Hi Guys. I've got a 802.11g Wireless card and Linksys WAG54G. I've also got my "NAS/Media Centre" connected to the WAG via wired 100Mbit Ethernet. Now, "G" wireless is supposed to be 54Mbit per second. Which if you take it at face value should give you around 6Mb a second transfers. However whenever I'm transfering to and from my NAS I'd be luck to break 200kb a second. Now I know the "advertised" speed of 802.11g isn't close to 6mb/sec but I would have thought I'd get faster than 200kb a second. Why is it so slow? How can I make it faster? eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"FlindersLAN" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:9A:DD:9C Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=94/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-81 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:5 I am using WEP. Turning this off would make things faster I imagine. How much of a difference though? Regards -- Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeperdesign.com> Deeper Design
Why is it so slow? How can I make it faster?
Is it dropping any packets, how is the latency ? Copy+paste a `mtr --report` and a `ping` output. In all seriousness, do you have anything metalic in the way/near the bridges antenna ? I've had packetloss galore because of that before.
Soo many factors.. Range to AP Line of sight to AP Arial being used (omni-directional, or uni-directional) Heavy metalic items nearby (fridges, washing machines, hot water cylinders) Other devices using the 2.4Ghz range (phones, wireless keyboards/mice) Other wireless networks nearby Wall structures in line of sight (concrete bricks with reinforced steel, gib, alloyed framing) Transmit power at both ends etc.. Gerwin On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 08:08 +1200, Drew Broadley wrote:
Why is it so slow? How can I make it faster?
Is it dropping any packets, how is the latency ?
Copy+paste a `mtr --report` and a `ping` output.
In all seriousness, do you have anything metalic in the way/near the bridges antenna ? I've had packetloss galore because of that before.
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-----Original Message----- From: Gerwin van de Steeg [mailto:gerwin(a)endace.com] Sent: Tuesday, 16 August 2005 10:04 a.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Subject: RE: [wlug] Making Wireless go faster.
Soo many factors..
Range to AP Line of sight to AP Arial being used (omni-directional, or uni-directional) Heavy metalic items nearby (fridges, washing machines, hot water cylinders) Other devices using the 2.4Ghz range (phones, wireless keyboards/mice) Other wireless networks nearby Wall structures in line of sight (concrete bricks with reinforced steel, gib, alloyed framing) Transmit power at both ends
Sure there are many factors, but a lot of those tend to apply to commercial applications of wireless and "Media Centers" are generally a home-use scenerio (sure I may be proven wrong). I'd put my money on it that it will be a case of simplicity over complexity. People get paid money to solve simple problems with complex solutions (otherwise they don't down feasible) , people who help others for free tend to look at the other end of the scope. - Drew
Range to AP
About 15 feet.
Line of sight to AP
Pretty much line of sight. 1 wooden bookshelf in the way.
Arial being used (omni-directional, or uni-directional)
Standard one from the Linksys AP.
Heavy metalic items nearby (fridges, washing machines, hot water cylinders)
No.
Other devices using the 2.4Ghz range (phones, wireless keyboards/mice)
1 wireless phone, not used much.
Other wireless networks nearby
Nope. Regards
As far as I can tell I'm not getting any packet loss. Regards On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 08:08 +1200, Drew Broadley wrote:
Why is it so slow? How can I make it faster?
Is it dropping any packets, how is the latency ?
Copy+paste a `mtr --report` and a `ping` output.
In all seriousness, do you have anything metalic in the way/near the bridges antenna ? I've had packetloss galore because of that before.
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On 16/08/05, Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeperdesign.com> wrote:
Hi Guys.
I've got a 802.11g Wireless card and Linksys WAG54G. I've also got my "NAS/Media Centre" connected to the WAG via wired 100Mbit Ethernet. Now, "G" wireless is supposed to be 54Mbit per second. Which if you take it at face value should give you around 6Mb a second transfers. However whenever I'm transfering to and from my NAS I'd be luck to break 200kb a second. Now I know the "advertised" speed of 802.11g isn't close to 6mb/sec but I would have thought I'd get faster than 200kb a second. Why is it so slow? How can I make it faster?
