Wireless access point speeds half the wired in speed?

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lucasmeister

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Jun 16, 2014
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Hi,

I have a TP-Link WA901ND Access point wired into my Virgin Superhub router (wifi turned off on virgin router). I am only getting around 18mb/s when wired in directly to the router I am getting around 35-40mb/s. I phoned TP-Link and they told me to change channel, change to 20mhz and turn off WWM. None of which helped.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
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You should get a little better than 18m but it is very tough to predict. It is a combination of your AP, the nic in your device and most importantly your house.

The advice you got from tp-link was valid. All you can really do is hope to avoid everyone else using wireless. I used to recommend a tool call inssider so you could see all the neighbors AP but it is no longer free. It is still a nice tool but not sure its worth the $10. If you can find the old version you are allowed to download and use it the company just not provide it anymore.

Still even without interference wireless numbers are pretty much smoke and mirrors. This site is very interesting to dig though the data. Of course you can not compare any data from this...
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abailey

abailey

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Mar 23, 2014
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Ok wired is always better than wireless. That being said here is how you can calculate what to expect on wireless:
Look at your link rate (your link rate will depend on your router, settings, and signal strength). On my Windows laptop when I connect to my 2.4Ghz AP my software shows I connect at 150Mb/s. Ok that is link rate by not throughput. Throughput is usually 50 to 60% of link rate. So lets say 50% for my example. Ok so my throughput is 75Mbit/s. Now wireless communication is half duplex. So to compare it to wired communication, which is full duplex (at least in 99% of the cases), you would have to cut the throughput in half. So now we are talking 37.5Mbit/s. Ok so in perfect circumstances I could get 37.5Mbit/s. Now three more factors come into play. If I move further from my AP, my signal will drop and so will my speed. Also, all your wireless devices share this bandwidth. So if you have more than one device using the wireless your speed will decrease for each device. Lastly, if you have neighbors using 2.4Ghz wireless on the same channel or an overlapping channel, you must also share radio time (which translates into bandwidth) with them. So when I run test on my laptop from my den I get between 18 and 25Mbit/s.
If you want better wireless you usually have to change to the 5Ghz channel. In 5Ghz you have many more channels so the possibility of overlapping with a neighbor is low. Also, since there are so many channels you can combine more than one channel to get higher speeds. For example on my 5Ghz wireless, I connect at 300Mb/s (using 2 channels). For wireless take 50%, so now 150Mbit/s. Now to compare to wired I half it again, to 75Mbit/s. In actuality I get a little better than that, so my wireless overhead with my AP is not as high as some as I am able to pull 90Mbit/s reliably.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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You should get a little better than 18m but it is very tough to predict. It is a combination of your AP, the nic in your device and most importantly your house.

The advice you got from tp-link was valid. All you can really do is hope to avoid everyone else using wireless. I used to recommend a tool call inssider so you could see all the neighbors AP but it is no longer free. It is still a nice tool but not sure its worth the $10. If you can find the old version you are allowed to download and use it the company just not provide it anymore.

Still even without interference wireless numbers are pretty much smoke and mirrors. This site is very interesting to dig though the data. Of course you can not compare any data from this site to other since it is unique to the house it is tested in. It is surprising how poorly even the best routers on the market do compared to the magic speed number they toss out.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/111-2_4-ghz-dn-c
 
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lucasmeister

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Jun 16, 2014
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Thanks for the replies.

My access point is near, but not too near my router, connected by wire. The PCs are then only a few metres away. I have tried changing the channel to others that are not in use, but this doesn't help either.

I'm sure I should be getting more than 18mb
 
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abailey

abailey

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It also depends on your wifi card in your PC. When you look at the statistics on your wifi connection what link speed does it show you are connected at?
 
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chris_shadez

chris_shadez

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Oct 22, 2013
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Not a fix for the current issue but a solution still. you mentioned "the PC's are few metres away" so assuming all in one room, Have you considered Powerline Networking? i have 3 port Powerline Ethernet Adapters plugged in all over the house.
Originally, One adapter plugged into the power outlet near my router, connected to it by ethernet cable, and the Second in the office power outlet wired to 2 PC's and a Printer. I get the same network speed as if connected directly to the router, also that room is opposite end of house and 2 floors up from location of the router. Now ofcourse, seeing its performance, i littered these adapters to every room a laptop or tv is used in :)
 
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