Bandwidth issues

This seems very strange to me. I have a wireless G router that i use for a computer and a small server for a few web apps. Both run on it all the time and they both read 54MBps, yet when i run a speed test online (speakeasy.net/speedtest/) with wireless i get max download of ~7000kbps. When i plug in my wired connection and again run the speed test i get ~16000.

I wouldn't think that my comcast cable connection could outrun my wireless connection but thats what it seems to be doing. Any ideas?

 

I would check the properties on the wireless NIC. I would think maybe a little speed degradation from wired to wireless but not that much. Mine has speedbooster on both the router and the wireless NIC but I had to enable it on the wireless cards properties in the device manager.

 

I think you'd be surprised how much 20-30 feet and a few walls can do for wireless performance. Have you tried with your laptop right beside the wireless router or at least with minimal obstacles in the way?

Oh and even though your wireless says 54Mbps, that's the airlink interface bandwidth. There's a lot of other things that stand in the way of that theoretical number. Typically wireless G only gets around 13-15mbps real-world throughput despite the advertised 54mpbs (some routers are obviously faster and some slower than this range).

 

Speed test actually test your WAN side not your internal network. They do a very small packet, which can be inaccurate due to caching. If you want real number use a program like NetStat to monitor you actual port speed. To get acurrate number you need to download or upload files that are >500meg. A 11g (54mbps) usually only has a through put of 25-35mbps, then its 1/2 duplex so actual speeds will be lower depending on what you are doing.

 

I know it's not interference because my computer sits about 2ft away from the router. blue, could u explain a little more about how i would go about doing a test, and how to use netstat?

Edit: So i did my own test, i downloaded a file from a fast server with only my wifi. it got ~350 download. Then i restarted the download with it plugged in and i got ~1000. That tells me it is the wifi, but its not interference because im barely 2ft away.

 

There are several ways to do actual speed test. I prefer using FTP client software. It will give you higher speeds than CIFS. Most FTP clinet software will give you speed data. Net stat will show actually what is going on behind the screen.

Now if all of this is wireless you have the wrong misconception in speed. 54g will only give you max 35mbps. A 100BaseT has a max of 12.5MB/sec, 10MB/sec actual, cifs ~6MB/sec. I have a 125mbps 11g wireless, the max speed I get is ~ 2-3 MB/sec. But I use a seperate AP which are know to give a lot better performance. Combo units share cpu, memory, and even the net controller. Seperate AP do not.

Now most all website limit bandwidth to around 200kb/sec. There are a few web site that have super high speed servers. These are normally game servers and sites that require a lot of downloads of big files.