Broadband connection speeds - Wireless v Hard wired
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Broadband connection speeds - Wireless v Hard wired
Excuse the lack of 'Search'
The old hard-wired BT Voyager modem gives a speed check of 440 down and 240 up on a 512 connection - not bad I guess.
My 3Com wireless gives around 260 down and 140 up on the same connection.
3Com shows 'signal strength excellent' and 'Speed' varying between 36 and 54 Mbps.
What can I do to improve the wireless data rate, and should those figures be giving better please?
The old hard-wired BT Voyager modem gives a speed check of 440 down and 240 up on a 512 connection - not bad I guess.
My 3Com wireless gives around 260 down and 140 up on the same connection.
3Com shows 'signal strength excellent' and 'Speed' varying between 36 and 54 Mbps.
What can I do to improve the wireless data rate, and should those figures be giving better please?
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Are you able to monitor the signal strength and link quality that the WiFi adaptor is getting?
Even with low levels of both measures I'd be surprised if the wifi link was limiting your ADSL speeds.
What tool are you using to measure? You need to use more than one to get ajn accurate read, so I'd suggest the speed test tool at http://www.adslguide.org, and using http://www.broadbandspeedtest.net/
Even with low levels of both measures I'd be surprised if the wifi link was limiting your ADSL speeds.
What tool are you using to measure? You need to use more than one to get ajn accurate read, so I'd suggest the speed test tool at http://www.adslguide.org, and using http://www.broadbandspeedtest.net/
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a_a - not sure how to chesk the 'signal strength', the pop-up window says 'excellent'? I guess the link quality is given by 36-54Mbps? Test on both modems was with adslguide, but bbst also gave 242 down on wifi, and 4% packet loss.
Currently showing 24Mbps?
Currently showing 24Mbps?
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any network is only as fast as the slowest bit of kit.
a lot of network cards will have to be upgraded soon. poss modems too.
look at south korea. most of the pop (75%) has a 20mb connection!
common network cards are either 1 or 10mb.
a lot of network cards will have to be upgraded soon. poss modems too.
look at south korea. most of the pop (75%) has a 20mb connection!
common network cards are either 1 or 10mb.
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Think yourself lucky I'm getting 125k on a 4MB connection at the moment
Just waiting for BT to call back, 2 different modem/routers both showing a 4mb connection but only getting 125k download speed. Tis a bank holiday as well, doubt much will get done, still the threat to leave BT instigated a phone call from them. They said they'd call at 3 it's now 4.
Just waiting for BT to call back, 2 different modem/routers both showing a 4mb connection but only getting 125k download speed. Tis a bank holiday as well, doubt much will get done, still the threat to leave BT instigated a phone call from them. They said they'd call at 3 it's now 4.
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Have you got WPA enabled? I found that it slowed my Netgear a bit and with your slowish connection that could be significant. If that is the case then you could try just restricting the MAC addresses instead - depends on how paranoid you are!!
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Thank you, JC - yes I have. I will certainly try the MAC route.
One question please - can a MAC be detected by the radiated wifi signal - ie can someone detect a MAC on wifi enabled kit?
One question please - can a MAC be detected by the radiated wifi signal - ie can someone detect a MAC on wifi enabled kit?
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No system is completely hacker proof. A determined hacker with the right equipment could sit outside your house and eventually spoof your MAC code and get access but he would probably move on to find an unprotected signal. Make sure you change the default SSID and password.
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It depends where you are. If you're in a block of flats, then others can hack your WiFi if they are so minded. If you're "detached", it's likely that the neighbours won't have enough signal to hack you - especially if you put the Wireless Access Point in the middle of the house.
Try searching for other wireless connections. If you don't see any, it's a fair bet (not a cert) that nobody else is in range. If there is a determined hacker sitting in his car outside (or in the house next door) then nothing is going to stop him - apart from not using wireless access.
I normally use hard-wired for the "fixed" machines, and wireless for the laptop and the iPaq. I don't notice any speed difference unless I'm downloading large batches of stuff.
I just ran the ADSLguide test twice using hard-wired and twice using wireless, all on the laptop, and I got 5.6meg down/369k up both times on hard-wired, and 3.8meg down/369k up both times on wireless.
Given that the wireless is running at 54 meg, there's no good reason why wireless should be slower than hard-wired. I suspect there are settings I need to tweak, but 3.8 meg is faster than I can type
If you're only getting 400k or thereabouts on your downlink, are you with the right ISP? Or are you in deep rural countryside where ADSL is stretching the limits?
[Edit: I pay £15 a month for this "up to 8 meg" connection in rural Norfolk. The exchange just happens to be a couple of hundred yards away. In Essex, I pay for 1 meg, they give me 2 meg because they messed me about badly a while ago, and I actually get about 1.7 meg.]
