N56U - Can't break 32Mbps

[zolointo]

Replaced a Linksys WRT160Nv2 today with a Asus N56U after only being able to hit 20Mbps on the old router.

I can't seem to crack 35Mbps according to JPerf with my new setup. I know not to expect 300Mbps, but I certainly should be getting more than 35, right?

This is driving me bonkers. Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Equipment
Win7 64-bit desktop with Asus USB N53 adapter, latest driver from Asus
Win7 64-bit laptop with DW1520 internal, latest known driver
Asus N56U Router, latest firmware: 1.0.1.8e
All three devices are within 10 feet of each other, with line of sight.

There is an iPhone4, Macbook Air 2011, Nexus S, and wireless printer connected to the 2.4GHz SSID

Router Setup
5GHz channel with unique SSID
All settings are default except
Channel Bandwidth set to 40MHz
Authentication Method is WPA2-Personal AES
In the Professional tab, 5GHz settings, I've left all of the settings at default except for Enable WMM DLS?, which I've changed to Enable.

Equipment Setup
Desktop connected on 5GHz
Laptop connected on 5GHz
Laptop running JPerf as server, all default settings
Desktop running JPerf as client, default settings exception reporting results in Mbits

Results
I've tried using 20, 20/40, and 40 MHz settings and in an scenario I can only hit 35Mbps, with an average of 30Mbps.

Is this just the way it is, or have I misconfigured something somewhere?

 

[RogerSC]

Have you tried different channels? I've found here that the highest channels work best for me on 5GHz. Also, you have the latest drivers on your network interfaces, that's great, but it isn't clear how many streams your clients support? Are they single (150Mb/s) or two stream (300Mb/s)? If you have two stream clients, then you'll need to use the 40MHz. channel width to get the channel bonding for 2 stream.

Also, I'd want to actually try transferring a large file (say from a wired desktop to a wireless laptop) to get a feel for the "actual" throughput. I've not used Jperf, I usually get actual throughput using a large file transfer.

It doesn't sound like things are misconfigured, from what I see, maybe you should try some different things, like different channels on 5GHz., and stick with the 40MHz. channel width if you have two-stream wireless clients. Testing your wireless with the router and clients close together is the right way to go, especially on 5GHz., where the range is really limited.

You might also consider other ways of getting more speed that don't involve wireless, like MoCA or powerline networking. Especially for video streaming.

 

[zolointo]

Still getting a feel for this, but both clients report 300Mbps, so I'm guessing they're both dual channel. My desktop for certain, but my laptop is questionable... haven't found a proper profile for the NIC.

Video streaming is surprisingly OK. 8 gig DVD file takes about 20 minutes to transfer, so that's more than adequate to stream it.

I'll try changing the channel and see if I have more success... what about yourself though, are you able to achieve higher than this 35Mbps barrier I'm smacking against?


Thanks for the suggestions, RogerSC!

 

[RogerSC]

Yes, I have done somewhat better than that. But I also use MoCA for video streaming, which is a reliable 85Mb/s around here.

 

[zolointo]

Channel Change
Tried changing the broadcast channel of the 5GHz network, and it disappeared from view of the laptop.

Wired/Wireless Tests
I did some wired to wireless tests as was recommended.

Both PCs wired: Near 100Mbps transfer
Both PCs wireless: 30-35Mbps transfer
Laptop Wireless, Desktop Wired: 30-35Mbps transfer
Laptop Wired, Desktop Wireless: 60-80Mbps transfer!

So my desktop is dandy, but the laptop adapter ain't keeping up. I guess it's a single-channel NIC?

Would really like to have a proper conclusion, so I'll keep researching and post to this thread in case any wanderers come looking for the same issue.

 

[srinivasvaradaraj]

Here are my speeds measured on my setup. My 2005 Macbookpro, connected on 5GHz at 300Mbps (link speed), channel bonded at 40MHz. My test is to a wired system connected at 1G.
Upstream to the test system:
[root@pdc ~]# iperf -s
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 4] local 10.0.1.5 port 5001 connected with 10.0.1.63 port 54992
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 54.2 MBytes 45.4 Mbits/sec

Downsteam to my mac:

[root@pdc ~]# iperf -c 10.0.1.63
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.0.1.63, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 10.0.1.5 port 34428 connected with 10.0.1.63 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 122 MBytes 102 Mbits/sec
[root@pdc ~]#

This router in my view is very strong downsteam (to the clients), but weaker on upstream. I think the review graphs also show this. I have seen slightly faster downstream than I show here, cause I was doing some network backups but my upstream seems to have always been below 50mbps. My old wrt610 used to stop at 30 at 5 GHz , so I have seen a slight improvement in speed.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
That is probably the best you will get.

To get faster, you will need different hardware.

Asus USB N53 is a USB 2.0 device. USB 2.0 only goes so fast.

 

[stevech]

WiFi bridge.
Antenna to Ethernet.

 

[ikecomp]

I just received the 56u last week and spent all weekend testing it. On the 5ghz band with 40hz set I can consistently hit around 85 Mb/s. I validated this on 2 dell laptops as well as a Dlink DAP-1522 wireless bridge. For my setup, the signal has to travel about 18-25 feet through a hall closet, hall bathroom into the master bedroom. 2 big things that I can think of. Check to see if there are a lot of other routers on 5 ghz in your area. This could be causing interference. Second, I'm using padavan's modified firmware for the 56u. It's more streamlined and seems to perform better than the official firmware from asus.

At any rate, I hope you're able to get this working for your needs

 

[zolointo]

I think the unfulfilled speed expectation is solely due to the other PCs having inferior N or G adapters. That's all.

Biggest lesson learned over this is that 300/450Mbps on the box doesn't mean that I'm going to get that rate of transfer.

Appreciate all the suggestions pitched in this thread, and to smallnetbuilder in general as finding this kind of detailed information anywhere else is incredibly difficult.

 

[MotoX183]

Channel Change
Tried changing the broadcast channel of the 5GHz network, and it disappeared from view of the laptop.

Wired/Wireless Tests
I did some wired to wireless tests as was recommended.

Both PCs wired: Near 100Mbps transfer
Both PCs wireless: 30-35Mbps transfer
Laptop Wireless, Desktop Wired: 30-35Mbps transfer
Laptop Wired, Desktop Wireless: 60-80Mbps transfer!

So my desktop is dandy, but the laptop adapter ain't keeping up. I guess it's a single-channel NIC?

Would really like to have a proper conclusion, so I'll keep researching and post to this thread in case any wanderers come looking for the same issue.

I know this is an old thread, but I encountered the same situation of being hung around 30Mbps or so. This was Wireless-to-Wireless from a desktop to a laptop.

The desktop has a dual-band wireless-n adapter (The laptop didn't have dual-band) and when both devices were connected on the 2.4Ghz band throughput was limited to 30Mbps. I was able to get up to a max of 60Mbps by connecting the desktop to the 5Ghz band and the laptop to the 2.4Ghz band. Transfer speeds immediately jumped to 50+Mbps and averaged around 45-50ish or so.