Wireless Internet Speed Issues

I have a wireless linksys router that I connect several devices to. I
have a couple of laptops that connect wirelessly and my office
computer which is wired to the router. The wireless connection is
set up with 128 bit WEP. When I do a speed test from my wired
computer I get around 12mbit down and 512kbit up. When I run the same
test on my laptop, which is connected wirelessly, I only get around
3.5 mbit down and 512kbit up.

I cannot figure out why the speed difference is so huge. I don't
think it can be entirely WEP because the upload speeds are the same.
Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Thanks,

Mike

mjrspam@gmail.com hath wroth:

>I have a wireless linksys router that I connect several devices to.

Model number of your Linksys router?
Some clue as to what these "devices" constitute? Are any of them
802.11b only?

>I
>have a couple of laptops that connect wirelessly and my office
>computer which is wired to the router. The wireless connection is
>set up with 128 bit WEP. When I do a speed test from my wired
>computer I get around 12mbit down and 512kbit up.

Ok, you have a cable or fiber connection and are using some kind of
unline test page. Any clues which one(s)?

>When I run the same
>test on my laptop, which is connected wirelessly, I only get around
>3.5 mbit down and 512kbit up.

3.5 Mbits/sec is what I would expect from an 802.11b only 11Mbit/sec
association.

>I cannot figure out why the speed difference is so huge. I don't
>think it can be entirely WEP because the upload speeds are the same.

>Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Model numbers of your hardware?
Look into using IPerf for testing wireless speed. You setup one of
your wired computers as a server, and measure the speed via wired or
wireless connections from the other machines. Search this newsgroup
for mention of IPerf for the general proceedure.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

The router is a WRT54G. The laptops and my game adapter are all
802.11g. When the laptop is connected, the network settings show that
it is connected at 54Mbit.

The page I'm using to test the speed is http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/.

I will look into IPerf.

mjrspam@gmail.com hath wroth:

>The router is a WRT54G. The laptops and my game adapter are all
>802.11g. When the laptop is connected, the network settings show that
>it is connected at 54Mbit.
>
>The page I'm using to test the speed is http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/.

Nice. Speakeasy has my DSL connection at 1321 Kbits/sec down and 324
Kbits/sec upload, which are correct.

Since it works correctly without wireless, it has to be something
involving wireless that's the problem. It's just too much of a
coincidence that you're getting 3.5Mbits/sec. That's exactly what I
would expect from an 11Mbit/sec 802.11b only connection. With a
54Mbit/sec connection, it should be 25Mbits/sec download maximum.
See maximum speeds at:
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi#Performance_and_Speed>

>I will look into IPerf.

Sorry. I had to run away to lunch and to pickup my laptop and a few
routers.

Download Iperf from:
<http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/Iperf/#download>

Setup a 2nd computah, with a direct CAT5 connection to the router. Run
the server part or Iperf as:
iperf -s
On your wireless laptop, run:
iperf -c ip_address_of_server
and see what manner of speed you get. It should be about half the
wireless connection speed. Anything less or highly variable means
you've got a problem.

A bit more on IPerf at:
<http://groups.google.com/group/alt.internet.wireless/msg/654a9244f66d8ca6>

I realize this is a dumb suggestion, but have you tried rebooting your
computers and power cycling the WRT54G? It may be obvious, but there
have been at least 2 problems magically solved by doing a reboot.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558