Wifi Download Speed Question

[Markeem]

Hey!

I need some help understanding this topic.

I have a R7000 as my wireless router and NAS Server which is connected to the R7000 using a wire. I am using my Laptop with the Intel 7260 Ac wireless adapter for testing. My maximum Internet download speed is consistent 5,7 megabytes/s ( Around 50mbits).


When I am close to the router with my laptop I am reaching around 20-24mb/s transfering data to my laptop from the NAS. At this range I can also max out my internet download speed.
When I am further away I am getting about 12-16mb/s when transfering files from my NAS to the laptop. The maximum download speed drops to 4,5mb/s at this range.

My question now: Why does the download speed drop even though I am able to transfer files over wifi at more than double of my download speed? What is the bottleneck in this case? Would overclocking the router help to achieve higher download speeds at higher range?

Hope I made this understandable

 

[thiggins]

Wireless throughput drops with signal level. It should drop by the same % regardless of whether the transfer is coming via internet or LAN.

The uncontrolled variable in your test is Internet download speed. What are you using as a test source?

 

[azazel1024]

It depends on WHY you are losing speed further away.

Yes, its a bit abnormal. In general if your wireless can handle 10MB/sec at distance X, it should handle that speed from any source (so long as the source is capable of at least that much speed).

That said, if some of it is dropped packets and that sort of thing, its likely to step a bit on any kind of download.

So depending on why things are slowing down, if it is generally just a reduction in SNR resulting in lower bandwidth, or if it is interference resulting in retransmits, that will change who things behave in terms of Wifi speed.

 

[stevech]

When I am further away I am getting about 12-16mb/s when transfering files from my NAS to the laptop. The maximum download speed drops to 4,5mb/s at this range.
Hope I made this understandable

Some conventions:
"mb/s" means to most of us: megabits/second
whereas
"mB/s" means to most of us: megabytes/second

And usually mega is "M" not "m"

Besides WiFi issues like signal strength and competition with neighbors' occasionally highly active WiFi, a NAS transfer rate will be influenced by average file size; larger = faster due to less file system overhead.

 

[Markeem]

Wireless throughput drops with signal level. It should drop by the same % regardless of whether the transfer is coming via internet or LAN.

The uncontrolled variable in your test is Internet download speed. What are you using as a test source?

Im using Jdownloader 2 with an Ul.to Premium account. When connected with a wire its always constantly 5,7mb/s without any drops, even when downloading huge amounts of data. We can cross off my Internet connection for possible causes

What you are saying is, that if my NAS-Laptop transfer rate drops from 24mb/s to 16mb/s(33% drop), my download speed should drop from 5,7mb/s to 3.8mb/s ( also 33 % drop). Is that right?


Edit: Sorry about the mb confusion. I am always talking about megabytes(1mb=1024kilobytes) in my post unless I am mentioning mbit.

 

[azazel1024]

Im using Jdownloader 2 with an Ul.to Premium account. When connected with a wire its always constantly 5,7mb/s without any drops, even when downloading huge amounts of data. We can cross off my Internet connection for possible causes

What you are saying is, that if my NAS-Laptop transfer rate drops from 24mb/s to 16mb/s(33% drop), my download speed should drop from 5,7mb/s to 3.8mb/s ( also 33 % drop). Is that right?


Edit: Sorry about the mb confusion. I am always talking about megabytes(1mb=1024kilobytes) in my post unless I am mentioning mbit.

No. Not really, its just that Wifi throughput can influence it.

My laptop can get 170-180Mbps over wifi to my router on file transfers on my LAN to/from my server. My wired internet connection is a SOLID 10MB/sec, 80Mbps down. Over wifi, it can hit 10MB/sec...but is also NOT basically a steady line. I'll see little dips here and there that I don't really see on a wired connection. Move a little further away and I am down to around 100-120Mbps over wifi on file transfers and instead of 80Mbps over the internet, I'll see a bit more like 70Mbps or so.

Wifi is a queer beast.

 

[Markeem]

So as long as your download speed doesnt exceed your maximum transfer speed, you will be able to max it out minus the loss at higher ranges.


As an example: 2 Internet connections in the same house, using the same router and clients. One connection has a max dl speed of 6 Megabyte/s and the other one 3 Megabytes/s.


The wifi client is at the exact same location for both downloads. At a higher range I would have a max dl speed of 4mb/s with the 6mb/s connection and 2 mb/s dl speed with the 3mb/s connection.

I'm pretty sure thats how DL speed behaves over wifi in general. Maybe there are some slight differences but it should be like that.

 

[sfx2000]

Hey!

I need some help understanding this topic.

