What WiFi speed should I be getting?

How are you assessing your download speeds? Normally, Wi-Fi should be the fastest. At home, I get >6 Mbps. Currently on 3G I'm getting 630 Kbps. Assessed with the Speed Test app (from speedtest.net).

Here are my results from Speedtest.net

WiFi: 6225kb down / 468kb up
3G: 957kb down / 278kb up
Edge: 164kb down / 116kb up

Edge is a big drop but I can't remember last time I was down to EDGE speeds. I have very good 3G reception here and WiFi I run at home through RoadRunner 7MBps Service. I wonder what the iPhone could handle if I subscribe to the 15MBps service.

There are several speed test apps in the App Store... http://appshopper.com/search/?search=speed+test. I've found they all give slightly different answers but apps seem to do better and are more consistent than websites, although they're doing the same thing, measuring the time it takes to download/upload a file. The bottom line is, does your iPhone seem to be downloading at 1579 or 125? Obviously, one will be fairly snappy, the other slow as molasses.

Youtube has been a problem with wifi so that may not be the best reference. I used to have youtube/wifi problems but they seemed to have mostly gone away after I switched from a Belkin to a Linksys wireless router. Search this forum (and Google) for numerous discussion on this issue.

When doing speed test there are quite a few things to remember:

1. iPhone on Wifi should be as fast as other computers on WiFi at the same location
2. Using speed tests you are usually measuring the Internet speed from your router to the speed test site.
3. The internet connection is slower then whatever speed you may see from machines on your local network (iphone to PC over wifi)
4. The "B" is important. Some sites measure in KB/sec while others measure in Kb/sec. Big B is bytes little B is bits. 600KB is 4800Kb (8bits is 1 byte).
5. Routers are important - some routers just don't play nice with some equipment
6. Speed tests are not all equal. Try a few different sites.
7. Location - Speed tests try to determine the closest server for you to test with - but this is not accurate when using wireless. The IP address your phone has when using your carrier can be hundreds of miles away from you - this can provide an inaccurate test if you pick a test server near your physical location.

Message was edited by: tokatta

You should also take into account (not having used the apps in question) that sometimes they measure speed in Kb/s (Kilobits per second)and some in KB/s (Kilobytes per second) which can confuse the issue 1KB/s = 8Kb/s which is why say an internet provider says your internet connection is at for arguments sake 512Kb because it sounds larger than saying 64KB. Most speedtest utilities measure in KB/s and so does the download consoles like IE. also be aware you'll never get 512Kb on a 512Kb connection probably wipe off about 20% also there can be speed shaping involved, my free wireless hotspots around speed shape my connection to 256Kb/s which crawls next to my 3G connection speed which averages about 1,300Kb/s or about 1.3Mb/s (if we ignore the 1024KB=1MB and just round down) home connections are also different a lot of Wi-Fi routers will proportion bandwidth for an expected number of connections usually about 4 and if you are running multiple Wi-Fi sessions at once this will split your bandwidth available again, not to mention the data loss and collisions inherent in multiple end pointed Wi-Fi scenarios like a mesh network (what i run at home in fact)so even if a Wi-Fi router puts out a 54Mb/s link for Wireless connections then you split it to 27Mb/s for two devices those devices will have packet loss so you'll probably only get somewhere in the region of 20Mb/s on your WLAN with an obvious bottleneck where you try to access the Internet through the Router depending on your Internet connection speed (which it is very would ever be able to run as fast as your home LAN unless you've got a government level TB style link) etc. etc. what i guess i'm getting at in a long roundabout way is that there a a mass of factors that can affect a WAN connection including interference from outside sources as well. (Planning is the key) oh yeah and don't forget it does depend on which protocol your using 802.11a/b/g/draft-n as well (and this applies to all devices sometimes running a b-class device will slow the whole WLAN down to it's speed depending on software/firmware/hardware)

Message was edited by: r.cloud

On my home network, I usually get around 2-3Mb/s with wifi, even though I've got about 7Mb/s coming in. With 3G, I average around 1Mb/s.

Reset your iPhone and router/modem.

Yes. Is your router running in mixed b/g mode? Have you tried doing g only?