Network question - speeds/transfer rates
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Network question - speeds/transfer rates
What file transfer speed would you expect to get on a 54mbps wireless network between 2 pc's both running 54mbps network cards connected via a 54mbps wireless router?
54mbps works out at about 6.75mb/s doesn't it? I am getting a transfer rate on file copying of only 2.8mb/s and don't know why. It's the same between all pc's so guessing it's the router which is a Netgear DG834G.
54mbps works out at about 6.75mb/s doesn't it? I am getting a transfer rate on file copying of only 2.8mb/s and don't know why. It's the same between all pc's so guessing it's the router which is a Netgear DG834G.
The 54Mb is in IDEAL conditions and don't forget you have check bits and negotiation et al.
You'll never see 54Mb ever
(besides which, one you get over about 2/3 load, you start to get lots more collision going on and that slows things down)
You'll never see 54Mb ever
(besides which, one you get over about 2/3 load, you start to get lots more collision going on and that slows things down)
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What file transfer speed would you expect to get on a 54mbps wireless network between 2 pc's both running 54mbps network cards connected via a 54mbps wireless router?
54mbps works out at about 6.75mb/s doesn't it? I am getting a transfer rate on file copying of only 2.8mb/s and don't know why. It's the same between all pc's so guessing it's the router which is a Netgear DG834G.
54mbps works out at about 6.75mb/s doesn't it? I am getting a transfer rate on file copying of only 2.8mb/s and don't know why. It's the same between all pc's so guessing it's the router which is a Netgear DG834G.
Your looking at all the other information being passed over at the same time too !
6.75 is the overall speed .. you'd expect about 4
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Having done some checks, the wireless transfer rate is about 2.8mb/s, over USB2 direct to the external (networkable) hard drive it's 5.5mb/s and over a 100mb ethernet port it's 8-9mb/s.
Shouldn't USB2 be faster than that as well?
As usual wired is the only way to go by the looks of it, 15gb in 30 minutes is more like it.
Has anyone used those electrical socket lan connectors that allow you to use your electrical wiring for network traffic? Thinking of putting a hub upstairs with all pc's plugged into it with 1 cat5 off to an electrical socket with the other electrical socket downstairs connected into the back of the router where the networked hard drive is.
What speed will you get over electrical wiring in your house using those adapters?
Pimmo I ensured there was no other traffic on the network when doing the tests so that is the max speed it would transfer at.
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Your transfer rate is pretty good. The quoted 54Mbps is a maximum speed under ideal conditions. This quoted speed also includes all the overhead for network traffic. This overhead is significant when you have encryption (you do have encryption??).
Getting half the max transfer rate between two machines is considered to be a good achievement.
Best file transfer speeds are normally obtained using Gigabit ethernet (1000Mbps) or Firewire 2 (800Mbps). There are faster methods, but most of these are not on home networks. There are other wireless standards that are faster, the most obvious being wireless n (theoretically 540Mbps). Then there are those network cards with multiple areials that combine signals to get a faster transfer speed. All the cards have to be from the same manufacturer though, and all compatible. Your looking for something called MIMO Multiple in, multiple out. They can get a max of around 300Mbps on wireless g I believe.
If you really do have lots of data to move in a short period of time then external SATA is possibly your only option. That will run at the speed of your HDD, but you do have the hassle of moving (and powering) a HDD.
Getting half the max transfer rate between two machines is considered to be a good achievement.
Best file transfer speeds are normally obtained using Gigabit ethernet (1000Mbps) or Firewire 2 (800Mbps). There are faster methods, but most of these are not on home networks. There are other wireless standards that are faster, the most obvious being wireless n (theoretically 540Mbps). Then there are those network cards with multiple areials that combine signals to get a faster transfer speed. All the cards have to be from the same manufacturer though, and all compatible. Your looking for something called MIMO Multiple in, multiple out. They can get a max of around 300Mbps on wireless g I believe.
If you really do have lots of data to move in a short period of time then external SATA is possibly your only option. That will run at the speed of your HDD, but you do have the hassle of moving (and powering) a HDD.
Last edited by Luminous; Jun 21, 2008 at 11:46 PM.
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Thanks Luminous. Just been looking at the wireless n1 routers on Dabs. They say upto 300mbps so that works out at about 37mb/s and so if you achieve half that you could realistically get transfer speeds of 18mb/s? Even if I achieved just 10mb/s it would be faster than over the 100mb ethernet port.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
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Its about the equivalent of 10mb wired, half duplex, so the speeds you are seeing are ok
Wireless speeds are a great mystery (well not really) Cell based wireless is actually quite poor, and you will on average only realistically get about 24mb connection (despite what your connection may state)
Blanket Wireless technology is a very different kettle of fish, and blows Cell based Wireless completly out of the water
Wireless speeds are a great mystery (well not really) Cell based wireless is actually quite poor, and you will on average only realistically get about 24mb connection (despite what your connection may state)
Blanket Wireless technology is a very different kettle of fish, and blows Cell based Wireless completly out of the water
Thanks Luminous. Just been looking at the wireless n1 routers on Dabs. They say upto 300mbps so that works out at about 37mb/s and so if you achieve half that you could realistically get transfer speeds of 18mb/s? Even if I achieved just 10mb/s it would be faster than over the 100mb ethernet port.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
I know that may sound like going about things backwards a little, but normally you can reduce the amount of info you need to move with a little planning.
I don't know what you are using, but there is software out there that only backs up changes. In addition some of these programs run in the background while you work. A couple of good data backup programs are Second Copy and SyncBackSE (the later will use VSS).
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Cheers. Yep have Ghost12 but currently use XP's backup utility with a mixture of incremental and full backups. But because this was a new drive I was backing up everything to it with a straight file copy so between 300-400gb hence not being impressed with 2.8mb/s 
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Thanks Luminous. Just been looking at the wireless n1 routers on Dabs. They say upto 300mbps so that works out at about 37mb/s and so if you achieve half that you could realistically get transfer speeds of 18mb/s? Even if I achieved just 10mb/s it would be faster than over the 100mb ethernet port.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
I just want to be able to do backups from my pc's to one central networked hard drive at a decent speed and 54mbps just doesn't come close to being fast enough.
Wireless-n advertised at 300mbps has a real world speed of about 50-110mbps depending on router and the environment. Latest public draft is 2.0 and the latest development draft is 5.0. The final spec of wireless-n will be dual band offering 600mbps over two simultaneous frequencies 2.4ghz & 5ghz. They will also keep the single band wireless-n at 300mbps for a cheap alternative.
To get the most of wireless-n you need to consider the following
1) Have no other wireless networks around. Because for wireless-n to achieve it's maximum speed it has to bond two channels together. If the wireless-n detects another network then it will not bond and only operate on 1 channel. Dual band wireless-n routers will get around this issue.
2) Wireless-g clients only communicate to wireless-n routers at wireless-g speeds. You need wireless-n clients to gain the speed benefit and range.
3) Have wireless-n clients only operating with a wireless-n router using wpa2. Having a mixture of wireless-n/wireless-g clients on a wireless-n router will slow it down as it has to compensate for the slow wireless-g connections. Way around this is when you’re doing backups, just make sure only wireless-n devices are connected.
4) You should only use wpa2 on wireless-n as its hardware accelerated. Using any other encryption has a massive performance penalty.
Wireless-n is a good technology but you need to be aware of the above otherwise you might be disappointed by the speed outcome.
FYI - Best all round wireless-n adsl router on the market at the moment is the Linksys WAG160N.
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