802.11g is 54mbps, is that my bandwidth?

54 Mb/s is the peak data rate on the wireless segment of that net connection. The STR (Sustained Transfer Rate) will be far less (roughly half) of the peak rate. And, as John N. implied, you are likely reporting a measurement of the end-to-end download speed over a long chain in which the wireless segment is the fastest link.

How would I do a bandwidth test? I am about to set up a wireless network and would love to be able to do some testing.

Online speed testers aren't going to measure your wireless bandwidth because the typical DSL or cable modem connections are much slower than what the wireless is capeable of doing. To test your *WIRELESS* speed (without being impacted by anything else) requires two computers. One is plugged directly into the wireless router with an ethernet cable. It should be running 100baseTX-FDX and be a fairly high horsepower machine. The other computer is your wireless test computer. Firewalls on both computers should be disabled to prevent them from becoming a connectivity problem.

On each machine, run IPerf:

your favorite operating systems. Setup the wired computer as a server. Run the client version on the wireless computer. With a

54Mbit/sec connection, you should see 15-24Mbits/sec thruput maximum. If you're getting about 15Mbits/sec, then turn *OFF* the 802.11b compatibility feature in the unspecified model Belkin router and try again. There are other settings that can screw up thruput.

This may also be of interest...

This is stolen from an Atheros PDF at:

some additions and corrections by me.

Non-overlapping Modulation Max Max Max Channels ------- | Link TCP UDP | | | | |

802.11b 3 CCK 11 5.9 7.1 802.11g (with 802.11b) 3 OFDM/CCK 54 14.4 19.5 802.11g only 3 OFDM 54 24.4 30.5 802.11g turbo 1 OFDM 108 42.9 54.8 802.11a 13 OFDM 54 24.4 30.5 802.11a turbo 6 OFDM 108 42.9 54.8

The paper claims that encryption is enabled for these calculations, but my numbers seem to indicate that these number are for encryption disabled. Dunno for sure. The Max TCP and Max UDP are the theoretical maximum thruput rates.

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

What kind of bandwidth test? If you are testing over the Internet, then you are probably measuring the speed of your Internet connection, not your wireless network.

More like: not the slowest link. Methinks the Internet backbone will be at least a little bit faster. ;)

Right you are. When I test D/L speed, I never use the backbone; so, of course, I assume everybody else would do it my way. ;-) ;-)

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

The simple way is to transfer a file from computer to computer and time how long it takes. After all, actual throughput is what really counts.

Tom's Networking uses Qcheck - A free Network Testing Utility