Network Performance

8 Dec 2009: I use a Netgear WNDR3700 as switch and wireless AP in our home network. It is connected by a power line adapter to the DSL/WLAN router (Zyxel P-660HW, the kind of thing you get for free by your DSL provider), which is on a different floor in the house. The WNDR3700 has 4 GigE ports and supports 801.11 a, g, and n.

When I connect a Windows XP laptop via cable to the router, I measure 270 Mbits/s in a TCP streaming test to the server using netperf.
So much for 1000 Mbits/s.

When I connect the same laptop to the 801.11g WLAN network, I measure 12 Mbits/s (via Netgear WNDR3700) and 10 Mbits/s (via Zyxel P-660HW). Connected to the 801.11a network (Netgear only), I have a throughput of 18 Mbit/s.
So much for 54 Mbits/s.

I have no 801.11n client yet.

I know that with wireless networks you can be lucky having a speed of half the nominal value. But 12-18 Mbit/s? The laptop is the the only client in the WLAN, it's two meters away from the AP, and there are no other 5G networks in the neighborhood. C'mon, it sucks.

The cable speed sucks too, but it is probably good enough for what I'm doing. Copying 4400 files with a total size of 20GB from the XP laptop to the server took 17 minutes.

9 Dec 2009: Perhaps, it's more a XP problem? My 6 years old T40 laptop, now running under OpenSolaris, performs better: I measure 400-500 Mbits/s depending on the direction of the streaming test.

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