54 Mbps

If the router is rated at 54 Mbps then is this the total speed that it can handle wirelessly between giving access to the internet for all the computers connected and sharing files between computers on the same network.

54 Mbps is the maximum one-way direction of speed.

Generally speaking, for most internet access about 10% is used for uploading and the rest is available for downloading.

But if you have data going back and forth between two computers on the wireless LAN, they may see 27/27 speeds.

at a 54Mbps connection you have about 25Mbps shared bandwidth for all connected devices. This is usually good enough because most Internet connections are 20Mbps.