Wired vs. Wireless download speed -- what's normal

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 13, 2006 Posts: 9

So before I amped up my complaints to comcast, I plugged my PC directly into the modem. Voila -- 5Mb download (360 up). I then plugged the PC into the router. Voila -- 5Mb download (360 up).

When wireless, I only get 1.2 Mb down (360 up). That was the source of my frustation.

Is it normal to have this much of a haircut in speed from a wireless router (WRTP54G)? The wireless card utility shows "Very Strong" signal and 36-48Mb speed all the time. The computer is about 20 feet from the router, across a family room. Do I have something mis-configured? I have WEP 64 bit encryption running.

Posts: 217 · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:50 am Post subject:

WEP will certainly slow your connection down a bit. You could try restricting access by MAC. Also, try to change the channel you are using---all your neighbors may be using the same.

Posts: 881 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 881

Quote:

So before I amped up my complaints to comcast, I plugged my PC directly into the modem. Voila -- 5Mb download (360 up). I then plugged the PC into the router. Voila -- 5Mb download (360 up).

When wireless, I only get 1.2 Mb down (360 up). That was the source of my frustation.

Is it normal to have this much of a haircut in speed from a wireless router (WRTP54G)? The wireless card utility shows "Very Strong" signal and 36-48Mb speed all the time. The computer is about 20 feet from the router, across a family room. Do I have something mis-configured? I have WEP 64 bit encryption running

On wireless downloads, I typically get half (4Mb) of my wired speed (8Mb +) Upload speed (advertised 768kb) for wired and wireless is always the same, usually 718kb.

Your encryption has nothing to do with your download and upload speeds. I see you're using WEP, you really need to change your wireless security settings to WPA-Preshared key...even though its crackable it's definitely more secure than WEP.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 13, 2006 Posts: 9

rlstjohn wrote:

WEP will certainly slow your connection down a bit. You could try restricting access by MAC. Also, try to change the channel you are using---all your neighbors may be using the same.

Do you mean set the MAC restrictions to the devices I'm using? How would that speed up the connection?

Posts: 31 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 13, 2005 Posts: 31

You might be getting a lot of interference. I have a WRT54G and get my ISP's full d/l throughput of 7Mbps. Do you have a 2.4GHz cordless phone in the house?

Posts: 217 · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:31 am Post subject:

Quote:

Your encryption has nothing to do with your download and upload speeds.

Maybe I am wrong here, but why wouldn't it affect his speed? I assume he is using a laptop or something since he mentioned a card which is connecting to his wireless router/AP. My understanding is that WEP encrypts the data being sent therefore a reduction in speed.

Posts: 217 · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:34 am Post subject:

[/quote]
Do you mean set the MAC restrictions to the devices I'm using? How would that speed up the connection?[quote]

This was related to my other statement about WEP. Meaning, if you get rid of WEP, but want some level of protection us the MAC restriction option.

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 14

For what it's worth, I have my wireless router set up to exclude all except certain MAC addresses with no WEP/WAP. And I seem to get my 6Mb down. Whenever I set up encryption (either WEP or WAP) my connection slows to a crawl, if I get any connection at all. Usually I get some sort of notice of "connected with little or no internet connectivity". I've tried all the suggestions of changing channels and moving 2.4 GHz phones and what not, but why would that make a difference it it get the full 54Mb connection to the router without the encryption?

Posts: 881 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Nov 05, 2005 Posts: 881

Quote:

Maybe I am wrong here, but why wouldn't it affect his speed? I assume he is using a laptop or something since he mentioned a card which is connecting to his wireless router/AP. My understanding is that WEP encrypts the data being sent therefore a reduction in speed.

Maybe I'm wrong Confused

...but why is he able to get the full upload speed? I guess to test it for sure he would need to disable encryption and then run a speed test.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject:

rlstjohn wrote:

Quote:

Do you mean set the MAC restrictions to the devices I'm using? How would that speed up the connection?

This was related to my other statement about WEP. Meaning, if you get rid of WEP, but want some level of protection us the MAC restriction option.

This is, in my opinion, bad advice. It will prevent unintentional access but it provides absolutely no security. I am not saying you shouldn't do this yourself, but I wouldn't advise people to move from WEP to MAC address filtering without explaining the risks.

Bad WiFi Security wrote:

So, I mean, there are certainly cases where locking down and filtering MAC addresses would prevent casual misuse of your access point. And so I don't want to say it's completely useless. It will certainly prevent casual use. But it should never be confused with security. It is not security.

Everything you transmit can easily be seen in the clear. Anyone who wishes to access your access point can simply snoop to find out what MAC address you are using and then use the same MAC address.

Even though WEP is bad, and I advise people to use WPA, at least the tools required to break WEP are more complex and the time required is greater than those required to spoof a MAC address.

[EDIT: Fixed a poor object reference identified by the next post.]