What can I do to improve the performance of my wireless network?

I have a Linksys WRT110 wireless router. However, my friend was just over and said that my network was awfully slow. I'll try to get some numbers later tonight or tomorrow, but for now I'm interested in different options and configuration settings that I can use to improve performance, for not only myself but for people who come over my place to visit.

The only thing that I can't do is use Wireless-N only, as I don't have an N card in my laptop, which I might want to take wireless sometimes.

Thomas Owens

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 3 663

Answers

Can you define "awfully slow"? In what sort of conditions? How man active clients?

The first thing I always check with a wireless AP, especially the 2.4GHz models, is channel contention. Grab something like netstumbler and take a look at what other APs are active in your area. If you other APs with strong signals are on or near your channel, that will really slow things down. You want to choose the center of the quietest section of the spectrum, remembering that 802.11b/g/n channels overlap.

Insyte

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 451

Under Wireless > Basic Wireless Settings in the administration tools, both Wide Channel and Standard Channel are set to Auto and there doesn't appear to be a way to change this. I did grab netstumbler and found that there are a several wireless points on channels 1 and 6, so I now know to avoid those channels. – Thomas Owens – 2009-08-06T00:01:58.463

And what channel is your AP using? I'm surprised that they don't allow you to manually set the channel. Perhaps in some sort of "advanced" menu? After managing a few quite large wireless networks (70+ APs) I have learned to distrust auto-selected channels... – Insyte – 2009-08-06T00:11:37.167

Most consumer routers cannot handle multiple data rates simultaneously, and they drop to the lowest common denominator. As soon as an 802.11b device hops onto a wireless G or N network, the data rate will drop to wireless B speeds of 11 Mbps, with an actual throughput of maybe somewhere around 5 Mbps.

I'm afraid you might have to get a newer network adapter for your laptop. Fortunately, if you watch techbargains.com or slickdeals.net (or any other deal site of your choice), you can sometimes find a cheap USB wireless N adapter for $20 or less.

Or, if you don't have any money, just disable your laptop's wireless adapter when you have company, and plug directly into the router with an Ethernet cable. The transfer speeds should jump back to 802.11n if everyone else connected has wireless N adapters, or 802.11g (54Mbps) if everyone connected has at least wireless G.

rob

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 13 188

At the time my friend said the speeds were slow, he was the only one on the wireless network. I was using ethernet to connect to my router, which is connected to my modem. – Thomas Owens – 2009-08-06T00:16:43.047

Was your laptop's wireless adapter disabled? If so, you might want to check in the router's control panel and see if any of your neighbors were connected with slow network adapters. Or, just to be sure, it might be a good idea to try connecting your friend's computer via Ethernet, to make sure the problem isn't just a slow Internet connection. – rob – 2009-08-06T00:23:38.987

Um...what was the definition of slow? I mean, there are people talking about channel contention, etc...but what if it was just the site your friend was visiting?

Are you testing this by seeing what your throughput is between two machines on the same network? It might not be your wireless at all. Kind of odd that your friend noticed this on his system but you haven't noticed anything unusual, no?

Bart Silverstrim

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 1 755

What he said ^ :) – dimitri.p – 2009-08-06T01:28:16.470

This site has very effective and cheap ways to improve your wireless signal by directing it where it needs to go.

Marcin

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 678

I take it that the direct ethernet connection isn't slow, or you would have noticed it already.

Slowness in a wireless network might be caused by interference, maybe by your neighbor's router. Try and change the router's channel to number 11, which is also the strongest, and check for an improvement.

Having an unbiased speed-test is important in such cases, such as using speedtest.net.

harrymc

Posted 2009-08-05T23:34:12.370

Reputation: 306 093