Try searching for other wireless connections. If you don't see any, it's a fair bet (not a cert) that nobody else is in range. If there is a determined hacker sitting in his car outside (or in the house next door) then nothing is going to stop him - apart from not using wireless access.
I normally use hard-wired for the "fixed" machines, and wireless for the laptop and the iPaq. I don't notice any speed difference unless I'm downloading large batches of stuff.
I just ran the ADSLguide test twice using hard-wired and twice using wireless, all on the laptop, and I got 5.6meg down/369k up both times on hard-wired, and 3.8meg down/369k up both times on wireless.
Given that the wireless is running at 54 meg, there's no good reason why wireless should be slower than hard-wired. I suspect there are settings I need to tweak, but 3.8 meg is faster than I can type
If you're only getting 400k or thereabouts on your downlink, are you with the right ISP? Or are you in deep rural countryside where ADSL is stretching the limits?
[Edit: I pay £15 a month for this "up to 8 meg" connection in rural Norfolk. The exchange just happens to be a couple of hundred yards away. In Essex, I pay for 1 meg, they give me 2 meg because they messed me about badly a while ago, and I actually get about 1.7 meg.]
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'Scuse my ignorance, y'all!!
JC - SSID already changed and 'NOT' radiated. To which 'password' do you refer? If I 'dump' WEP all I understand that is left is the router access p/w?
Keef - Hi. Vastly rurual and the router is probably outside 'warchalking' range 512 is 'the best' I am offered, at 4.85k from the exchange. Interesting that you too see a drop in speed on WiFi. Are you saying you can run a hard-wired AND WiFi on the same phone line at the same time or are you swapping connections per machine?
JC - SSID already changed and 'NOT' radiated. To which 'password' do you refer? If I 'dump' WEP all I understand that is left is the router access p/w?
Keef - Hi. Vastly rurual and the router is probably outside 'warchalking' range
512 is 'the best' I am offered, at 4.85k from the exchange. Interesting that you too see a drop in speed on WiFi. Are you saying you can run a hard-wired AND WiFi on the same phone line at the same time or are you swapping connections per machine?
I have a BT Voyager 2000 to which both laptops are connected using MAC address restriction. Both are usually connected at the same time; the data speed reported for both is 11.0 Mbps.
The DSL reported speeds are 5.6Mps down and 448 Kbps up.
I doubt whether the modem/router is the choke.
The DSL reported speeds are 5.6Mps down and 448 Kbps up.
I doubt whether the modem/router is the choke.
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The password to change is the one that you use to log into the router control panel: normally 'admin' or 'password'. I was suggesting that you disable WEP or WPA and see if that makes a difference to your speeds. If it does then to give a reasonable level of security given your 'rural' location, set up MAC address access to restrict it to just your wireless cards.
Originally Posted by BOAC
Are you saying you can run a hard-wired AND WiFi on the same phone line at the same time .............?
Edit: On reflection, I suspect you may have been asking if you could independently connect both your BT Voyager and 3Com wireless at the same time to one phone line, to which I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
Last edited by spekesoftly; 27th Aug 2006 at 10:21.
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BOAC,
Are you testing on a single PC or with 2 PCs? It is possible that different PCs will provide different results depending on their configuration, particularly with Java (which a lot of the speed tests use).
Could you specify exactly your network setup?
I conducted some tests with my home network, using most of the UK sites listed here.
Over 6 comparisons, 2/3 were virtually identical between PC 1 (copper cable to Netgear router / WAP) and PC2 (11 Mbps wifi, 128-bit WEP enabled).
The testing wasn't absolutely rigorous, insofaras I tested sequentially and there could be some upstream caching at the ISP that was affecting the speed results, but as I tested wireless first, the effect (if present) seems marginal.
Try running several tests from different providers and see how the results go.
If testing with a single PC, ENSURE that you clear the browser cache before running the same tests again.
Dan Elwell's test might be helpful in locating any choke point (if one exists).
Finally, yes a MAC address can be detected by the radiated wifi signal - provided that one has a wifi packet analyser.
SD
Are you testing on a single PC or with 2 PCs? It is possible that different PCs will provide different results depending on their configuration, particularly with Java (which a lot of the speed tests use).
Could you specify exactly your network setup?
I conducted some tests with my home network, using most of the UK sites listed here.
Over 6 comparisons, 2/3 were virtually identical between PC 1 (copper cable to Netgear router / WAP) and PC2 (11 Mbps wifi, 128-bit WEP enabled).
The testing wasn't absolutely rigorous, insofaras I tested sequentially and there could be some upstream caching at the ISP that was affecting the speed results, but as I tested wireless first, the effect (if present) seems marginal.
Try running several tests from different providers and see how the results go.
If testing with a single PC, ENSURE that you clear the browser cache before running the same tests again.
Dan Elwell's test might be helpful in locating any choke point (if one exists).
Finally, yes a MAC address can be detected by the radiated wifi signal - provided that one has a wifi packet analyser.
SD