Linksys WRT54G - Faster wired than not?

[dante]

My home is finally a wifi hot spot! Thanks to Prof. Rommel Feria and his able assistant, Myra! It took just one Linksys WRT54G router to cover practically my whole house. I set up the system such that my main desktop - a PC, is wired to the router by ethernet cable. My Macs, an Albook 15" and an iMac, take their wireless signals from the router.

My question to our Mac and wifi gurus out there is this - why is it that I get almost twice as much speed out of my wired PC than my Albook? I was under the impression that wireless is as fast as wired? Any tips on how I could resolve this (or accept this) would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

[directX]

Hi dante,

The wired connection is 10/100Mbps connection and chances are, your PC NIC is 10/100Mbps as well (and sets it to 100Mbps). Now compare it to 54Mbps of 802.11g then you are bound to have slower wifi than wired.

[akanetendo]

if you are crawling and it seems like you're on a dial up speed, try changing channel on the router. also, if you have other wireless devices operating on the same frequency that might be a source of interference, try relocating em.

[macintosh]

hi! my Linksys WRT54G router is also wired to a PC desktop. Another ethernet cable is also connected that runs to my room. i have been using my ibook's airport signal but due to concrete walls (ground floor only with 3 rooms next to one another), signal is sometimes weak. what would be the settings to connect my ibook via ethernet? i tried changing the settings from System Prefs/Network then Location stays at PLDTdsl and only changing from Airport to Built-in Ethernet. i also changed settings by clicking the Airport signal icon, click Open Internet Connect, click Configuration to Built-in Ethernet, click Connect. Then it says "connecting to PPP server" or something like that. No connection still.

[chairman]

I use the same wrt54g. PC also wired and my mac uses the wifi. I really don't notice much difference while surfing the net. I do notice the difference when transfering files. So when I transfer large files to my mac I just hook it up to the router via ethernet and transfer.

I might be wrong but I think for surfing the internet there shouldn't be much difference between wired and wifi because the rate you download from the net is not as fast as the transfer speed of your local network.

[Dinkydoo]

I might be wrong but I think for surfing the internet there shouldn't be much difference between wired and wifi because the rate you download from the net is not as fast as the transfer speed of your local network.

You are correct chairman! 54Mbps is a lot faster than any broadband download connection, thus, speed of web surfing should not show any difference between a wired machine or an 8.11g equipped laptop.

I am using a similar set-up at home but my tibook is only running 8.11b and transfer from a wired iMac to my tibook at 11Mbps is sloooow.

[elbert]

Originally posted by chairman
I use the same wrt54g. PC also wired and my mac uses the wifi. I really don't notice much difference while surfing the net. I do notice the difference when transfering files. So when I transfer large files to my mac I just hook it up to the router via ethernet and transfer.

I might be wrong but I think for surfing the internet there shouldn't be much difference between wired and wifi because the rate you download from the net is not as fast as the transfer speed of your local network.

I agree with you Juan, when it comes to Internet surfing, it really shouldn't matter. I have a similar setup. No noticeable difference between wired and wireless.

akanetendo has good advice. Usually, wireless speed degradations are caused by 'noisy' frequencies. Changing channels will usually resolve this.

You can check out AP Grapher, a freeware utility that shows you signal strength, link and connection quality as well as signal and noise.

[gaol]

If not too inconvenient, you can also change the location of your router to a more central, and higher place, in the house.

My Belkin wireless router used to be in a spare bedroom/office. When all doors were closed, I got weak signals inside the masters bedroom. I relocated the router on top of a cabinet in the upper hallway and my signals all throughout the house improved.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by macintosh
what would be the settings to connect my ibook via ethernet? i tried changing the settings from System Prefs/Network then Location stays at PLDTdsl and only changing from Airport to Built-in Ethernet. i also changed settings by clicking the Airport signal icon, click Open Internet Connect, click Configuration to Built-in Ethernet, click Connect. Then it says "connecting to PPP server" or something like that. No connection still.

Just configure your Built-in Ethernet's settings like this (through System Preferences -> Network -> Show: Built-in Ethernet):

PPPoE - make sure "Connect using PPPoE" is unchecked.
TCP/IP - "Configure IPv4": "Using DHCP".
...then click on "Apply Now" to save the settings. I believe that's about it. :-)


~Henjie

[zChris]

Originally posted by dante
My home is finally a wifi hot spot! Thanks to Prof. Rommel Feria and his able assistant, Myra! It took just one Linksys WRT54G router to cover practically my whole house. I set up the system such that my main desktop - a PC, is wired to the router by ethernet cable. My Macs, an Albook 15" and an iMac, take their wireless signals from the router.

My question to our Mac and wifi gurus out there is this - why is it that I get almost twice as much speed out of my wired PC than my Albook? I was under the impression that wireless is as fast as wired? Any tips on how I could resolve this (or accept this) would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

directX's answer is absolutely right. in addition, it should be noted that connection speed over a wireless network is a function of distance from the access point and number of users simultaneously transferring data wirelessly.

this is important because you have only 1 ap setup for your entire house. i dont really know with an 11g network, but with my b, i really only get 11 mbps when i am really close to the ap, as in the same room (then again, i bought a pretty cheapo ap). anywhere further results in degradation of the connection speed.

furthermore, each ap has a fixed resource, in your case 54 mbps, which i understand is shared among the users connected to that ap. thats why most (if not all) ap's have a maximum number of simultaneous users that it can accomodate at one time.

therefore, when i transfer a large amount of files from my mac to my pc, i connect wired, so a 10 hour data transfer on wireless (at 10 mbps) becomes only 1 hour at a 100 mbps wired (is the math correct?).

in any case, surfing and internet file transfers, ie, downloading, or ftp, should not really matter as the bottleneck here is your backhaul, ie, dsl or cable, at 256+kbps vs. your network's throughput of 54/100 mbps. you will really see the difference when doing file transfers within your network as the bottleneck then becomes the throughput of your network (NICs, cables, hubs/switches).


[Edited on 7-5-2004 by zChris]