Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 23:55 Post subject: This makes no sense, three routers - Please advise/help
I wanted to replace the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 because it doesn't have N and I'm setting up a more advanced home theater and sharing.
I got a WRT600N w/ DD-WRT and also a stock WRT610N to test the speeds. I was expecting both to beat the Buffalo but was very dissapointed. From my living room these are the results (speedtest.net tested many times):
Buffalo: 12.5Mbps (DD-WRT) 83 TX Power
WRT600N: 7Mbps (DD-WRT) 100 TX Power
WRT610N: 3Mbps (stock)
Why is the buffalo the fastest yet it's only "G"? How do I get the WRT600N to decent performance?
I tried turning the TX Power up and down with no luck.
How did you measure thruput? - did 3 tests from speedtest.net results are always consistant
How is the 600n setup? - same as the buffalo, same tx power, same encryption, same sensitivity
Are your clients able to take advantage of faster connections? - yes, i'm using a macbook pro but even if the cap on it was 13mbps why can i get it in the buffalo but not 600n or 610n
Were they taking advantage of faster connections? no, the best speed was from the buffalo
Why 2 N Routers? how were they configured? - to test them out because i need one great long term solution
wanna sell the 600n cheap? - nope
This is what I'm seeing with sppedtest but that isn't a good indication of whether things are working properly or not. I get the same speeds with G - not a good indicator of what the full speed is but it is a good indicator as to the router. one is consistently doing twice better than the other ones
Iv gotten some pretty crazy numbers useing speedtest before.
Try doing it "generic way". Do a SCP of a large file, about 1GB and time it on a stop watch. Swap routers and do it again. This will give you everyday normal condition "real" numbers for your LAN...not ISP numbers like speedtest (unless your trying to rate WAN bandwith).
Then break it down to Kb/s. (remember, 8-bits = 1 byte)
Joined: 29 Dec 2008 Posts: 214 Location: Lower Brackley on the Chesapeake
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:01 Post subject:
Test from computer to computer over the wireless if you can.
If you are using a mac get the net monitor tool from the apple site and or trace the thruput from the status>bandwidth view on the web gui.
Here's some photo's being copied across the wireless.
Ring out the wireless first then focus on the wan, The wan won't be able to come close to the thruput of the wireless given the speeds you are showing. Testing over the wireless should be easily repeatable and you can establish a base line to work from.
Thanks I'll try it out. I live in a fairly large house and there are a few walls between the router and some of the access points. How can I extend them or make them stronger?
I tried uploading a large file to my NAS on the server. The NAS is a QNAP 509 w/ 2x 1GigE ports with 5TB in raid 5. It doesn't seem to want to go faster than 500KB/s upload to the NAS. Any ideas?
Ok. If you are running 500KB a second across the LAN (NOT WAN) then that converts to 3.9Kb a second, which would be "realistic speed" for 802.11b! Are you sure you are sure all your devices are 802.11n? Cause your speed is around 802.11b. If if you really are running N then here are some tips I have to help the health of your network in your case:
- Try switching to 802.11g, see if you get faster speeds then 3.9Kb/s. Remember N is only really in draft phase and DD-WRT still has not got it 100% right.
- Move your access point. If its going trough 2 walls, see if you can get it to go only through one.
- Try setting up a repeater. See if you get better speeds with a stronger signal.
- Try a testing ground. Move the computer right up against the router and test the speed. Are you still getting 3.9Kb/s, if you are then you got a problem with the N.
- Work with QOS, do you get that speed when you only have 1 computer on or are the rest sucking up bandwidth.
- What protocols are you running on your network? TCP/IP should be all your need. If your not using IP6, uninstall it.
- Try backing up your firmware and set to Factory defaults then configure your radio, was it a bad setting?
- Turn off unneeded router features that use up RAM like rflow, syslog, https, telnet, resetbutton, SSH.
- Lower your security. WEP has a lot less overhead then WPA.
- See if its passable to set up wired, if wireless is too slow, don't use it?
- Set up Ethernet with a wireless bridge half way. If you cant move the computer, at least move the computers wireless card.
- Toss out the microwave, wireless phones and other 2.4Ghz devices. They may be causing interference.
- Does it support Afterburner like the WRT54GS? Play with that option.
- If you replaced the router and still get the same results, try replacing the wireless cards, maybe you have one that is having problems?
- If your using ANY Ethernet, is it Gigabit Ethernet? It should be if you want speed!
- Check your power outlets with a multimeter, are you getting stable 120v at 60hz?
- Fireup a sniffer, how much traffic is moving across the network while it is idle. What is the traffic, how much traffic, is it needed?
- Are you mixing brands? I try to get all linksys equipment. Linksys seems to work well with Linksys. (I think)
And that's all I got for now. Good luck. I think this list could be a good sticky.