Slow wireless access

Doc

I have a linksys WRT54G router. Connecting via wireless to the internet causes it to be slow, but through wired it's really fast. The only reason I can think of that the wireless would be that slow is that my apartment building has lots of secured wireless connections. Can that affect the speed? The wireless G connection should be fast enough to keep up with my internet connection. Any advice for fixing this situation?

I also know that nobody is leeching my access.

mechaThor

I have a WRT54G in my house and it seems that any sort of interference really slows down its speed, so depending on how close or not your computer is may be dependent on its speed. I ended up moving my computer next to the router for a hard line since going through a wall for total distance of like 15 feet made the wireless connection slow enough to become an annoyance. I don't know if its just the hardware capabilities of the router itself or something that I'm doing, though, but that's what I've experienced.

Doc

It is usually through a wall and about 15 feet of space, but even with my laptop right next to it, the speed sucks.

saltiness

Try moving it around. My roommate had our wireless AP next to a bunch of audio recording equipment and it ran like 56k. I moved it a couple feet away from the stuff and it worked fine.

khain

What channel are you on and do know what channles the other APs around you are on? Also by slow do you mean throughput, and if so what do you get, or latency?

Doc

I mean bad throughput. It's sitting behind my TV, I will try moving it.

Doc

8634 kb/s down, 9125 kb/s up while wireless.
29756 kb/s down, 8539 kb/s up while wired.

I mean, it's adequately fast while wireless, but look how blazing the wired connection is.

khain

Is there a reason you need better speed? If so I really think your only option is going to be trying 11n though this might have problems as well, as your pretty much at the cap of what I'd expect 11g throughput to be in a open environment. Basically, the 54 Mbit/s number is somewhat of a lie as its the maximum physical transfer rate and in a clean room most APs will be closer to 20 Mbit/s throughput, and then you move to a open environment and having to go through a wall/interference and 10 Mbit/s seems about average. You could try moving the AP closer to the laptop, and changing channels (1,6, or 11) and retesting, but I highly doubt your going to get any drastic improvements.

bowen

Doc wrote: »

8634 kb/s down, 9125 kb/s up while wireless.
29756 kb/s down, 8539 kb/s up while wired.

I mean, it's adequately fast while wireless, but look how blazing the wired connection is.

The fact that you're getting more up while wireless lends me to believe that it may be also related to intermittent connection problems. The fact that they're both around the same number also leads me to believe that the down is pretty close to the maximum your router can do through wireless. But you have a WRT54G so I doubt that. Probably just interference, most likely is your TV. Put it on a book case or something.

Edit: I missed that you said it's going through the wall.

Yeah, khain is right, that's about the most you'll see if you're not directly on top of your router.

Doc

I tried setting my macbook right on the rotuer (which is no longer near the TV), but it didn't help the speed at all. It's just a bit disappointing that I have the bandwidth to stream HD, but my network is too slow for it.

bowen

Doc wrote: »

I tried setting my macbook right on the rotuer (which is no longer near the TV), but it didn't help the speed at all. It's just a bit disappointing that I have the bandwidth to stream HD, but my network is too slow for it.

What're the chances your macbook has a wireless-B card?

DeShadowC

I'd try changing the wireless channel.

Doc

bowen wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

I tried setting my macbook right on the rotuer (which is no longer near the TV), but it didn't help the speed at all. It's just a bit disappointing that I have the bandwidth to stream HD, but my network is too slow for it.

What're the chances your macbook has a wireless-B card?

Zero, I think. I have the high-end early 2008 macbook version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook#Model_specifications

Doc

DeShadowC wrote: »

I'd try changing the wireless channel.

Yeah, I'm going to try that again when I get home. I ran a scanning app earlier that showed the channels of all networks in range. It is currently set to 4, since nobody else was on that one. I will look again.

DeShadowC

Doc wrote: »

DeShadowC wrote: »

I'd try changing the wireless channel.

Yeah, I'm going to try that again when I get home. I ran a scanning app earlier that showed the channels of all networks in range. It is currently set to 4, since nobody else was on that one. I will look again.

Cordless phones can interfere with them as well. I get calls often where when the person's phone rings their net goes out.

bowen

DeShadowC wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

DeShadowC wrote: »

I'd try changing the wireless channel.

Yeah, I'm going to try that again when I get home. I ran a scanning app earlier that showed the channels of all networks in range. It is currently set to 4, since nobody else was on that one. I will look again.

Cordless phones can interfere with them as well. I get calls often where when the person's phone rings their net goes out.

Yup older wireless phones are notorious for this. I think the newer ones are more forgiving and better at following the standards.

embrik

Here's one of my favorite images to link:

It shows channel overlap that wireless networks are subjected to. Setting your router to channel 4 means that it overlaps with channels 1-3 and 5-8. If there are other networks using those channels, try to get farther away in the spectrum.