Wifi half the speed of Ethernet?

[airtas]

MY ISP claims I get 10 mbps dl speed.....

Did a test on speedtest.net via ethernet and my speed was 9.8

Using my wifi on my Linksys N router and my pc's G card I get 4.2 speed.

Is the drop off that much on Wifi or is something wrong?

My other pc also gets around 4.5 on wifi.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

MY ISP claims I get 10 mbps dl speed.....

Did a test on speedtest.net via ethernet and my speed was 9.8

Using my wifi on my Linksys N router and my pc's G card I get 4.2 speed.

Is the drop off that much on Wifi or is something wrong?

My other pc also gets around 4.5 on wifi.

You'll always get a drop on WiFi. It's usually down to some sort of interference between the router and the PC. It can come in many forms, but most are things like other electrical cables, cordless phones etc.

[pasty2k2]

How far away from the wifi router are you on each PC? If you have a laptop move closer and do a test - if its the same, then you probably are on a crowded channel on your router - you can change this.

Also if you use a wireless landline telephone or a set of them they can interfere if the main hub is near the router.

Finally, WiFi is generally slower than wired for a few reasons:

Wired is Full Duplex. all current WiFi standards are only half duplex (apart from the new, full WiFi N spec). That cuts top speed in half practically, compared to wired.

WiFi will always have some form of interference. Its unavoidable, that shaves a varying amount off your top speed, depending how bad it is.

Depends on which version of Windows you are using (in my experience). I run Windows 7 and its about double the speed compared with all other versions of Windows for some reason - same machine, WiFi card and network. Couldn't comment for Macs.

[offroadaaron]

I wouldn't go by speedtest ever!

[+BudMan MVC]

No matter offroads disdain for speedtest.net --- its clear your showing less speed on wireless than wired be it that speedtest is completely accurate is besides the point.. Its clear that you can download at 9.8 with a wire and half of that on wireless.

You have something wrong -- wireless is quite capable of exceeding 10Mbps per sec, but there are lots of variables to be sure. Are there other wireless clients? Wireless is shared bandwidth, wireless has a recv and a transmit speed.

I just tested with my son's laptop wireless G to old linksys 54g running dd-wrt and shows the same speeds on speedtest as my wired clients.

here is my wired windows 7 box

A little faster download and better ping time with the wired.. But clearly able to see over 10Mbps..

Wireless G from a wired to wireless is normally around 20 to 23 Mbps TOPS!!!! wireless to wireless client will clearly cut that down, if there are other wireless clients on the router, then yeah that will cut it down too. Wireless is shared like hub, if client A is talking, client B can not, etc.

It could be many things causing your issue.. It comes down to the transmit speed of the router to your client -- depending on your location, distance, interference the speed can get dropped -- there are many different levels of transmit speed on wireless G.

Its a bit dated -- but good basic info

http://wp.bitpipe.com/resource/org_1067352...net-802.11g.pdf

--

The 802.11g standard also supports Barker Code and Complementary Code

Keying (CCK) modulation giving 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mbps data rates for backward

compatibility with the 802.11b standard. OFDM provides 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48

and 54 Mbps data rates. The optional Packet Binary Convolution Coding (PBCC)

encoding method provides data rates of 22 and 33 Mbps. The standard only

includes data rates 1, 2, 5.5, 11, 6, 12 and 24 as being mandatory for transmission

and reception.

--

Just because your wireless is saying it connected at 54Mbps does not mean the router is transmitting at that ;)

How many other wireless APs in the area? Make sure you put your channel as far away as possible as other wireless in the area.. If they are all on 6 then move to 1 or 11. 6 is the normal default -- so you quite often see everyone running on it.. Change yours -- grab netstumbler to take a look what channels the other accesspoints are on -- if your wireless supplicant does not give you this info.

[airtas]

I have cycled through channels, replaced the router, did a speedtest right next to the router, I have no cordless phones in my home.........so I am stumped.

