[FTTP] Wireless performance of Netgear WNR3500

[#1]

Am I just being picky now i have a 100mg internet connection or are these figures just not up to scratch.
I've configured the router to Channel 6 ( the best performing channel ) and I'm testing with no other wireless devices active from my 3 month old MacBook Pro
These are the results.
Speed test from mybroadbandspeed.co.uk

Same room
up to 145MbpsMode
Today 18:05 91486 kbps (11.4MB/s) 15193 kbps (1.9MB/s)
Today 18:06 91288 kbps (11.4MB/s) 15189 kbps (1.9MB/s)
Today 18:08 91227 kbps (11.4MB/s) 15198 kbps (1.9MB/s)

up to 300MbpsMode
Today 18:11 86717 kbps (10.8MB/s) 15191 kbps (1.9MB/s)
Today 18:11 88893 kbps (11.1MB/s) 15195 kbps (1.9MB/s)
Today 18:10 86369 kbps (10.8MB/s) 15194 kbps (1.9MB/s)

2 Rooms away
up to 145MbpsMode
Today 18:16 35275 kbps (4.41MB/s) 13836 kbps (1.73MB/s)
Today 18:16 49367 kbps (6.17MB/s) 14685 kbps (1.84MB/s)
Today 18:15 37238 kbps (4.65MB/s) 15074 kbps (1.88MB/s)
up to 300MbpsMode
Today 18:21 37742 kbps (4.72MB/s) 8471 kbps (1.06MB/s)
Today 18:21 41327 kbps (5.17MB/s) 11495 kbps (1.44MB/s)
Today 18:19 46806 kbps (5.85MB/s) 11700 kbps (1.46MB/s)
My Mac is saying the link speed is 144 Mbit/s regardless of the speed setting I select above.
I though standard 2.4ghz N was supposed to be up to 144 and 5.0ghz was supposed to be up to 300....
Would I be right in thinking 5ghz N is only possible if you have a netgear card in your computer ?
Are these figures reasonable ?
I've just ordered an Airport Extreme on line to see if that help as we have 2 MacBook Pro's and iPhone which are the most important devices.
Si

[#2]

I would've though it was natural that speed drops off as range increases. The physical connection to the router is no doubt staying constant, it's just the throughput drops over distance. 40 down / 10 up over wifi sounds very good to me and if you were wanting to do some heavy downloading and maximise the connection, you'd just dock your MBP somewhere and plug in ethernet.
I've got a little Acer Revo which was only £265 and I have that on 24/7 connected to a 4TB NAS and ethernet to the router. I then use my vaio or MBP (or indeed my phone most of the time, HTC Desire) for general surfing and to queue up downloads on the Revo (all the ports are open so I can remotely set downloads going from any other device). Since you're an Apple fan, maybe get a little AppleTV for this purpose. You could also run XBMC on it as a nice little HTPC as I do with the Revo.

[#3]

Mudstuff,
I'm a little shocked by your post as you appear to be mirroring my life exactly.........I'm running XBMC on the Revo connected to a 4TB NAS box with open ports to remotely add downloads.....via my MacBook Pro or HTC Desire  LOL Are you called Simon ????
Back on Topic, I'd expect a router that boasts 300mbs to give better then 40mbs in the next room.
Like I said I suspect this is due to incompatible wireless hardware so when I my Airport Extreme arrives I'm hoping to see wireless improvements.
I guess I just posted this as I was disappointed at a super duper router giving low through put.
It goes without saying hardwired through put is blistering !!!!!! In fact my nas box ( QNAP TS 209 ) has such a low processor it's unable to achieve more than 2.03 MB/s while downloading overnight from UseNet servers but when I put my usenet client ( SABnzbD ) onto a proper computer I achieved 11.04 MB/s ( thats a 12gb file in about 9 mins ) !!!!!!!! I can live with that :0)
Si

[#4]

LMAO! No my real name is Luke. Hopefully the Airport Extreme will boost the throughput as admittedly it is quite a drop, just be prepared if it doesn't boost it that much. I recently got some homeplug adaptors so know only too well how throughput can drop off. I've put a WDTV in my bedroom to stream from the NAS downstairs over the powerline and most films play fine but high bitrate content and 1:1 backed up bluray aren't playing ball. I'm going to monitor the speeds and try some different sockets. I'm waiting for the new Netgear adaptors rated at 500mbps with gigabit ports and reckon that'll clear everything up but I'm going to see if I can squeeze any more out of the current ones which should give real performance of 50-60meg which is more than enough. They're clearly under-performing, possibly being a new house, there's more breakers or each floor is on a different ring...
Isn't technology great? Nice usenet speed btw!

[#5]

Homeplugs are bum rubbish. Best thing i ever did was use my home telephone wiring to pass ethernet. This means I get 100mg ( not a varying Homeplug or Wireless bandwidth ) to all my rooms 🙂 Is this something you could do as you'll be flood wired for telephone cable.
Homeplugs are fine for low bandwidth connections but you can't beat wire !!!!!
BTW I play MKV files at 1080p which are mostly are around 20gb and I never see any problems 🙂
Given everyone used cordless phones I think changing the phone points to be ethernet so very sensible
Si

[#6]

Good point, I may look into it, since the master socket is in my lounge next to the router and I have an extension in the bedroom...

[#7]

I was having major problems with the wireless on this cable router. Clients would not connect first time and then randomly disconnected. Wireless performance was also not great.
In the end I disabled the wireless and used an old external access point which I never had any problems with. I think that privacy feature (WPS) makes it go screwy whether it's on or off.
I've tried Powerline homeplugs before. Not bad, but windows networking did not work well between pcs and NAS.
I've since taken the plunge and run Cat 5e wired sockets and never looked back. I wasted so much time fiddling with wireless and wireless repeaters.

[#8]

I've not had any connection issues with this router but that could be down to me turning off all wireless security and using an access list instead.
Wired is the way to go and as long as you have wiring in your walls for phone sockets your not using then seamless 100mg networking can be added. There is no need to go gigabit in my option as streaming the heaviest biggest files won't be a problem over a 100mg network.
Si

[#9]

Thanks for the update Si, I may do the same. I currently use a Netgear DGN2000 and have wireless security enabled but suppose I could limit by MAC address or whatever instead.
I'm going to do some testing with IxChariot tonight on the powerline adaptors and see what speeds I'm getting from them and see if it improves being moved to a different socket. If not I'll look into running some Cat5 to the bedroom (it's directly above the lounge so should be straight forward) as it would be nice to be able to play everything upstairs and not double check the filesize and bitrate first.

[#10]

It would be interesting to see your speed test results using a hard-wired connection for comparison.

[#11]

Is that aimed at me ?
Si

[#12]

Yes, sorry Si

[#13]

Will do those tests tonight 

[#14]

This thread definately has the "Geek Factor", I love it

[#15]

How's your wireless performance Jonny ? Your an FTTP veteran LOL
Si