Draft N: is this "normal" behavior?

Hi:

Last week I picked up a Dell XPS M1710 and an internal "Dell Draft N" card, along with a Netgear WNR854T Draft N router.

I get some weird readings ... when the card connects to the wireless router at 15 feet, I get a throughpit reading of 270 Mbps.

HOWEVER -- once I start loading a web page, the throughput immediately drops to 11-13 Mbps.

Is this "normal" (for a draft spec)? Or is the wireless icon in the system tray only reading one of the MIMO channels?

It just seems funny that data xfer would REDUCE throughput by that much.

Any opinions (or facts, for that matter!) would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

just be happy that it doesnt drop down to .1 mbps or something... in the future, avoid first generation products and ESPECIALLY products labeled "draft"...

try updating drivers, or try changing your control settings and put the wireless card into the 802.11g mode, unless you have a specific reason for that kind of bandwidth (consider your internet connection speed is probably at most 6 mbps, obviously 54 mbps will cover this)

 

There have been several reviews done on the "Draft N" routers and none of them have been very favorable, especially in the range and Mps.

Actually some of the MIMO "G" routers are out perfoming these new routers, except in range.

As masterchef341 states, "avoid first generation products".

 

take a look at the problems people have getting a consistent connection with B and G hardware... tech that's been around for years, and you'll get an idea of the problems that come with early adoption of technology.

you can try the normal stuff as you would with B and G (drivers, firmware, etc.), but remember it's the price you pay for playing the game

good luck

 

Thanks for all your input!

FYI before I decided to take the "N" plunge, I was aware of the draft "shortcomings". There were two big reasons why I chose Draft N:

1. Living in a big condo, there are plenty of owners who have wireless routers. My GUESS was that, if I used Draft N, there'd be less chance for interference (20-40 MHz vs. 2.4-5.8 GHz with b/g routers)

2. The Dell Draft N card was a $50 upgrade; and the price diff. between the MIMO G router and the MIMO Draft N router was only $10. And if worse comes to worst, I CAN drop down to b/g

Chef: FYI my current cable modem service is 10 Mbps ... and supposedly, the cable company will in a few weeks upgrade me to 20 Mbps for the same price.

Actually, that got me thinking ... MAYBE the wireless throughput reported in the System Tray shows "capacity" when idle -- but when active it might report actual data xfer (10 Mbps being the speed of the cable modem).

But then I tried a draft N connection to xfer a 6 Gb file from a PC, connected to the SAME router with a Gigabit Ethernet connection. Constant throughput was only 40-54 Mbps, with an OCCASIONAL burst to 161 Mbps.

Hmm ... a mystery to figure out!

 

at my job, where some of our engineering team works with networks, I can't find a single person who supports draft N.

Belkin pre-N is okay, but MIMO g is about the best you can get. don't count on N being any good for a while.

 

The problems you are encountering is related to seeing other 11b/g networks. 11n products are suppose to drop back if they see other networks to keep from interfering with them. So you will be better off setting up a 11g with large packets.

I use 125mbps 11g setup. I elected for a seperate AP than combo units. This way I was able to get a AP with High Gain antennas. I cover my whole house on low power @125mbps.

You have got your freq wrong. 11b & 11g both use the 2.4ghz, 11a uses the 5.8ghz. 11a is the least used, It has been upgraded several times. It has good throughput but poor range.

 

Another draw back of the current "Draft N" version is that it can and will interfere with current B & G routers. This is one of the contentions of the current draft and why, when the ratification process took place, no one was in agreement with this draft proposal.