Wireless Router speed

[HURST]

Hi

Is there a way to check the transfer speed between my laptop and my router?
I'm not talking about download and upload speed of my internet connection. Just between my laptop and the router.
My connection feels very slow and I want to identify the bottleneck. Also this would be useful to determine the best positioning for the router.

[KookyMan]

I think if you look at the properties for the network adapter it will show you the established link speed. Or if not the properties, look at the "status" of the network connection.

[HURST]

Yeah I've seen that, but it always displays the nominal speed of 54.0 Mbps, no matter how good or bad the signal quality is.
I want to see the real speed.

[KookyMan]

Check with the manufacturer of your wireless NIC. Most have support apps that will show you more information, such as signal strength, SNR, etc.

Also something to keep in mind, if your using the internet, the most your going to have is a few mbit downstream (unless your on some wild connection) so even if your only doing 1/4 of your link speed, you won't notice. The only time you'll notice is if your transferring files around on your local network.

One last thing, you could be maintaining a 54mbit connection speed, even if your signal strength is minimum, depending on the amount of noise (signal-to-noise ratio). Think of it this way, if your standing in a large gym, with you and one other person and talk in a whisper, you'll hear it. (low signal, no noise). If you are in that same gym, with 200 fans in the bleachers, you could yell at your friend and they might not still hear you (high signal, high noise).

There's more to a link than just the signal strength itself. (Read recently in a magazine about cellphones not being completely "honest" with signal bars since its easy to have "5 bars" but they do not take anything regarding noise into account. That's why sometimes calls drop with 4 bars, and sometimes 1 bar is crystal clear and doesn't drop.

[HURST]

Originally Posted by KookyMan

There's more to a link than just the signal strength itself. (Read recently in a magazine about cellphones not being completely "honest" with signal bars since its easy to have "5 bars" but they do not take anything regarding noise into account. That's why sometimes calls drop with 4 bars, and sometimes 1 bar is crystal clear and doesn't drop.

Ahhhhh, one mistery solved (the 4 bar dropped call has happened to me more than enough)

Back on topic, I'll chech out your suggestions.

[HURST]

Ok, I found a program, netstumbler, that measures signal strenght and noise. But it seems that in my laptop the noise isn't measured, since the graph shows ZERO noise for all networks I see. Will try later with other laptops, maybe their network adapters can show noise level.

[KookyMan]

it shows 0db or nothing?

Usually noise is on the same scale, very little noise is -100db, and the number decreases as the noise increases, to say -60db, -40db. My Sig is usually -60 to -80db, and my noise is usually -75 to -85db.

Obviously when sig ges close to -80db and noise is -75db, my speed just plummets.

The spectrum that wireless uses is getting full, and all sorts of things can be in that range, such as cordless phones, cordless headphones, cordless mice maybe, anything you have that is "cordless" probably is close to the same frequencies that your wireless uses.

[Brian K]

HURST,

Do you have another wireless networked computer? Transfer a large file between the two computers. 1 to 2 MB/second is all you can expect. This is 8 to 16 Mbps, well below the nominal speed of 54.0 Mbps.

It's a rough test but easy to do.

[HURST]

Originally Posted by KookyMan

it shows 0db or nothing?

Usually noise is on the same scale, very little noise is -100db, and the number decreases as the noise increases, to say -60db, -40db. My Sig is usually -60 to -80db, and my noise is usually -75 to -85db.

Obviously when sig ges close to -80db and noise is -75db, my speed just plummets.

The spectrum that wireless uses is getting full, and all sorts of things can be in that range, such as cordless phones, cordless headphones, cordless mice maybe, anything you have that is "cordless" probably is close to the same frequencies that your wireless uses.

NetStumbler shows Signal: -60 to -55 dB; noise: -100 dB (missed the scale on my previous post).
All networks I see show -100 dB noise.

Originally Posted by Brian K

Do you have another wireless networked computer? Transfer a large file between the two computers. 1 to 2 MB/second is all you can expect. This is 8 to 16 Mbps, well below the nominal speed of 54.0 Mbps.

I have more laptops that connect to the Internet with the same router, but they are not part of a network. Will configure the network tomorrow and try.
Thanks!