Much too slow wireless network

[Fafnr1984]

Hello,

I just bought a 802.11n capable router (D-Link DIR-655) and two matching network cards (DWA-547, also D-Link) in order to improve my wireless network performance.

However, it is still extremely poor.

As I am not sure what is relevant and what isn't, I'll try to be very, very detailed in this coming section.

My network is as follows: A Zyxel router connects to the internet; The DIR-655 connects to the Zyxel router var the DIR-655's internet port.
The DIR-655 is set up to only use 802.11n as this improved the performance somewhat, and uses WPA2 encryption for security.

To this DIR-655 I have 2-3 clients connected at any one time.

A) Is an elderly Athlon 2 X2 (via a DWA-547 card), running Windows 7
B) Is a newer Core 2 Duo machine (again, via DWA-547), running Windows 7
C) Is a Macbook Pro (last gen) via the built-in network card, running OS X 10.6.4

A is positioned in the same room as my router, about 4m away.
B is positioned in the adjacent room, behind a wall and a couple of closets, from the router, as is C.
All clients connect with 4-5 bars strength.

From A -> B I get transfer speeds of around 175kb/sec
From C - > A I get transfer speeds of around 500kb/sec
(UPDATE) From C -> B I get transfer speeds of around 1.25mb/sec

This is painfully, painfully slow. It should be much faster, from what I know?!

As I am no network genius, I have no idea how to even troubleshoot this?
How do you figure out what the bottleneck is?
In essence, how do I ensure I didn't just waste 300$ on a really slow network?
I will do any test anyone suggests that seems reasonable!

Cheers in advance!

 

[ScottMac]

Get netstumbler (www.netstumbler.com) and run it on a portable computer.

NS will tell you what channels are in-use and if there's any serious interference.

Find the least congested channel with the least amount of noise and use it.

Slow (i.e., slower than the usually slow) performance is rarely anything other than bad signal quality. Note that signal strength is not the same ... signal quality is more important; a weaker signal with good SQ is better than a strong signal with poor SQ.

SQ is degraded by interference, which can be things like other 802.11b/g/n clients, Bluetooth, Microwave ovens, old 2.4G wireless phones, arcing / sparking sources (like bad AC compressors), noisy CFL lamps (the most evil thing in the modern world from a noise perspective), aquarium heaters (and other bi-metal style thermostats) ...

But first, find a good clean channel (well, as clean as possible) as a starting point. Moving to 5GHz would absolutely fix the problem, but you're probably already invested in 2.4GHz.

 

[Fafnr1984]

I've tried netstumbler (on an older laptop - only has A/B/G so I've had to set the network to mixed mode).

Unfortunately, I can't make it work? Whenever I start it (in Admin mode) it just says "No APs Active" - which is patently untrue, as it's connected to my AP! (I've also tried running it without connecting to anything, and without Admin mode, to no avail...)
Anything I can do?

I've used the WiFi scanner on my phone (WiFi Analyzer) though, and I'm currently connected on the best channel I can, according to that...

Is it simply interference killing me here? I can hardly believe it...
Also, when I bought the router, I actually thought it supported 5ghz networks - I thought that was what 802.11n meant :/
If necessary I'll buy a 5ghz one - can you recommend a good one?

I just want my damn network to work fast and reliably - a good 10-20mb/s throughput... That shouldn't be impossible, should it?!

Regards,

Søren

 

[spidey07]

That has all the signs of interference or low signal to noise ratio. Also make sure the antennas are "pointed" at each other. You want them like this | |, not this - -

Baby monitors and wireless cameras are notorious for this kind poor performance. Also note that little b = bits, big B = bytes.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Move your channels around a bit and look for noise sources, microwaves, wireless security cameras, baby monitors, other wireless networks (even hidden ones) cordless telephones etc, they are all on the 2.4ghz

Then try moving to the 5ghz spectrum, its pretty open

 

[Fafnr1984]

@spidey07 I can try moving the channels around, but I should already be best one (according to WiFi analyzer on my phone, that is...)
I live in an apartment in the city, and while I don't have any baby monitors and wireless cameras, I also cannot see if my neighbors do :/

I did tweak the antennas somewhat (thanks for the tip!) which upped the max transfer speed to about 600kb/sec - but it's still too slow for my liking...

@RadiclDreamer: If I can't get better performance tonight on another channel, I will try 5ghz band... But, it requires a new router and presumably new network cards as well... Can you recommend any? I bought these d-link ones after my own research, which turned out to be poor :/

 

[bad_monkey]

Can you recommend any? I bought these d-link ones after my own research, which turned out to be poor :/

I have a dual band Linksys WRT400N. It has good signal strength (i live in a downtown loft so there are easily 20 competing wireless networks) and it is pretty painless to set up especially if you have ever set up a Linksys before. ~$130 on newegg but I don't remember paying that much so it wouldn't hurt to look around.

p.s. newegg's product description isn't quite right. it lists it as a a/b/g router but if you look in the spec section it lists n as well or if you google it.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I have a dual band Linksys WRT400N. It has good signal strength (i live in a downtown loft so there are easily 20 competing wireless networks) and it is pretty painless to set up especially if you have ever set up a Linksys before. ~$130 on newegg but I don't remember paying that much so it wouldn't hurt to look around.

p.s. newegg's product description isn't quite right. it lists it as a a/b/g router but if you look in the spec section it lists n as well or if you google it.

