then compare
to wireless communication, or you could just try it, and if
the wireless link is in 11Mbps mode instead of falling down
lower, and the throughput isn't above 8Mb, you should assume
you have no need to move from 11b for this purpose alone.
In other words, the internet connection is usually the last
thing to consider, and if you're truely concerned about it's
performance you will avoid wireless altogether because the
latency is higher. That didn't matter so much in past years
but these days even a typical website may have dozens of
tiny images to download pseudo-simultaneously.

 

[Rod Speed]

Is there a free downloadable bit of software to test the actual
transfer speeds of a wireless connection? I want to know if my 11Mbs
802.11b connection is fast enough for me to use the full 8MB of my
broadband connection, or whether I should upgrade to 802.11g (54Mb)
or even 802.11n (?). Obviously I could try it and see, but if it
doesn't run at full speed, i won't know if it is the wireless
connection or the website that is holding things up.

Just find a site that downloads at full speed with a wired
connection like your ISP's ftp site or one of the MS downloads
and see if you get the same speed with the wireless connection.

 

[GT]

Is it really 8MB or is it 8Mb?

That would be nice!

You could connect the system via TP wire to the router to
check any particular remote system's throughput then compare
to wireless communication, or you could just try it, and if
the wireless link is in 11Mbps mode instead of falling down
lower, and the throughput isn't above 8Mb, you should assume
you have no need to move from 11b for this purpose alone.

This is a home network and I have a 100Mb connection (wire) for
synchronising PC with laptop. The wireless connection is only used for
surfing and signal strength varies between good and excellent, so I'll
probably leave it alone. Thanks for the advice.