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Slow speed transferring files over Wifi to my WD My Book Essential connected to my WDTV Live Plus

Tags:
  • Hard Drives
  • WiFi
  • Wireless Network
  • Laptops
  • Book
  • Western Digital
  • Speed
Last response: in Wireless Networking
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December 30, 2013 4:37:52 PM

1st post... sorry if I'm a little slow with this.

My setup... I'm transferring files from my laptop (which is running Windows 7, it's 802.11bgn capable) over wifi (my router is a Cisco M20 Wireless-N (2.4 GHz) to my Western Digital My Book Essential hard drive. The WD external hard drive is attached via USB2 to my WDTV Live Plus. The WDTV Live Plus is connected directly into my router.

So I can see the WDTV on my network and can select the hard drive. If I try to transfer a file from my laptop to the hard drive, it transfers at about 1mb/s. Does this sound right or do I have a setting messed up somewhere?

I used to just plug the external directly to my laptop but it's not always convenient getting to it in my entertainment center. Wifi would be my preferred method. Am I just going to have to live with the slow speed or is there something else I can do?

Thanks!

More about : slow speed transferring files wifi book essential connected wdtv live

Best solution

a b D Laptop
December 30, 2013 4:51:39 PM

802.11n over the 2.4 GHz frequency band tends to be on the slow side because the 2.4 GHz band is crowded. Your speed is limited by wireless signal strength and quality, and the USB interface at the external drive itself. Depending on how much interference there is, I can see your speeds being down to 1 Mbps.

There probably isn't much you can do, short of removing sources of interference and upgrading router/adapters.

Casey
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December 30, 2013 6:25:21 PM

cklaubur said:
802.11n over the 2.4 GHz frequency band tends to be on the slow side because the 2.4 GHz band is crowded. Your speed is limited by wireless signal strength and quality, and the USB interface at the external drive itself. Depending on how much interference there is, I can see your speeds being down to 1 Mbps.

There probably isn't much you can do, short of removing sources of interference and upgrading router/adapters.

Casey


Thanks for the advice, I did some googling and found a wi-fi inspector that told me I was on Channel 6 (router was set to auto) as were most of my neighbors (they were 1, 6, or 11.... I switched mine to Channel 3 and now I'm getting 2.3mb/s. I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject, is 3 a good channel to pick when most people are on 1, 6, and 11?

I read up on interference and I don't have any nearby cordless phones or microwaves or anything. My router is right next to my tv though (I have DSL and the phone jack is right next to the tv). Is that an issue?

Thanks for your help!
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a b D Laptop
December 30, 2013 8:11:43 PM

That's a decent improvement from just changing channels.

Proper channel selection is difficult due to how the channels are laid out in the 2.4 GHz range. From your description, 3 was probably the best choice.

A TV shouldn't cause any significant interference. It runs on a completely different frequency range (54-890 MHz, according to Wikipedia).

Glad to hear everything is working better!

Casey
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