I understand wifi is slower but 3x slower?

[neudera]

Certain things can cause interference, like those mentioned here.

[Tristan]

I have cycled through channels, replaced the router, did a speedtest right next to the router, I have no cordless phones in my home.........so I am stumped.

I understand wifi is slower but 3x slower?

What is your OS?

[mldkfa]

I had the same issue at my parents, it came from the number of clients attached to the router. You should also make sure that your drivers are updated, the firmware is flashed up to current, and that you aren't running your 2.4ghz microwave the whole time. Another question is how fast is your pc? Wireless nics(especially usb) typically of-load a lot of the work to the processor and windows can manage that in the properties of the device.

[airtas]

I had the same issue at my parents, it came from the number of clients attached to the router. You should also make sure that your drivers are updated, the firmware is flashed up to current, and that you aren't running your 2.4ghz microwave the whole time. Another question is how fast is your pc? Wireless nics(especially usb) typically of-load a lot of the work to the processor and windows can manage that in the properties of the device.

Drivers and firmware are good, I am running two pcs but tried the test with one off network.

Running XP with dual core processors 64 bit chips

[+BudMan MVC]

Not sure where you getting 3x slower? 9.8 vs 4.2 or 4.5 is not 3x ;)

Not sure what you mean by cycled through the channels? You tried every one? Pointless -- you need to see what is in use around you, as suggested grab netstumbler and look if your router does not provide the info for you.

What specific router are you using? Linksys makes more than 1 N router, what is the version of the firmware? Also are you using WMM, does linksys firmware support it? Are you using long preamble? Frameburst, are you using CTS protection mode? What is is your transmission rate set to? Do you have any afterburner settings, or bluetooth coexistence enabled? What wireless security are you using? if you using WPA2 (what you should be using) did you set for TKIP? TKIP is done in software while AES is done in hardware - could effect overall performance, etc.. etc.. If you have WMM enabled there are lots of setting as well. Do you have any just plain QOS setup?

There are many variables that could effect your overall wireless performance - some setting on the client, other settings on the router, etc.

[Tristan]

Drivers and firmware are good, I am running two pcs but tried the test with one off network.

Running XP with dual core processors 64 bit chips

It seems you might have to tweak your RWIN value. I had this problem after I reinstalled XP a few days ago. I was getting over 20 Mbps by wire and only 8-10 Mbps on wireless. After I changed the RWIN value with DrTCP it fixed the problem. Try out this Tweak test, for 10Mbps your RWIN value should be between 94900 and 251120.

[airtas]

I tried the same speedtest on 2 other households, could it be my ISP?

[+BudMan MVC]

No it can not be your ISP.. your behind a router -- your ISP does not know if your on a wire or wireless when you go to speednet.net

If you say you get the speed you should with wired, but half of that with wireless.. Then its your wireless router, your wireless card or a combo of both.. There is no possible way for it to be your ISP. Since you stated they are giving you the speed your suppose to see when on a wire.

You did not bother to answer any of the questions asked of you and your wireless setup -- you have been gone a month, and now you come back and ask if it could be your ISP :rolleyes:

[aussiefloyd_fan]

try power cycling your devices

turn off computer then router then modem... then turn on modem then router then computer.... log into the router...

if its a linksys router the default will be 192.168.1.1 admin is the user and password.. go into wireless and set it to channel 8... do a speed test with your laptop right over the router and again a few feet away..... also do you have an iphone/another wireless device to do testing from? perhaps its the laptops wireless card in slower speeds

if using xp hover your mouse over the wireless icon on your toolbar to see how fast your connected to the router

[airtas]

try power cycling your devices

turn off computer then router then modem... then turn on modem then router then computer.... log into the router...

if its a linksys router the default will be 192.168.1.1 admin is the user and password.. go into wireless and set it to channel 8... do a speed test with your laptop right over the router and again a few feet away..... also do you have an iphone/another wireless device to do testing from? perhaps its the laptops wireless card in slower speeds

if using xp hover your mouse over the wireless icon on your toolbar to see how fast your connected to the router

Done all that same result, tried 3 different pcs, 3 different routers, 3 different households

54 MBPS is the signal speed when I hover over

Is it just standard to lose half speed?

