10Mbit Internet connection halves once cable modem plugged into wireless-G router

[Stattlich]

Got a couple things straightened out with modem support at Time Warner Cable over the phone this morning and am getting the 10Mbit/1Mbit cable connection I'm paying for. Awesome. Now that the modem is rocking out, time to toss the patch cable and get my Linksys WRT54G back into the picture. Modem to router WAN uplink... XP Pro SP2 systems connect successfully through WEP... back to speedtest.com... and the brakes are thrown on at every pass I try to make! The tach was pegging 10Mbit before, now it won't hit 5Mbit or beyond- several attempts made with various N. America servers including the closest one to me.

Most of the WRT54G settings are at default with the exception of security, but I'm befuddled why the router would halve the bandwidth I know is reaching my new Motorola cable modem. Any thoughts?

 

[spidey07]

Wireless is slow. Try changing channels to 1, 6 or 11 to see what works best. Or you could also try forcing the router to only operate in G mode.

What you're seeing is normal for wireless.

 

[Stattlich]

Alright, I'll dink with your suggestions- thanks. Is this normal for wireless in general or because I have a G router? Any gain on the Internet side with a wireless N router?

I was assuming that the 11Mbits advertised for B and 54Mbits for G were reasonable expectation rates like 10/100/1000 Ethernet (and that Internet connection rates were the ones you could only expect to get 'close' to).

 

[spidey07]

The actual throughput for wireless is nowhere near the 11 or 54 Mbs data rates. In perfect conditions, with 802.11G you'll see around 20-22 Mbs actual throughput. And that's perfect conditions - extremely clean wireless environment with only a single client and a single AP and nothing but open air between them.

Wireless is constantly changing the speeds at which data is transmitted/received depending on signal to noise ratio and number of errors. It can even drop down to 1 Mbs. So the main reason for poor wireless performance is interference/noise as well as the number of clients actually associated to the access point.

 

[Stattlich]

Great point- thanks for the clarity. At the moment there are only two PCs and two iPhones associated, but a couple walls and one floor.

I think I'm going to look into wiring my house for Ethernet instead...

 

[zig3695]

i get 12mb download speed all day long on G with wpa encryption

 

[dclive]

Per XP's task manager's networking tab, I get about 650K/s downloads via DSL, and about 2300K/s transfer speeds via wireless networking (G, with wpa2 encryption).

In other words, wireless networking is vastly faster than most DSL / Cable connections, so I wouldn't blame that.