For home stuff i typically stay with linksys or the like, as far as your network card is concerned, it may already be able to handle 5ghz, what model are they? Im 99% sure the macbook has 5ghz capability

 

[Fafnr1984]

@bad_monkey: Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, wrt400n doesn't seem to be available in my country... :/ I've been unable to find it anywhere that I can realistically buy it from... (I suppose I could ship it from Newegg, but I live in Europe so it'd cost me an absolute fortune... :/)
Do you know of any others that would be good? The wrt320n is available here, but it forces you to choose between 5 and 2.4 ghz which seems poor...

@RadiclDreamer: Cheers for the tip. They're DWA-547's, and from my research (D-Link's homepage...) they can only do 2.4... At least, it doesn't mention they can do 5ghz :/

 

[bad_monkey]

Mmmm...I'm not sure about any other routers. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be available outside the U.S either. You might ask around in a forum that is local (for you) and see if they have any recommendations or if they know where to find them. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

EDIT:
The WRT610N is also a dual band N router. It's more expensive but you may actually be able to find it.

 

[spidey07]

There are different channels used depending on country. That's why. It's a regulatory thing.

 

[Fafnr1984]

@bad_monkey: You've been a big help already, thank you!

I have one final question though - let's say I move to a 5ghz band router and 5ghz band network card. I've also moved my router into my living room to have less stuff blocking the signal between the computers I usually want to transfer between.
I have now about about 3-4m of clear air from the router to my Macbook and from the router to the media center.
Given this, what is a realistic transfer speed from my macbook to my mediacenter?

I am currently getting about 2 megabyte/sec with the move and some tweaks...
What is a realistic speed using 802.11n on the 5ghz band?
I will ofc not holde ANYONE to their response
I'm just looking for a ballpark figure to see if I should go spend 300$ on network equipment or not ;-)

Cheers!

 

[beginner99]

I have one final question though - let's say I move to a 5ghz band router and 5ghz band network card. I've also moved my router into my living room to have less stuff blocking the signal between the computers I usually want to transfer between.
I have now about about 3-4m of clear air from the router to my Macbook and from the router to the media center.
Given this, what is a realistic transfer speed from my macbook to my mediacenter?

I am currently getting about 2 megabyte/sec with the move and some tweaks...
What is a realistic speed using 802.11n on the 5ghz band?
I will ofc not holde ANYONE to their response
I'm just looking for a ballpark figure to see if I should go spend 300$ on network equipment or not ;-)

Cheers!

Cabling no option? It's to clear to be wether the Core 2 and Athlon X2 are desktops or laptops. In the first case going for cables would be my suggestion. Will always be less cumbersome.

The speed you are seeing are indeed very slow. I have a wndr3700 and according 5 ghz usb stick for my streaimg device. I can stream 1080p video most of the time. (total rate of the steams are about 10-13 Mbytes/s. But I must admit I do run into problems now and then but it's not sure it's because of bandwith.
Distance is only like 4-5 meters and with clear vision if I leave all doors open. Anyway if you get 20 MBytes/s second your lucky. 15 MBytes/s and lower seems more realistic.

 

[fuzzymath10]

Do your network cards show they've connected at 150/300mbps in Windows? Make sure the encryption is AES and not TKIP; if you're using WPA2 this is usually set already.

Also make sure WMM is turned on. Many cards will run in G mode even though they're connected at N rates. My DIR-615 does that. Went from 1MB/sec to 6-10MB/sec.

Also, transfers between wireless and wireless will be worse than wired-wireless, at least they are for me.

 

[Rememo]

Do your network cards show they've connected at 150/300mbps in Windows? Make sure the encryption is AES and not TKIP; if you're using WPA2 this is usually set already.

Also make sure WMM is turned on. Many cards will run in G mode even though they're connected at N rates. My DIR-615 does that. Went from 1MB/sec to 6-10MB/sec.

Also, transfers between wireless and wireless will be worse than wired-wireless, at least they are for me.

AES vs TKIP will make a huge difference. One day I decided that the performance of my DIR-655 network wasn't up to par and after a lot of research I found the AES suggestion. My speeds increased immediately, although I'm still usually at 4-5 MB/sec when transferring from my laptop to my NAS. My network card (4965AGN) reports a connected speed that varies from 70-130 Mbps.
So... it's not stellar, but it's better than the 1.2 MB/sec I was averaging.

Thanks for the other tips fuzzymath... I'll add them to my bag of tricks.

 

[Fafnr1984]

Apologies for the late reply - it's been a busy few days :/

@beginner99: Thanks for the ballpark figure! I'm wondering if I should sink about 400$ into such an upgrade (which is unfortunately what it would cost here :/) or just live with the cables... For now, it'll be cables I think - I can do with hanging onto my cash a bit longer ATM

@fuzzymath10: Thanks for the tip! My router is in N-only mode using AES though, so that shouldn't be an issue... (It's one of the tweaks I made that got me "all the way" to 2mb/s :/) Thanks a lot for the tip on wireless-wired, though... The PC I want to transfer to is stationary so leaving just cabled is a pretty decent option, actually...! I will try that later when I have time!