Question

slow linksys 320N wireless N traffic

Asked by: BTMExpert

I have a linksys WRT320N wireless router
and a macbook air with wirelessn

and I am measuring my net traffic with an app called net monitor

right now it says I am only getting around 2.1 MBs

but from the test I see run on this site
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30795/96/1/1/

it says the router should do around 145 Mbs or 18MBs
but I am only getting 2MBs when doing a transfer with my Gigabit NAS that is hooked directly to the router

what can I do to get this up to speed

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Asked On
2009-10-03 at 12:59:28ID24782800
Topics

802.11 Wireless Access Points

,

Network Routers

,

Apple Networking

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: MagicFarmerPosted on 2009-10-03 at 13:03:27ID: 25486792

Have you manually upgraded all the firmware on your router?

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-10-03 at 13:05:11ID: 25486800

The question is what the speed of the NAS is. Cheaper NAS's will not be fast though 2MB/s seems a little on the slow side. Can you specify your NAS model as well.

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-03 at 13:11:31ID: 25486832

its a Iomega Home Media Drive

 

by: Darr247Posted on 2009-10-05 at 12:43:54ID: 25498856

The problem is, http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/myincludes/image_page.php?/images/stories/wireless/linksys_wrt320n/linksys_wrt320n_router_throughput.jpg does not tell which band he's using.  I bet it's 5GHz, since he mentions using an Intel card - Intel, Apple and Cisco do not support wide channels in the 2.4GHz band with 802.11n.

Since you have an Apple device in the mix, see what results you get by switching to 5GHz.

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-10-05 at 20:42:10ID: 25501735

Dual band or not, the speed he is getting is too low for the network to be the bottleneck unless there are adverse wireless conditions. We can eliminate a slow NAS by checking the speed of the transfer over ethernet preferably for the same dataset.

Then it would be helpful to look at the wireless conditions. On windows i would recommend Inssider from http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider but they dont have a Mac version. But basically you are looking for other interfering signals and your signal strength.

My bet is on the NAS.

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-05 at 20:42:42ID: 25501736

ok ran the tests and at 2.4ghz I am getting around 2MB/s
and in the 5ghz range with it set to N only I am getting around 5MB/s

so it does make a difference but still no where at the speed it should be

any thing else I can do to diagnose the situation?

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-10-05 at 20:50:35ID: 25501766

Whats the speed over Ethernet?

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-05 at 20:52:56ID: 25501779

hmm just did a test and plugged directly into the router with a ethernet cable and tried to transfer a file and got 32MB/s which makes me think it isn't the NAS

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-10-05 at 20:57:47ID: 25501792

ah well I was wrong. Now we need to look at the router. Can you try turning off the SPI firewall and all the other bells and whistles you find in the router setup and trying again.

Looking at your above can you for completeness check the speed of the same file over wireless.

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-05 at 21:35:49ID: 25501922

What do you mean by SPI firewall?  Do you mean the wireless security?

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-05 at 21:37:35ID: 25501931

found it

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-05 at 21:45:15ID: 25501956

ok with SPI turned off I am getting around 4.5MB/s
and I am transferring the same file each time

 

by: wizzardofozPosted on 2009-10-05 at 22:33:39ID: 25502079

Are there a lot of other wifi's in your area. Are they on the same channel as your router? Does putting the laptop close to the router help.

This is not the most scientific measurement but alas I don't know the relevant Mac tools.

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-06 at 04:15:54ID: 25503719

Yes it seems like there are around 7 different wifis nearby. All of the tests I have been doing are about 15 feet from the router with line of sight.

 

by: BTMExpertPosted on 2009-10-07 at 21:26:23ID: 25522332

still just getting extremely poor throughput on this router maybe I should flash it with dd-wrt

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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