Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 17:11 Post subject: Slow transfer rate on wrt54gl (and other question)
Hi folks
I have a wrt54gl (v1.1) set up as a repeater for a ssid on which I have no control at all (it's the sid broadcasted by my university in the building in front of mine, and the signal is too poor for laptops to connect to it from my room, but the wrt54gl gets 30% of it with +7dbi antennas... Well, just to say that I can't act on it at all).
This repeater-enabled routeur has a static WAN ip (194.167.73.245), and brodcast a ssid different from the original one, to avoid possible conflicts). Repeater implicates that it creates a new subnet (192.168.1.x), on which I have full control... That's much better. The WRT54GL is running the dd-wrt v24 pre-sp2 available in the Download section... Can't remember the svn though, I'm not at the university right now, I'll be there on Monday.
Each client connects wirelessly to the repeater (in fact, I might connect my two laptops on ethernet ports, but my friends connect wirelessly from other rooms).
Recently, with some friends, we decided to try to share my huge external hdd (well, two hdd enclosed in a rack : 2.5 TB) on the network, using the Windows file sharing service. Why not. But friends couldn't get more than 25-45 kB/s when trying to get something. At first, I thought it was because they had a poor signal in their room, so I tried with both my laptops being 1 meter away from the router. No go, still the same crappy rate.
Note that if I plug my two laptops in ethernet ports, there's no problem at all. Also note that creating a FTP server on one of my laptops allows me to reach 140 kB/s with the other laptop... Less crappy, but still crappy. Also, when trying to create a game server on my laptop, to play with other wireless clients, their ping is crappy (for a local game, I mean)
I'm well aware that I won't reach an amazing transfer rate, but I don't know why it wouldn't be possible to reach 3-4 MB/s, as it's not related at all to the outside WAN part...
Thanks for your help, and for the amazing job done here !
Thomas
PS : I also just thought about 2 other things :
- Is it possible to use the repeater so that it locks on a mac adress that broadcast the ssid I want to repeat ? (the hotspots in my university broadcasts on channel 1, 6 and 11, so the repeater often switches channel, and it's pretty annoying, I'd rather lock on a MAC, so that the channel won't change) If not, is it a feature that might be included in next releases ??
- Is it possible to see which client is using what amount of bandwith ? The graphs will only show the traffic for all clients, but I'd like to check which IP is actually dowloading and take all the bandwith !
Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 5266 Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 17:41 Post subject:
Make sure you followed all guidelines in the peacock thread sticky. With a repeater you should be able to set a distinct ssid to connect to. _________________ Warning: I'm "out of my element!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjYJ7zZ9BRw&NR=1
As I said, the university broadcasts the SAME ssid, on three different channels (1, 6, 11). That's why I'd rather lock on a MAC (that links to a specific channel).
For everything else (including my most important topic, ie poor transfer rate), of course I've followed the basics in the peacock topic But still a no go
Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 5266 Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 18:08 Post subject:
CanardWC88 wrote:
As I said, the university broadcasts the SAME ssid, on three different channels (1, 6, 11). That's why I'd rather lock on a MAC (that links to a specific channel).
I think we misunderstood each other.
You could try mac filtering if you wish to exclude devices you don't want to connect to. Some indication that mac filtering doesn't work in repeater modes, but I haven't tried it.
I was referring to the ssid that you create in your repeater. If you set it to a specific channel, (rather than auto)it might prefer that channel.
Poor wireless lan speed is often a result of failing to do a hard reset properly, or using a bad build. Use 11296. _________________ Warning: I'm "out of my element!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjYJ7zZ9BRw&NR=1
In fact, there's no channel choice in the ssid I create, while in repeater mode... Or maybe I missed it, but I'm pretty sure it's not there. However the mac filtering list is a pretty good idea, i'll give it a try and see if available in repeater mode.
Did a check though, i'm running the 11522 (which is the "preSP2" corresponding to my wrt54gl, according to the "supported hardware" section)...
I'll do a 30-30-30 reset to see if it solves the slow rate pb. Is there any other known origin for this ?
Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 5266 Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 20:36 Post subject:
CanardWC88 wrote:
In fact, there's no channel choice in the ssid I create, while in repeater mode... Or maybe I missed it, but I'm pretty sure it's not there. However the mac filtering list is a pretty good idea, i'll give it a try and see if available in repeater mode.
Did a check though, i'm running the 11522 (which is the "preSP2" corresponding to my wrt54gl, according to the "supported hardware" section)...
I'll do a 30-30-30 reset to see if it solves the slow rate pb. Is there any other known origin for this ?
You have to set the channel prior to going to repeater mode...it will stick then, (unless it goes looking) according to the status once you go into repeater mode. If you want to do this, hard reset and then reconfigure.
That supported devices database was written by martians. It bears no relationship to life here on earth. Use 11296.
I rolled back to 11296, with a 30/30/30 reset before downgrading, and after. Then I did a complete set up as repeater mode, "saving" evrything, and at last I applied the settings. Unit reboots, ssid is broadcasted, ...
Ultimate check : file transfer between my two laptops : ~180ko/s with Windows, 250ko/s if I create a ftp server.
Still no good, but it's improved a bit.
Is there anything else I should try ??
But still a no go