[aussiefloyd_fan]

are you using wireless zero config (provided in xp) or a utility provided by the wireless card maker?

i once had a problem with a ralink utility running and zero running and my speeds were crippled like that....

im just firing stuff to try.......

on my connection etherneti get about 28megabits a second... wireless i get about 15-19 so i lose a little bit......

[Sandor]

wifi from my router is like 1mbit...with ethernet i get 4mbit from my ADSL...

needless to say wires = win.

[Madoshi]

Using my wifi on my Linksys N router and my pc's G card I get 4.2 speed.

you only get G speed in that setup, which is 25 megabits at best

MY ISP claims I get 10 mbps dl speed.....

Did a test on speedtest.net via ethernet and my speed was 9.8

thats pretty close

Is the drop off that much on Wifi or is something wrong?

My other pc also gets around 4.5 on wifi.

considering both yer PCs get around 4 and something megabits, i think you can safely blame it on yer wireless equipment

distance is a factor in wifi performance. so is line of sight and what is blocking it. that, and the presence of 802.11b devices. these also slow down everything on the wireless net.

but 4.5 megabits is plenty to just get on the web. do all yer heavy lifting on an Ethernet-connected computer.

[+BudMan MVC]

Dude you have something wrong -- what wireless hardware are you using?? You say you tried 3 different households? Well whats the common factor there?? Sounds like your laptop to me..

Here is my wired win7 box

Here is my sons vista laptop

Very close -- and well over your 10MBits -- this is just a G wrt54g router.. You clearly have something wrong, but without some details of your setup its impossible to help you..

Telling us you tried at 1000 homes and 1000 routers does not give us anything to work with!!

[carmatic]

It seems you might have to tweak your RWIN value. I had this problem after I reinstalled XP a few days ago. I was getting over 20 Mbps by wire and only 8-10 Mbps on wireless. After I changed the RWIN value with DrTCP it fixed the problem. Try out this Tweak test, for 10Mbps your RWIN value should be between 94900 and 251120.

that's only good for XP, vista onwards automatically change the RWIN in realtime

and yeah, list everything that you've done

[buckboii]

its like that unless your really close.

[MS Bob 11]

On my 802.11n 2.4 GHz hand, with my Linksys N router, I get max 6 MB/s so definitely you're getting some interference or weak signal strength. Have you tried fiddling with the WLAN NIC settings in Device Manager? Also you'll get better speeds with the 5 GHz band if your router and WNIC support that.

[Shadrack]

MY ISP claims I get 10 mbps dl speed.....

Did a test on speedtest.net via ethernet and my speed was 9.8

I'd consider yourself lucky. My ISP claims to be 16mbps and I get 4-5mbps if I'm lucky. In the middle of the night I might be able to get 14mbps. If it is during prime time, I get about 2-3mbps.

Using my wifi on my Linksys N router and my pc's G card I get 4.2 speed.

Is the drop off that much on Wifi or is something wrong?

My other pc also gets around 4.5 on wifi.

Yeah that doesn't sound right. Did you try a pingtest? That one will tell you if there is any packet lost. You may have a few ms more latency, but as far as bandwidth goes your wireless connection isn't the bottleneck. Do you have any other computer that are WiFi that you can do the test on, or have a friend maybe who can loan you their laptop? That would answer a lot of questions and help rule out some stuff.

[carmatic]

imho something is misconfigured somewhere in your wifi setup... by 'different neighbourhoods' do you mean your consistently getting half the speed over wireless? like 20mbps internet = 10mbps wireless , 30mbps internet = 15mbps wireless , etc etc?