Re: Bandwidth problems...

Lem wrote:
negativeB@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hello everyone...

I've got a rather troublesome problem. I have all three computers in
my house networked through a D-Link DIR-625 wireless router. One is
hardwired to the router itself and presents no problems for me. The
other two are on a secure wireless network that I set up myself.
However, the two wireless computers almost always have a low or very
low connection and never reach download speeds over 16 KB/sec.

When I first set up the network I let D-Link run it, and ran into
problems with it just dropping the connection all together. So I set
it up so that XP controls all network activity, which assuaged the my
connectivity problems, but created others in its place. The two
computers are only about 50 feet from the router, and I figured with
the router being a RangeBooster, 50 feet is no big deal. But the
wireless computers still connect at low or very low, and now they
never reach speeds in excess of 16 KB/sec.

The computer that is hardwired into the router operates as it should.
We have no speed problems associated with it. Which leads me to
assume that the problem lies not in the hardware, but in the wireless
portion of the network, and how XP controls it. All three systems are
running XP SP2, and work individually when I hardwire them into the
router, but when I take them wireless the speed drops drastically.

Any thoughts?...

The DIR-625 is a "draft-n" device. It will *only* deliver even *some* of its advertised range and speed improvements if used with another "draft-n" device, preferably one from D-Link. So ... what are you using for wireless adapters in your two wireless computers?

Even so, the DIR-625 should be backwards compatible with 802.11G adapters, which have a theoretical max data rate of 54 Mbps.

Note the word *theoretical.* Regardless of what your wireless configuration software (including Windows) tells you, you are not going to be connecting at anywhere near this data rate. See this wikipedia article for some ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

Moreover, your "50 feet" is not necessarily the same as my "50 feet." Fifty feet in a straight line in the open air inside a Faraday cage that blocks all external electromagnetic radiation is one thing. Fifty feet through a number of walls and floors (especially if they have metal studs, beams, or mesh, or foil-backed insulation) in a "noisy" radio-frequency environment is another story entirely.

See http://www.ezlan.net/latency.html and http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/wireless/speed.html for some discussion of the above.

Test your setup by bringing the wireless computers physically close to the router. Move the router away from any CRT monitors or speakers. If there are nearby sources of 2.4 MHz interference (baby monitors, cordless telephones, microwave ovens) make sure that they are not turned on. Now test your wireless LAN by transferring a large (~750 MB) file between the wired computer and one of the wireless ones and measure the time it takes. Remember that the datarate specs are given in Megabits per second (not megabytes).

For comparison, take a look at the "wireless" section of the tests reported here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/03/05/wireless_router_group_test/1

TrendNet TEW-631BRP (pre-n) 750 Megabytes in 202 sec 29.7 Mbits/s
Zyxel P-336M (G) 750 MB in 320 sec 18.8 Mbits/s
Netgear DG834N (pre-n) 750 MB in 347 sec 17.3 Mbits/s
D-Link DSL-2740b (pre-n) 750 MB in 196 sec 30.6 Mbits/s

The test claimed that the Netgear reverted to G because of a firmware upgrade. Note that the G speeds were close to what the wiki article says is "typical" G data rate, the 2 n speeds were less than half.

Assuming that what you are getting is 16 Kbits/sec (not 16Kbytes/sec), that's not too bad.

Oops. strike that last sentence

--
Lem -- MS-MVP - Networking

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm
.

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