Wireless Router speed issues?

Question

I am using the Linksys WRT54G wireless router.

I have a 5meg connection with Charter and the speed results are as followed with a WIRED connection through the router:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/208641671.png

However, whenever I use the wireless router I get much much slower speeds. The signal is 100% (says excellent) and this PC is 5 FEET away from the router yet the speeds are awful, as seen here:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/208642161.png

I have tried changing channels, tweaking the router security etc. but nothing seems to help. Is it just a crappy router or what? Like I said, the signal is 100% and It is still slow. My PS3 is in another room and has about 50-60% signal and gets around the same speed, How can I fix this?

Yes I have the latest firmware etc. on it.

I dont think it is the adaptor either because my PS3 is in another room and getting the exact same speeds so it has to be something with the router itself

Answer 1

problem is: electrical noise! All the cables are shielded, and the power cords are segregated from the data cables, so the noise is coming directly from the devices. And low and behold, when I separated the router and modem by a few slots on my rack, I'm getting full speed minus about 10%, which is probably reasonable for router overhead and marginal residual noise. I imagine a lot of you out there have your router sitting on top of or below your modem. It's a stupidly simple solution (although it took me a week to stumble on it): if your having line speed problems, try separating your router and modem.

Answer 2

Well, I hate to say this but this is what I also see with the WRT series from Linksys. It appears to be "normal" for the router. I have tried four different linksys units and see the same exact shift between wireless and wired. Wireless will always be somewhat less, but nearly 50% not right not good for linksys?

I changed to an EnGenius AP, connected to the same router and had around 85% speed so what ever is happening, its in the AP that is included with the Linksys units.

I wish I could tell you a better answer, but the only solution I have found is an AP that doesn't kill the speed.

I also found that my Buffalo routers do not have this issue. they actually deliver around 80-90% of wired speed most times with the wireless vs wired tests!

So I changed all mine to Buffalo Tech. (Now what is really strange is both of these, the linksys and the buffalo, use the SAME wrt based linux firmware!!! So it can't be just the firmware!)

If you turn off the encryption it will improve but not like it should! Try it you will see that there is a loss with WPA and WEP but that is normal in all routers. Just more so in linksys!

Now I am sure that SOME of this has to do the the "client" cards that are installed in the laptops as well, but I haven't found one that improves it very much. Changing to AP's or routers to some that work better has been my only fix.

Good Luck - Merry Christmas and God Bless

PS - I'm also in the DFW system so maybe its just us DFW folks but I will bet it is not!

Answer 3

There is pobably nothing wrong with the router. Have you downloaded the latest firmware? Is you wireless device up to date? What it really sounds like is you are running a B device on a G router. Use a known good test site below and run against a couple of different sites. Use one near you and one farther away. (Don't use San Francisco, they are inaccurate.)

Answer 4

contact your routers company