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TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

nafester
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-03-2013

TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

Hiya,
Before anyone says anything - I've checked the forums and it seems that it's a given that this router performs really poorly on WiFi. That's fine, it's free so I wasn't expecting anything amazing. I did just want to check if that's the case with mine or if there's a fault.
I'm getting almost 70mbit down and 15mbit upstream via ethernet but on wireless about 0.9mbit down, and 10mbit up. Is that really what I can expect from this device or is there something I can do to improve it? I have absolutely no need for a super powered wireless connection as my main pc is wired up, but I would like to be able to stream youtube and skyplayer on my laptop without a fuss so under 1mbit is going to be a problem. Does anyone have any tips to getting that up to about 5 or 10mbit downstream?
FWIW, I've used my WiFi scanner app to find the empty channels and tried them, no joy.
If the router isn't really capable of performing better, does anyone have any suggestions for a decent enough ~£30 replacement?
Thanks in advance!
5 REPLIES 5
Blim
Grafter
Posts: 462
Registered: ‎06-03-2012

Re: TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

Hi, Welcome to the forums.
I found a trick to get better performance. This is how I do it.
With my laptop connected to the wireless I would open up a command prompt and enter:- ping -t 192.168.1.254
Leave that running and change the wireless channel until I found the best ping (lowest ping with no time-out's).

I got this working at full speed of my connection and it didn't drop much when moving away from the router.
Hope this helps.
Bright
Grafter
Posts: 363
Registered: ‎02-02-2013

Re: TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

Quote from: nafester
I'm getting almost 70mbit down and 15mbit upstream via ethernet but on wireless about 0.9mbit down, and 10mbit up.

Are you measuring those figures with the same computer or is the ethernet figure on your desktop and the wifi figure on your laptop? If the latter, what do you get when you connect the laptop with an ethernet cable?
Are you measuring the wifi figure with the laptop next to the router?
nafester
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-03-2013

Re: TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

Quote from: Bright
Are you measuring those figures with the same computer or is the ethernet figure on your desktop and the wifi figure on your laptop? If the latter, what do you get when you connect the laptop with an ethernet cable?
Are you measuring the wifi figure with the laptop next to the router?

That's a good point, I was measuring with my laptop (and smartphone) for the wireless, and my desktop for the ethernet. I'll plug in my laptop later and see what it gets on ethernet. All of the wifi tests I tried earlier were with the laptop 3 feet from the router though.
Blim - thanks very much, that's a great idea I'll give it a try.
Bright
Grafter
Posts: 363
Registered: ‎02-02-2013

Re: TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

3 feet should be close enough  Wink
But it would be good to make sure you're comparing apples with apples.
Smartphones/tablets tend to have lower throughput capabilities on wireless but nowhere near that low!!
If you get good results with the ethernet cable on the laptop, the next step would probably be to try manually setting the wifi channel and stepping through the channels to see if you can get a good one. Tools like inSSIDer can give you a picture of which channels are already in use by adjacent wireless access points, but bear in mind that other things can cause interference in this part of the spectrum, so just because you can't see another wifi user on a channel, doesn't necessarily mean there isn't RF noise there from elsewhere. Even so, such low throughput from 3 feet away does suggest something else may be going on.
Good luck with your testing!
nafester
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-03-2013

Re: TG582n Wireless Performance (or lack thereof)

Whelp, it seems that the router fluctuates in quality at different times of the day. I expect that's due to things out of my control - other networks and the like. I've managed to find a reasonably stable connection on channel 12 though (about 15mbit), so that's good enough for me.
Thanks for the help guys!