I have a R7000 as my wireless router and NAS Server which is connected to the R7000 using a wire. I am using my Laptop with the Intel 7260 Ac wireless adapter for testing. My maximum Internet download speed is consistent 5,7 megabytes/s ( Around 50mbits).


When I am close to the router with my laptop I am reaching around 20-24mb/s transfering data to my laptop from the NAS. At this range I can also max out my internet download speed.
When I am further away I am getting about 12-16mb/s when transfering files from my NAS to the laptop. The maximum download speed drops to 4,5mb/s at this range.

My question now: Why does the download speed drop even though I am able to transfer files over wifi at more than double of my download speed? What is the bottleneck in this case? Would overclocking the router help to achieve higher download speeds at higher range?

Hope I made this understandable

Ethernet is full-duplex - if you're on the wire - you can talk and listen at the same time...

WiFi is half-duplex - talk or listen - one at a time

WiFi also has more overhead compared to Ethernet.

sfx

 

[Razor512]

If your download speed over the LAN is faster than over the WAN for wifi, then check the download type. Try downloading a torrent of Ubuntu, or downloading a file from a server which will allow you to make multiple connections using down them all.

When over wifi, being able to make multiple connections, will often have a bigger impact on improving speeds than on a wires connection.

For example, here is my R7000 over wifi with a single TCP connection for download

http://i.imgur.com/NrZzBNS.jpg

Now here it is when making 3 connections for download

http://i.imgur.com/dFwtVbk.jpg

Significantly higher overall throughput.

On a wired connection, single and multiple download connections do not make a difference in overall throughput unless a simultaneous upload and download is conducted, at which point, overall throughput will be higher.

Most of the free file hoster sites where you would use jdownloader, are generally not the most wifi friendly.

Overclocking the router will not help with your specific issue.

 

[KGB7]

Its very simple.

As distance increase, the speed decreases.


If speed from NAS is 60mbps at location X, then you will get up to 60mbps from ISP. So if your current speed from ISP is 50mbps at location X, then it will stay 50mbps.



If speed from NAS is 30mbps at location Z, then you will get up to 30mbps from ISP.


If you are at location Y and getting speed of 10mbps from ISP, then you will get 10mbps from NAS.

 

[azazel1024]

If you read his question though, he is getting

something like 60Mbps from his NAS at location A and 30Mbps from an internet downloader at location A.

At location B, he is getting something like 40Mbps from his NAS, but is down to 20Mbps from an internet downloader at location B.

That is not "typical" behavior as the NAS connection proves his Wifi link should be faster than his internet connection.

The point that is sort of pointed out though is that, depending WHAT he is connected to, it can still sometimes slow down an internet connection, especially something like JDownloader if Wifi speeds are dropping off, even if the wifi connection is faster than what he is getting out to the internet.

 

[KGB7]

/\
I understand the issue, I'm explaining in lamen tirms how it works, or should work in his case.

OP.

Go to Linux mint site and download 64version using torrent, its the first one on the list. That always maxes out my FiOS.
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

 

[stevech]

If you read his question though, he is getting

something like 60Mbps from his NAS at location A and 30Mbps from an internet downloader at location A.

At location B, he is getting something like 40Mbps from his NAS, but is down to 20Mbps from an internet downloader at location B.

That is not "typical" behavior as the NAS connection proves his Wifi link should be faster than his internet connection.

The point that is sort of pointed out though is that, depending WHAT he is connected to, it can still sometimes slow down an internet connection, especially something like JDownloader if Wifi speeds are dropping off, even if the wifi connection is faster than what he is getting out to the internet.

It would be helpful if you'd use "B" for bytes and "b" for bits, per second.

 

[KGB7]

It would be helpful if you'd use "B" for bytes and "b" for bits, per second.

He correctly used Mbps -Megabitspersecond.

 

[stevech]

He correctly used Mbps -Megabitspersecond.

OK. My bad.

 

[azazel1024]

I try to avoid confusion by writing Mbps for Megabits per second and MB/sec for Megabytes per second. But, yeah, bits always lower case, bytes always upper case.

 

[KGB7]

I try to avoid confusion by writing Mbps for Megabits per second and MB/sec for Megabytes per second. But, yeah, bits always lower case, bytes always upper case.

Yet you wrote Bytes with lower case b.

Just puling your leg dude...lol

 

[azazel1024]

Mon dieu!

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Simply when radio signal is at such a level(called threshold knee) and above, then this radio path can be comparable to a wire connection. When signal level starts dropping below that threshold the result is not really proportional. We can't say signal dropped 10% so speed drops 10%. Result is unkown.(one example, when signal is strong it can overcome the interference such as noise
but when signal is below that threshold it is suseptible to that noise) Radio signal is analog even if it carries digital data.