WRT54GL Woes

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you could advise on a (recurrent) problem I've been having. I recently got a WRT54GL to replace my relatively new D-Link DIR-655 because it started dropping connections left and right, for me and my roommates both, and it was just being slow in general.

I got the first one and it was slow as hell, so I returned it for a replacement, and I'm still having massive problems with speed over the wireless.

Plugged into the modem by ethernet, I'm getting 25 Mb/s fine. Over the wireless, I'm getting only 2-5 Mb/s.

I'm not well versed in wireless troubleshooting... but I tried upgrading it to the Tomato firmware, I'm making sure I'm on a wireless channel that isn't being used by anyone else near me, and I changed the wireless password recently just in case someone had managed to crack it and has been sappin' ma bandwidth. It's not the signal strength as I am sitting right next to my router and plugging/unplugging the ethernet cord connected to it.

Here's some of the results from pinging the router:

Code:

...
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=203.930 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 23
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=23.512 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=1.846 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=31.074 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 27
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=28 ttl=64 time=46.259 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=29 ttl=64 time=3.904 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
30 packets transmitted, 24 packets received, 20.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.846/31.015/203.930/48.174 ms

I don't really know too much, but isn't that.. really bad, or am I doing it wrong? Am I just getting unlucky with routers, or am I not doing something correct in setting them up? I haven't tried pinging it or running speed tests from other computers, so maybe it's just my laptop, but I never run into issues with other wireless networks and my roommates think it's pretty slow too. I'll run tests on their computers asap.

Any advice?

 

If the problem is the same across multiple computers, i'd have some questions.

I supposed you checked which channels were the most in use with inSSIDer and which channel did you choose, 1,6, 11 or something that overlaps?
What does your wireless environment look like overall (is there a ton of APs in range)?
Are there any other 2.4GHz devices near the router, cordless phone, etc.?
How far from the router are you?

And finally, the last one: why a WRT54GL? It is an antique at this point.

 

Just checked all 3 computers within a minute. Mine was at 6 Mb/s, another new Asus gaming laptop at 10 Mb/s, and an old HP at 15 Mb/s. Not exactly as consistently bad as I would have hoped

The busiest seemed to be those so right now I'm on 8.. and no one is on 7 or 9.

26 APs in range, but most of them are not great quality.

There's a wireless printer.. but I turned that off and nothing changed.

Between 2 and 10 feet generally.

Newegg reviews I guess. It had a solid rating and low 1 egg count and I don't need faster than 54 Mb/s. I guess I was hoping it would be.. that old reliable router? Seemed so based on reviews. Plus it's pretty cheap... 3 routers before this (which was a year ago) we had a newer Linksys and it went bad.

 

I would try the less crowded of the three channels i mentioned. It might seem counterintuitive, but you are on a channel that is overlapping other channels, it's worth a shot. Interference is interference even if the signal quality is bad, it will still make interference. On channel 8, you are getting interference from both the networks on channel 6 and 11 actually due to the frequencies overlapping somewhat.

26APs actually produce quite a bit of interference, so i highly doubt you'll be able to get 25Mbps on a wireless G router. Heck, getting 25Mbps with a wireless G router in an almost perfect wireless environment isn't guaranteed.

 

:thumbsup: <3

Counterintuitive is right! Channel 6 wasn't great.. but I changed to channel 11 (which has around 4 APs on it and one at 10 that is pretty strong) and now I'm up to 13 Mb/s! And my roommates computer is up to 22 Mb/s! Thank you!