New D-Link DWL-5000AP and DWL-A650?

[creitzel]

Is anyone out there using this combination? I just installed it today, and the product literature states that I should be getting up to 72Mb/s transfer speeds, but the fastest I am seeing is around 20 Mb/s.

The access point is sitting about 8 feet from my laptop, and there are no obstructions in between.

Are there any tools that I can download to analyze my signal strength, SNR, etc?

I replaced a Dell True Mobile 802.11b access point with this equipment, and with it I was receiving up to 11 Mb/s ( the stated maximum ) even when the access point was in my basement, about 50 feet away with a concrete wall in between.

I'm relatively new to wireless technologies, so any info you guys can give about trouble shooting, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[color_copier]

well the 72Mbps is the bandwidth, actual throughput will be a lot less than that, so I am guessing the 20Mbps is still good. I think I've heard 40Mbps as the highest, but 20 is still more than twice as fast as any 802.11b product out there.

The person that said 40Mbps probably has a better/cleaner environment than yours.

[creitzel]

so the advertised bandwidth isn't the same as my throughput? I'm new to wireless, so I've been going off of my experience with things like cable modem ( advertised bandwidth up to 2 Mb/s measured throughput avg 2.0 Mb/s burst up to 4 Mb/s )

Even with my old setup the advertised bandwidth was up to 11 Mb/s and I was getting up to 7 Mb/s with my access point about 50 feet away and a concrete wall between it and my laptop. Just seems like I would get a little more out of this setup.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

[oshea85]

Not familiar with the model of AP you're using, but I'm assuming it's an 802.11a system, with proprietary modes to make it run at higher data rates.

Data rates do not equal throughtput. Even on a 100 Mbps switched network with low utilization, you will never see 100 Mbps throughput, but closer to 96-97 Mbps. Ethernet itself adds overhead to the data sent. 802.11whatever has around 50% overhead, due to "collision avoidance" transmission mechanism (unlike regular Ethernet, which uses collision detection; an Rf device can't talk and hear at the same time, so it can't detect a collision).

I've tested Cisco's 802.11a gear using NetIQ's Qcheck program, and the best I've seen is 20 Mbps throughput.

The other thing you have to consider is how you were testing. You have to be careful how you set up your test. Running a throughput testing program from a fast PC to a slow one will yield crappy througput results. Reverse it, and you will get a truer test of the link's bandwidth. If doing a hard disk-to-hard disk transfer, how fast can your drives read and write data?

Also, I've also seen that Linksys home 10/100 switches' throughput, with no wireless involved at all, tends to be well below average (mine tests out at around 60 Mbps.

[ERNtech]

Yea you will no be getting the advetized speeds but for these Dliknk products you need to eable turbo mode.

[wirelessboy]

hey chris

you did the impossible. even with a concrete wall u got 7 Mbps with a 802.11B AP, hey put that particular AP to auction man, please tell me the details of the site and the brand u were using.

Okay now 20 Mbps is quite good, even after tuning the antenna and power for 80%SNR, we got the same results for intel, D-link and SMC products.

just check out if you are getting full signal at all places, any tunning u have to do only with the switches u are using.

anyway it is 4 times as fast as 802.11B right?

but surely u can fight it out with the vendor over this, we can be happy with 50% throughput like 802.11B right?

wirelessboy