Typical client-to-client throughput through Linksys WAG54G router ?

[Lorenzo Sandini]

Hello,

I replaced my Alcatel ADSL gateway and WLAN router with an all-in-one
Linksys WAG54G router, and my computers got WMP54G (PCI) or WPC54G (PCMCIA)
adapters. Everything works fine, router config was a breeze, SSID broadcast
disabled, static IPs on all machines, WEP enabled.

I replaced the antennas on the WMP54G (PCI) adapters with D-Link's DWL-M60AT
directional antennas, and my 2 computers at the extreme ends of the
apartment get an excellent signal at 54mbps, same as my laptop about
anywhere in the house.

One of the machines acts as a web server and a ftp server, and the other
computers connect to it with an ftp client or with remote destop to use its
content.

When downloading a big file using FTP (> 500MB), the typical transfer speed
is around 12-14 mbps, in other words about 1.4-1.5 MB/sec. This is far
better than what I got using the my old DLink WLAN router, and for my home
use, it's more than enough. However, this is far from the advertized
theoretical maximum of 54 mbps.

I tried various settings on the router and WLAN cards, forcing transfer
rates to other values, changing from "max performance" to "max range",
changing channel (since I have wireless phones and wireless TV signal
transmitters in the house), but the 13-14 mbps is as fast as it seems to
get. With default antennas the transfer rate was a noticeably lower (about
20%).

I don't need a faster connection, but is this a typical value I am getting ?

Lorenzo

 

[Lance]

Do you really mean a Linksys WAP54G router? I can't find a WAG54G
anywhere on the Linksys site.

According to this review:
<http://www.practicallynetworked.com/item.asp?pid=514>
they found a rate of about 21 Mbps @ 10 ft and they say this rate was
higher than a few other products tested before. Huh...I guess these 54
Mbps claims must be some kind of burst rate.

It's not clear if WEP or WPA was being used during the speed test, I
assume not. Some routers do suffer a speed loss if WEP/WPA is used. I
saw one review at the same place where using WEP dropped the speed in
half, though that appeared to be unusual.

Your 12-14 Mbps doesn't seem so far out of whack after all. Have you
done any ping tests with different packet sizes to see if you're getting
any dropped packets?

Lance
*****


Lorenzo Sandini thought carefully and wrote on 8/23/2004 12:14 AM:

 

[Lorenzo Sandini]

Lance,

I am positive it is a WAG54G !
http://www.linksys.com/international/product.asp?coid=8&ipid=402

I am using WEP 64 bits, since I heard WEP 128 slowed down transfer rates
quite a bit, but apparently WEP64 or no-WEP in my case is equivalent in
terms of speed. My server is in the smallest room, about 10m (30ft) from the
router, and there are 3 thin concrete walls between it and the router. The
other "distant" machine is the main computer, about 7 m from the router,
with 1 concrete wall in the way.

I havent tested 2 laptops 3 feet each from the router "through the router"
just for the sake of network benchmarking, but I understand transfer rates
could be faster there.

Lorenzo

 

[Lance]

Well, you're right. I didn't check the international page! Now I think
you should be getting higher speeds too.

Maybe the problem is not with the wireless, maybe something else is
slowing things down.

I have no idea if this will work, but maybe ping with a very large
packet size will allow you to estimate a real speed over wireless:

ping -n 1 -l 500000 <IPOfWirelessComputer>

This command may send one giant packet (500kB) to one of your wireless
computers. See how long it takes and estimate a speed from there.

Lance
*****

Lorenzo Sandini said the following on 8/24/2004 3:36 AM: