speed on wireless

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seanism2010 Author

Level 1

6 points

speed on wireless

Hi,

I have a macbook pro with band n avaliable on wireless. But the speed is always slow on wireless compared to wired. I am on 100mb internet.

When wired, I did a speed test on speedtest.net and it comes to 90Mpbs, which is what I want, But once I try wireless it never goes over 30Mbps.

Now I know it could be due to a number of things, like change channels on wireless to find the best channel. Is there actually a limit what speed it will get on wireless. The only thing I can do to make faster is to change the band from 2.4ghz to 5ghz, even that sometimes only goes up to 50Mbps, but that also means almost none of my devices in the house can connect via 5ghz.

So im confused, just need some advice on the actual limitations on wireless please, and anything else I can do to improve. Thanks.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 28, 2012 12:07 PM in response to seanism2010

Wireless transfer rates are slower than ethernet unless you have a very slow ethernet network. Running on "n" 5 GHz can get twice as fast as 2.4 GHz because n can use twice the bandwidth for a given channel.

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Answer 2

seanism2010 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 28, 2012 12:58 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Ok thanks. So what is the limitation for 2.4ghz please, is it 30Mpbs?

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Answer 3

seanism2010 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 28, 2012 1:56 PM in response to seanism2010

bump? anyone on the limitation please? thanks

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Answer 4

Feb 28, 2012 2:44 PM in response to seanism2010

seanism, keep in mind that the IEEE 802.11 standard does not specify a rate of transfer for any of the protocols, whether a, b, g, n, X. The highest speed protocol is n, but that is broken down into two bands, the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. More devices operate in the 2.4 GHz band and you end up with more interference. So in the 5 GHz band you have fewer devices, and lack of the other protocols. In the 2.4 GHz band the channels are 20 MHz wide. In the 5 GHz band the channels are 40 MHz wide. Thus, you can get up to double the transfer rate, but you have to be aware of other channels in use because of the channel width in that upper frequency band.

So you may be seeing transfer rates of 30-50 Mbps for the two frequencies but to specifically state the transfer rate one has to speak about the spcific hardware and the transfer rate it has been designed to handle. The transfer rate is hardware dependent, not specified by the protocol itself.

Does that help explain this a little better?

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Answer 5

seanism2010 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 28, 2012 3:00 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Ralph, thanks for taking your time and trying to make things clearer for me. I think I know what you mean. But I think what I am trying to find out is with the current state I have on 2.4ghz, is it normal I am getting no higher than 30Mpbs on a 100MB broadband internet speed when on wireless?

So... a) if it is normal, then ok i guess I need to go wired if I want to achieve higher speed. b) if not normal then what can be done to make it better.

again, thanks for your help, much appreciated.

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Answer 6

Feb 28, 2012 4:45 PM in response to seanism2010

The broadband internet speed most ISPs quote is the maximum transfer rate that their connection can achieve under ideal conditions. If their system is heavily loaded, or the site you are connecting to operates at a lower speed, you will not be able to achieve their quoted speed. There is always a choke point somewhere.

Now, with respect to your in-house speed: wired is always fastest. Eithernet can achieve speed up to 1 giga bit per second. No ISP provides that access speed. Wireless over n protocols in the narrow 2.4 GHz band achieving speeds of 30 Mbps are doing well, and 50 Mbps in the double-width 5 GHz band sound good.

I guess bottom-line is, if you are getting speeds as high as 50 Mbps you are actually doing rather well...many ISPs do not offer service at that level.

By all means, see what the activity level is in the frequency band/channel you want to use. If you see a lot of other networks, move half a dozen channels and see what it looks like there. If you can find a clear channel you will get the highest transfer rate your hardware is capable of delivering.

As long as all of your devices have the capability of working in the selected channel you are good to go.

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