Do you have any 802.11 b devices on there as they slow everything down (although should be faster than this - I presume you mean 200 kbit per second not 200 kbyte per second)? How long was this up for as I notice those excessive retries and missed beacon showing? Have you tried changing the frequency that you use - I have had interference personally from my microwave and also TV transmitter (to beam Sky from one room to another) as these both work on 2.4 GHz range. You could also get inteference from another property. How far apart are the devices and what sort of walls are in between? Ian
eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"FlindersLAN" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:9A:DD:9C Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=94/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-81 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:5
I am using WEP. Turning this off would make things faster I imagine. How much of a difference though?
Shouldn't make any difference really with modern gear. I would STRONGLY suggest changing to WPA-PSK for security as WEP is useless security. Regards, Ian
Shouldn't make any difference really with modern gear. I would STRONGLY suggest changing to WPA-PSK for security as WEP is useless security.
WPA-PSK isn't much better if you're not careful. WPA-PSK uses TKIP, which is an RC4 based algorithm, and easily bruteforceable if your key is small. The upshot is, if you're using WPA-PSK, make sure your key is a lot larger than 20 characters. Or you could set up WPA-RADIUS and 802.1x for dynamic per-port keying, which fixes a lot of the issues. Some instances of WPA will use AES, although this isn't part of the original WPA specification. WPA2 "fixes" these problems as it uses AES.
WPA-PSK isn't much better if you're not careful. WPA-PSK uses TKIP, which is an RC4 based algorithm, and easily bruteforceable if your key is small. The upshot is, if you're using WPA-PSK, make sure your key is a lot larger than 20 characters.
Agree - should have said that
Or you could set up WPA-RADIUS and 802.1x for dynamic per-port keying, which fixes a lot of the issues. Some instances of WPA will use AES, although this isn't part of the original WPA specification. WPA2 "fixes" these problems as it uses AES.
Is there a WPA2-PSK? WPA-Radius is much better but you have to set up a Radius server as well which makes it more work but is definitely needed if you have more than a handful of machines. Ian
Or you could set up WPA-RADIUS and 802.1x for dynamic per-port keying, which fixes a lot of the issues. Some instances of WPA will use AES, although this isn't part of the original WPA specification. WPA2 "fixes" these problems as it uses AES.
Is there a WPA2-PSK?
Yes. Both WPA and WPA2 support "home" and "enterprise" profiles - home being PSK and enterprise being radius-based authentication The latest (September 05) LJ has a couple of articles on WPA - "Securing Wi-Fi networks with WPA" and "Cracking WPA-protected Wi-Fi Networks". The former covers setting up xsupplicant (and assumes you already have a radius server set up), the latter talks about cracking poorly configured WPA-PSK networks.
WPA-Radius is much better but you have to set up a Radius server as well which makes it more work but is definitely needed if you have more than a handful of machines.
It is a bit more work, but doesn't seem like it should be too bad. Debian Sarge has a package for the excellent freeradius server, although it is compiled without real SSL support (licensing issues), so if you want to set up freeradius and do things properly, I'd suggest getting the source from the freeradius website and building a .deb from that (it has the proper structure set up already).
This is all rather overkill for my needs. I just want to use my Laptop to surf the web and read email without having a cable trailing around the room. Regards On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 11:03 +1200, Ian McDonald wrote:
WPA-PSK isn't much better if you're not careful. WPA-PSK uses TKIP, which is an RC4 based algorithm, and easily bruteforceable if your key is small. The upshot is, if you're using WPA-PSK, make sure your key is a lot larger than 20 characters.
Agree - should have said that
Or you could set up WPA-RADIUS and 802.1x for dynamic per-port keying, which fixes a lot of the issues. Some instances of WPA will use AES, although this isn't part of the original WPA specification. WPA2 "fixes" these problems as it uses AES.
This is all rather overkill for my needs. I just want to use my Laptop to surf the web and read email without having a cable trailing around the room.
