[Question] How to Test Router's Wireless Speed?

[sentinelvdx]

Hi,

I've been researching but couldn't find a good tool or way to measure my wireless speed on my router.
To be more specific, I'm only looking to measure the speed from my laptop's wireless to my router.

My RT-N66U offers 450Mbps total speed between 2.4ghz and 5Ghz bands, and I want to see if it's reaching it or not, because the way I tested it, I can reach 40mbps on 2.4ghz and 56mbps on 5ghz... which is way below from what it's offered.

I've tried with iperf, Sweetspot (Android), and sending from ethernet connected PC with SSD (cat6 utp) to wifi's laptop.

thanks,

Thanks,

 

[thiggins]

How Fast Is Your Network? Five Ways To Measure Network Speed

Three More Ways To Measure Network Speed

What is wrong with the methods you used?

 

[sentinelvdx]

Thanks for those links, I'll check them and update my post.

They are throwing different results.
Iperf says I'm reaching 100Mbps on each wireless band, while sweetspot says I'm reaching 40-42Mbps on 2.4ghz, and 50-52Mbps on 5Ghz.

My router (RT-N66U) offers 450Mbps, but I never reached it.
On the previous firmware the highest speed I could reach was 56Mbps on 2.4g and 78mbps on 5g

I even tried merlin's firmware but it's the same thing.

 

[thiggins]

It is typical for different programs to give different results. IPerf in particular is very dependent on its settings.

You need an N900 or N450 (3x3) adapter in 40 MHz bandwidth mode to get a full 450 Mbps link rate. Best case actual throughout is usually at least 50% of the link rate in use.

56 and 78 Mbps sound like link rates not actual throughput. they also sound like you are using a 1x1 device. Maximum link rate will be 150 Mbps with 40 MHz bandwidth.

 

[sentinelvdx]

Sorry I'm no expert, I'm just testing 1x1 with my laptop and with my phone, I don't have an N900 adapter. Then it makes sense not reaching full bandwith.

But as you say, I have my 5ghz in 40mhz and I'm not reaching more than 52-53Mbps on my LAN (with the laptop really close to the router).

Do you suggest contacting ASUS to report this? or there's anything else I could check that could be affecting?

 

[Igb]

To report that your laptot network adapter is slow? Because that seems like the only reason for your poor performance.

Do you have separated ssid for 2.4 and 5ghz network? Is advisable if you want to be sure what frequency you are using. 5ghz tends to perform better on short distances with few obstacles, with 2.4ghz half of the theoretetical result (with 1x1, 150/2 mbps) is a good result.

Regards

 

[sentinelvdx]

To report that your laptot network adapter is slow? Because that seems like the only reason for your poor performance.

Do you have separated ssid for 2.4 and 5ghz network? Is advisable if you want to be sure what frequency you are using. 5ghz tends to perform better on short distances with few obstacles, with 2.4ghz half of the theoretetical result (with 1x1, 150/2 mbps) is a good result.

Regards

Yes, I'm using inet 2.4g and inet 5g as SSID's to identify them.
And when testing them I do it close to the router, just to verify speeds without obstacles.
But as I said before... I cannot reach more than 56mbps on 5ghz... :S and 40-42mbps on 2.4ghz

 

[bbb0777]

Yes, I'm using inet 2.4g and inet 5g as SSID's to identify them.
And when testing them I do it close to the router, just to verify speeds without obstacles.
But as I said before... I cannot reach more than 56mbps on 5ghz... :S and 40-42mbps on 2.4ghz

What wifi adapter is in your laptop? Almost everyone's is fairly sucky unless they upgraded it themselves. Upgrading a wifi card is about the same difficulty level as changing out a RAM chip.

You could get a new one via Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Intel-Wireless-Adapters/BrandSubCat/ID-1157-31, though I'd suggest Ebay for better prices.

Default is you'd want to get the Intel 6205 (wireless N) or Intel 7260 (wireless AC). Or if you use Bluetooth, the equivalent Intel cards that have Bluetooth in them. Your router isn't AC...but it's not that much more expensive to get an Intel 7260 card and just be done with it for the future, so I'd probably recommend that.

When I had an N-66U, I upgraded the card that had come in my (fairly nice) laptop, and went from something like 40Mbps to 85Mbps (sorry I don't remember exactly, but it was significant). Google first though, to try to find out if your laptop has a whitelist of cards it will only accept, though.

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

I am considering downloading the speedtest webapp and put it on a local web server and do the test. Has anyone tried that ?