Is 802.11n a scam ?

S

slevytam

Registered
Hi,

I have been trying for the last three weeks to set up an 802.11n network with absolutely no luck whatsoever. Sure I establish the network, connect just fine, but am not getting anywhere near the speeds they claim i should get.

As an example I connected two imacs side by side through an ad-hoc connection. Both computers using 802.11n. It took me 2 minutes and 10 seconds to transfer 128 meg from one to the other !!!!

I have tried multiple operating systems, different computers, multiple manufacturers (d-link, linksys, apple). No luck whatsoever @#!@#

The best rate I have obtained is 1.5 MB/s using two d-link pci cards. These cards were connected at 300 Mbit to each other.

What gives shouldn't I get a max 30 MB/s???

Please help!

slevytam
 
Please use Mb/s for "Megabits per second" and MB/s for "Megabytes per second", otherwise it's really irritating... ;)
 
If there are any 802.11b or g clients on your wireless network, you will not see 802.11n speeds. If you created an open ad-hoc network, and someone close to you unknowingly joined your network at b or g speeds, then you will not see n speeds -- even if that person wasn't doing anything on the network and was simply connected to it.
 
File copying in the Finder has the Finder as its bottleneck, I'd say. I've often wondered how copying in the Finder can be so much slower than the interfaces used say they can handle.
 
ElDiabloConCaca: I really doubt there was anyone connected to my adhoc but even if there was and my speeds dropped to 802.11g shouldn't I have seen a transfer of around 5MB/s?

fryke: I could try enabling ftp on one imac and then ftping a file but im quite sure I'll still have the same problem...

Can anyone try this on two of their computers to see if this is just me ?
 
Hm.. you could ssh and then cp or cpmac the file/s or folder/s and see how fast that would take. That way you could eliminate Finder slowness...
 
slevytam said:
... but even if there was and my speeds dropped to 802.11g shouldn't I have seen a transfer of around 5MB/s?
Click to expand...

Well, no. Starting with 802.11b wireless networks, we've seen that a lot of the theoretical speed is actually lost. Overhead, double-checking, whatever the reason, you'll never *actually* get the theoretically possible 11 Mbit/s with 802.11b, never the 54 Mbit/s with -g and probably also never the theoretical throughput of -n. The -n should still be better than -g and -g still better than -b, unless you're mixing -b, -g and -n clients, because the weakest link in the chain decides what speed everyone's getting. (Which, to me, seems like a design flaw.)
 
slevytam said:
np, but any comments on my problem ?
Click to expand...

Is it possible to force the access point to connect only on n-speed.

What is the signal strength. Low strengths will cause low connection speeds due to lots of missed packets. Maybe there is someone in the neighboorhood cuasing interference to your station. Try picking a different channel.


Good luck, Kees
 
Sorry for the late reply, I have been out of the country.

I just bought a Airport Extreme Base Station and figured I would try this with my AppleTv. Surely these products should work well together.

So attached is a screen shot the connection status of both devices to the base station. 270Mbit. Seems good!

I just tried an sftp into the appletv and a transfer.... Here is the log...
-----------
sftp> put TnTCarnival2007.wmv
Uploading TnTCarnival2007.wmv to /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/TnTCarnival2007.wmv
TnTCarnival2007.wmv 100% 34MB 1.4MB/s 00:25
-----------

Can this possibly be right ?

So lost....
 

Attachments

  • Airport.png
    Airport.png
    86.5 KB · Views: 13
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top