Of course. I was just pointing out that WPA-PSK isn't instantly more secure than WEP. Just remember to have a > 20 char key for WPA PSK if you're using TKIP, or use AES if your hardware supports it (or if it's WPA2) and you'll have no worries.
Do you have any 802.11 b devices on there as they slow everything down (although should be faster than this - I presume you mean 200 kbit per second not 200 kbyte per second)?
There are no B devices on the network. Only my laptop and the AP which are both G devices. And I meant 200 kilo byte. 100Mbit/sec == ~10Mbyte/sec. So 54Mbit should equal ~6Mbyte/sec in ideal circumstances. But since it is wireless I figure I can't be overly optimistic. I'd be happy with 1MByte a second. Preferably 1.5Mbyte a sec as that would be enough to stream MPEG2 at DVD 1x speeds.
How long was this up for as I notice those excessive retries and missed beacon showing? [root(a)mobility ~]# iwconfig eth1 eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"FlindersLAN" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:9A:DD:9C Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx Security mode:open Power Management:off Link Quality=100/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-80 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:17 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
[root(a)mobility ~]# uptime 21:16:53 up 5 days, 53 min, 3 users, load average: 0.25, 0.26, 0.26
Have you tried changing the frequency that you use - I have had interference personally from my microwave and also TV transmitter (to beam Sky from one room to another) as these both work on 2.4 GHz range. You could also get inteference from another property.
How do you suggest I adjust that? Specifics would be nice.
How far apart are the devices and what sort of walls are in between?
Shouldn't make any difference really with modern gear. I would STRONGLY suggest changing to WPA-PSK for security as WEP is useless security.
So I hear. I'd like to use WPA but it requires extra software that doesn't come with FC4 and does't work (afaik) with NetworkManager. I don't really care too much about the security side of things. I use SSH or SSL for most security sensitive stuff anyway. Regards
On 20/08/05, Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeperdesign.com> wrote:
Do you have any 802.11 b devices on there as they slow everything down (although should be faster than this - I presume you mean 200 kbit per second not 200 kbyte per second)?
There are no B devices on the network. Only my laptop and the AP which are both G devices. And I meant 200 kilo byte. 100Mbit/sec == ~10Mbyte/sec. So 54Mbit should equal ~6Mbyte/sec in ideal circumstances. But since it is wireless I figure I can't be overly optimistic. I'd be happy with 1MByte a second. Preferably 1.5Mbyte a sec as that would be enough to stream MPEG2 at DVD 1x speeds.
The speeds on b/g are very misleading. At most you get a third of what is claimed and more like a fifth. The speed you are getting is about 802.11b speed.
Have you tried changing the frequency that you use - I have had interference personally from my microwave and also TV transmitter (to beam Sky from one room to another) as these both work on 2.4 GHz range. You could also get inteference from another property.
How do you suggest I adjust that? Specifics would be nice.
Go to the webpage of the wireless AP/Router on the network and you will find it on one of the pages. While there you may also want to check it is in 'g' mode and not 'b'.
So I hear. I'd like to use WPA but it requires extra software that doesn't come with FC4 and does't work (afaik) with NetworkManager.
Yes I use wpasupplicant on FC4 which sort of integrates with Network Manager but not fully.
circumstances. But since it is wireless I figure I can't be overly optimistic. I'd be happy with 1MByte a second. Preferably 1.5Mbyte a sec as that would be enough to stream MPEG2 at DVD 1x speeds.
The speeds on b/g are very misleading. At most you get a third of what is claimed and more like a fifth. The speed you are getting is about 802.11b speed.
Yeah I know the actual speeds you get a much lower than advertised. All I want is something approaching good old 10Mbit Ethernet.
Go to the webpage of the wireless AP/Router on the network and you will find it on one of the pages. While there you may also want to check it is in 'g' mode and not 'b'.
Well it was in "mixed" mode. I've set it to G-only since I only have G devices connected to it. When I get some time to fiddle I might see what some of the settings on the advanced wifi-settings page do. Regards
participants (5)
-
Daniel Lawson -
Drew Broadley -
Gerwin van de Steeg -
Ian McDonald -
Oliver Jones