What transfer speeds should a reasonably expect?

[whitenack]

I know that is a loaded question with all the variables. But, if I am sitting, say, 10 feet from an AC68U router, modern hard drives, with no other interfering traffic, etc., what kind of network transfer speeds can I expect? I'm not talking about ISP speed, I'm talking about transferring data from a workstation to a server?

I am getting abysmal speeds over our wireless network versus our ethernet landline, and I don't know if that is normal or something with my setup/router.

Thanks,

Clay

 

[kanewolf]

You don't provide enough information. 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz? Single, double or triple stream? "G", "N", "AC" ? Could be 25Mbit throughput ("G" wireless) -- 3MB/s to 600Mbit throughput ("AC" wireless on 5Ghz) -- 80MB/s ...

That is assuming only one of the computers is on WIFI. If both are on WIFI it could be cut in half.

 

[Solandri]

WiFi protocols include a ton of error correction encoding which eats up a lot of bandwidth. As a rough estimate, the peak speed you will see from WiFi will be about half the max specified Mbps. The average speed will be closer to 1/3.

e.g.
300 Mbps 802.11n will give you about 150 Mbps max (about 19 MB/s), and about 100 Mbps typical (12.5 MB/s).
1300 Mbps 802.11ac will give you about 650 Mbps max (81 MB/s), and about 433 Mbps typical (54 MB/s).

Do be aware that certain WiFi specs like 600 Mbps 802.11n and 1300 Mbps 802.11ac use special wideband protocols which not all devices support. So your actual speeds might be half again. My 1900AC router (1300 Mbps 5 GHz + 600 Mbps 2.4 GHz) actually only gives me about 25-35 MB/s because my laptop doesn't support the wideband feature which gives the 1300 Mbps rating.

 

[bill001g]

You can't even think to compare wireless and ethernet. The marketing guys tell the biggest lies they feel they can legally get away with. These idiots would call a 1g ethernet cable 2gbit because you can transmit 1g and receive 1g at the same time. Now on ethernet you can actually get the 2g speed if the end equipment can keep up.

On wireless they assume that you only have 2 devices with no other interference from any neighbors or anything else. Some magic optimum lab conditions that do not match anything in the real wold.

You can go to smallnetbuilder and they have testing data. They also discuss how they test and why the numbers work as they do. Even so any number you find on a testing site you have to be careful of. It to a point allows you to compare equipment but it does not represent what you can expect in your house. Unfortunately that is the problem with wireless. Your house and the neighbors around you is going to have much more impact on how well wireless performs than small difference between brands of routers.

 

[RealBeast]

. . . I'm talking about transferring data from a workstation to a server . . .

I am getting abysmal speeds over our wireless network versus our Ethernet landline, and I don't know if that is normal or something with my setup/router.

That is to be expected, while Ethernet has a small bit of overhead, for example my servers over gigabit transfer at 110MB/s or so (right around 880-900Mbps) and my 10GbE connection between them runs at 770MB/s due to the older drive array hitting its limit, wireless speeds are all marketing numbers not real world.

Wireless is not a good way to move large amounts of data to a server. The only way to really get a fast wireless transfer is two very expensive AC high end routers (one as a media bridge with no nearby controlled airspaces and not many neighbors that use 5GHz wireless), as their are really no fast wireless adapters with giant octopus antennae.

And wireless is really not even a good way to stream HD videos to devices unless conditions are optimal and you have good wireless gear. Also wireless is pretty poor for gaming, Ethernet best and AV1200 powerline next best IMO.

 

[whitenack]

Thanks for the replies.

I am getting ~150mbps when connected via ethernet, but around 5-10mbps when on wifi (same machine).

We aren't needing to move many big files, we are just needing to move a lot of little files constantly. This is a small office environment where we have a server/client network. The client runs software that pulls data from the server. Our desktop clients are silky smooth and responsive, but our laptop clients are frustratingly slow.

I'm trying to troubleshoot the bottleneck. We have a lot of mobile clients during the day, so I may need to set up a separate router for non-essential connections.

I also have an old WRT54GL that I thought I could try and check it's speeds, for comparison sake. The AC68U should blow it out of the water, but if it doesn't, then maybe it is the router or some setting.

 

[kanewolf]

How many wireless clients are connected at a time ? The Asus is a good router, but it is a HOME router. In a business setting you need better equipment. Multiple WIFI sources connected back via ethernet.

 

[whitenack]

How many wireless clients are connected at a time ? The Asus is a good router, but it is a HOME router. In a business setting you need better equipment. Multiple WIFI sources connected back via ethernet.

We are a 9 person office and everyone has a cell phone that connects to the network, plus 4 laptop workstations. The cell phones are not necessary (just connecting for internet access), so they could connect to a separate router.

 

[kanewolf]

The best answer for the laptops, is to get docking stations for them so that they are conveniently connected via wired ethernet while in the office.

 

[whitenack]

The best answer for the laptops, is to get docking stations for them so that they are conveniently connected via wired ethernet while in the office.

Thanks. We are plugging into the ethernet when possible, but some people are constantly roaming and being tied to a cable won't work.

 

[Solandri]

Just as an experiment, add or change the password for your WiFi network(s) to prevent any devices from connecting. The use the new password to connect just one laptop. See what kind of transfer speeds you get. You can change the password back after the experiment.

If you get much faster speeds, then you know the problem is too many devices connecting. If the speeds remain slow, then you know the problem is something else.

Also, are you using only the 2.4 GHz network, or 5 GHz as well? Most routers default to giving them the same SSID, but I like to make them different (add a 5 to the end of the 5 GHz SSID) just so I know which network is being used.

5-10 Mbps sounds like you're on 2.4 GHz (either n if you actually mean 5-10 MB/s, or g if you really do mean 5-10 Mbps). 2.4 GHz networks tend to be notoriously overcrowded, and interference from neighbors' WiFi networks may be stomping all over your signal. Also, g networks will slow down to the speed of the slowest connected device. So if someone in the furthest room has an old phone which is only able to connect to your router at a slow speed with g, it'll slow down all other g devices to the same speed. The n and ac protocols don't suffer this slowdown. But a mixed n and g network on 2.4 GHz will suffer this slowdown on the g side, and the n side will also slow down because the radio has to switch to the g protocol any time it's communicating with the g device(s).

The newer 802.11ac protocol only works at 5 GHz. 5 GHz also is much less likely to have problems with interference (15 independent channels instead of just 3 on 2.4 GHz) . The only drawback is the higher frequency does not penetrate walls and other objects as well as 2.4 GHz, so range is a bit shorter. (n will also operate at 5 GHz, g will only operate at 2.4 GHz.) Given how many WiFi devices you have, I would suggest changing the name of your 5 GHz SSID so it's different from the 2.4 GHz SSID. Then you can force any devices which can see the 5 GHz network to always connect at 5 GHz (make these devices "forget" the 2.4 GHz SSID so they'll only connect at 5 GHz). That should give them better speeds, as well as remove some of the traffic from the 2.4 GHz band to improve the speed of the devices which can only connect at 2.4 GHz.

 

[whitenack]

Hey all, just an update. I brought in another router (also an RT-AC68U) and connected to it directly with no other devices on it. I am getting better speeds, but still not anything to brag about. Getting ~18-20 Mbps. I am assuming this is Mbps and not MB/s. See the screenshot below.

Screenshot