Not getting full 20/5 service w/ verizon router

I've signed up for verizon's hi speed 20/5 service. This is what I have running now in my house. No on-line gaming or video downloading going on. Pinged several sites to take readings.

  1. PowerMac G5 - full 20 mbps DL speed (hardwired to router, OS X
10.4)

  1. older Dell XPS desktop (P3 mobo) 5-9 mbps DL (hardwired to router, Kubuntu)

  2. Dell XPS laptop (wireless, Win XP) 6-9 mbps DL

  1. Sony Vaio laptop (wireless, Win XP) same as #3

Why am I not getting full DL speed on 3 of 4 computers in my house? UL speeds are rather consistent across the board with all computers. The biggest disparity is DL speed.

Is a 802.11b/g compatible network card limited on DL speed? What is its top speed limit?

TIA

Reply to
david.black2
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And you expected a full speed with wireless ! just use direct connect to the modem and voila !!

Reply to
floffy

Ping does NOT give you the download speed of the connection. You can also have fairly high latency and still get good speed. I suggest you try one of the numerous online speed tests. Select one that is close to your location. RDNS says: pool-72-94-46-50.phlapa.fios.verizon.net which puts you in Philalphia. Try:

Looks like it automatically selects the closest server.

That's wrong. Kinda looks like the interface is stuck at 10baseT or

10mbits/sec. Please check the interface speed: ifconfig eth0 and look at the lights on your unspecified model wireless router to see if it's 10 or 100 mbits/sec.

What is your connetion speed for these wireless connection? It should be shown in the status page of the wireless connection or in the wireless client software. Take this number and divide by two. That's your absolute maximum thruput. If there are protocol issues (RWIN etc), then it's even slower than half. It also varies depending on whether you're using TCP or UDP for testing.

Yes. 802.11g is limited to a connection speed of 54Mbits/sec. With overhead, the maximum thruput is about half of that or 25 mbits/sec. A more accurate chart of maximum speeds can be found at:

A common problem is also that many wired and wireless router are just plain gutless and will not perform well on thruput tests. See test results at:

Also, check the firmware version of your unspecified model router to see if you're up to date.

In addition, you might find it useful to measure your performance between two machines on your LAN. One should be wired (probably the G5), while the other could be wired or wireless. If the test shows that you are performance limited even on a local connection, then the problem is obviously in the router. Search this newgroups for my posting on iPerf and JPerf. Tutorial:

JPerf is easier. See examples at bottom of tutorial:

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yes, I did hardwire both laptops and got the full speed (20/5mbps). What is the reason I can't get the same result as wireless?

My wireless network card says I can get 54 mbps. I don't get it and Verizon can't even answer my question why.

My Verizon hardware is a modem and router all in one (Actiontec MI424- WR rev.D)

Reply to
david.black2

Thank you! See reply to floffy.

The same thing happened when I had a Belkin N router as a comcast customer. Half of what I should have been getting for DL, about right for UL.

I just did a speed test on the Dell XPS laptop (with a distance of about 1' between computer and modem/router). 7.4 mbps DL and 4.7 mbps UL (which is close to what it should be for UL).

Reply to
david.black2

The modem router Actiontec MI424 doesn't have this info by the lights. This is verizon's proprietary modem/router combo. It's got to be designed to carry the max, that's the service I'm paying for.

I did the ifconfig on kubuntu and I'm not seeing anything about interface speed in the window. What should I be looking for?

Verizon never said anything about not getting full speed with wireless.

Reply to
david.black2

Is that bits or bytes per second.

11th commandment: Thou shalt not abrev.

You should get 70-100Mbits/sec for a directly connected ethernet laptop to laptop speed test.

That's the connection speed. You should get about half or less, about

25Mbits/sec thruput.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It's hardly proprietary. Actiontec is a 3rd party company.

It's actually not a very good router at all. I replaced mine.

Because wireless specs are not their business. You won't get a full 54mbps out of a wifi link. There's overhead involved. That and if there's ANY other wifi traffic nearby it would also decrease your speed. Neighbors with wifi, interference, etc, will all contribute to the overhead and there's not much you'll ever be able to do about it. Wired is faster. If you're hell bent for better speed, use a wired connection.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Bill: can you please suggest an alternative to verizon's hardware?

I wasn't expecting full 54 mbps, just the 20/5 I am paying for. I was also told by verizon that unlike comcast's cable delivered internet, I'm not subject to network traffic with FIOS.

Reply to
david.black2

On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:42:49 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in :

Bad assumption. It's a low end product that's probably just running out of steam. You'd probably get better results with a separate modem and

Reply to
John Navas

No, you're not getting the point. It's not verizon's hardware. It's WIFI itself. The 54mbps is total bandwidth not counting overheard and interference. You're NEVER going to see that much throughput using WiFi. That's just how it works. If you want wire speed, well, USE WIRE.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 12:20:03 -0500, "Bill Kearney" wrote in :

802.11n is capable of much more than 54 Mbps, depending on signal.
Reply to
John Navas

And you beleived the salesdroid? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...........

Reply to
Peter Pan

Not bill but check out the kyocera kr-1,kr-2, and travel routers..... The verizon data card plugs in and you can share the connection with whatever device picks up the signal (my tivo, pda and tablet can all use it, along with my laptops)

formatting link

Reply to
Peter Pan

Methinks the original question was for an alternative to whatever Verizon supplies with their FIOS fiber optic service:

I don't think a mobile EV-DO to Wi-Fi router will qualify.

Incidentally, the People's Republic of Santa Cruz CA uses KR1 routers on their buses for wireless connectivity. Some of them have GPS hung on to also act as vehicle location:

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Which isn't what he's using anyway. So, yet another useless response from Navas.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

I've got the Linksys equivalent, the WRT54G3G and it's been working quite well for 2 years now.

But that's irrevelant to his whinging about WiFi throughput.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

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