Poor performance

[blargman]

Hi,

I've got a wireless network setup that I'm having problems with and I'm curious what people might think would be a good idea for fixing it. EIther upgrading or what have you.

Currently i have a Cisco/Linksys E4200(v1) setup in a small room and about 20 ft from that room and through 2 oudoor walls I have a WES610n bridge setup in the living room. The problem is with streaming. The WES610n is only able to get speeds up to about 6mbps. If I move away from the WES610n and towards the router about 5-6ft with my MBpro I can get 150+mbps plus on N with it.

I'm curious if there are any tips for a higher powered router, upgrade/mod for my router or a better bridge? I can't really EASILY move the router closer though I may end up having to if I'm unable to find an alternative. I can't stream Plex videos from my plex media server at anything higher than 3-4mbps.

As for the surrounding area, I live in the outer suburbs and there's not much interference at all. There are 2 other wireless routers near me and they are both on G only and I've configured my router to stay on a channel far away from them. Currently setup on channel 11. They are all on 6.

I'm not worried about cost or anything. I really just want this wireless to work.

 

[stevech]

how did you measure 6Mbps. The indicated WiFi connection speed is far greater than the net (after overhead speed). Figure on 60% net throughput for some indicated WiFi "air link speed in Mbps).

I think Netflix and the like work fine at a stable, 2Mbps or so. It takes an ideal signal to stream on WiFi at more than a few Mbps.
WiFi is not a good medium for streaming - too many glitches in latency, competition for airtime with neighbors' WiFi near the same channel, etc.

A super high power router won't fix the weak signal from the client box.

If you can't reposition either/both ends, or change the router to a different channel (1, 6 or 11), then maybe you need to go to another medium. Assuming you just can't get a cat5 cable to that place, then HPNA or MoCA would be alternatives. See the forum of that name herein.

 

[blargman]

how did you measure 6Mbps. The indicated WiFi connection speed is far greater than the net (after overhead speed). Figure on 60% net throughput for some indicated WiFi "air link speed in Mbps).

I think Netflix and the like work fine at a stable, 2Mbps or so. It takes an ideal signal to stream on WiFi at more than a few Mbps.
WiFi is not a good medium for streaming - too many glitches in latency, competition for airtime with neighbors' WiFi near the same channel, etc.

A super high power router won't fix the weak signal from the client box.

If you can't reposition either/both ends, or change the router to a different channel (1, 6 or 11), then maybe you need to go to another medium. Assuming you just can't get a cat5 cable to that place, then HPNA or MoCA would be alternatives. See the forum of that name herein.

The speed I was able to determine with two things,the WES610N bridge has a page that shows the network stats and projected throughput speed. It usually bounces between 6.5mbps and 11. I am also able to confirm it just by switching up my Plex streaming settings. It has options for 720p@3mbps, 720p@4mbps,1080p@8mbps and 1080p@10mbps iirc. Anything above 4mbps just won't work. Constant slowdowns. As you say its obvious that streaming is much more demanding than other things.

I can't get a better client perhaps? Unfortunately both MoCA and HPNA would require running wire which I can't do. At that point I might as well just run cat5. :\

Would something like this work? http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/pr...range-extenders_stcVVcatId554677VVviewcat.htm I'm not familiar with them. If I had an outlet in between my client and router.

 

[stevech]

Does the bridge show the indicated signal strength of the router's signal? What is the router? Is it placed optimally to avoid blockage in the RF path?


For MoCA: no TV coax in place?
For HPNA: uses home power outlets. Kinda flaky but better than WiFi.

 

[blargman]

Does the bridge show the indicated signal strength of the router's signal? What is the router? Is it placed optimally to avoid blockage in the RF path?


For MoCA: no TV coax in place?
For HPNA: uses home power outlets. Kinda flaky but better than WiFi.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought HPNA was phone based. No tv coax at all. Router is a Cisco/Linksys e4200. The bridge shows the signal strength yes. It's fairly poor usually 40-50%. I've got the router setup so it's in the window. So the first outdoor wall it goes through is just a window. To get an idea of the setup, the house is L shaped and the router is on one inside wall of the L and the room with the bridge is opposite.

I was thinking if I went with a repeater/extender like I posted, I could put something in the vertex of the L area and that may help. What do you guys think?

 

[thiggins]

I think you are seeing link rates, not actual throughput. If you are really getting 6 Mbps link rates, that is pretty poor.

Since both router and bridge are dual-band, they could be connecting on 5 GHz. You can control this by shutting off the 5 GHz radio on the router.

Also make sure you are using WPA2/AES wireless security. Anything else will limit maximum link rates to 54 Mbps (802.11g).

You are correct that HPNA is phoneline. HomePlug is powerline networking.

I would try a pair of 200 Mbps or 500 Mbps HomePlug AV adapters. You should get much more stable and higher throughput.

Note that newer windows may have metalized UV coatings that could be knocking down your signal.

 

[blargman]

I am going to at least try an RE1000 and see if it helps. For 70$ it is worth trying I guess. I worry about powerline networking as my HIFI is on that outlet. My super sensitive speakers would probably pick up on just about any RFI from the HOMEPLUG device. I appreciate the help guys. I'll post results once I get it. I hope they are good

 

[thiggins]

Don't waste your time with repeaters. Try the powerline. Get one with filtered outlet built in if you are concerned about noise.

 

[blargman]

Time already wasted. It gained about 10% signal strength but the Link Quality on the WES610n stayed at 6.5mbps Oh well. I will get a HOMEPLUG device today and see how that goes.

 

[sfx2000]

I would check out Buffalo WLI-TX4-AG300 - dual band 802.11n to ethernet bridge - bit fiddly, but a great device and very stable once sorted...

I wouldn't waste time with the Linksys WET/WES 610 devices...