Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 23:32 Post subject: Ubuntu wireless N results
I've been researching using wireless n on a mythtv ubuntu based system. I have had first hand experience with a wrt350n and wmp300n network adapter. My results don't impress me so I wanted to get others opinions and results.
My results so far:
Rate feedback from wmp300n ranges from 14 Mbs to 51 Mbs. It stays on the lower end of the range for 80 % of the time.
Signal quality from router ranges from 58% to 70%.
The incoming byte rate for videos for the media computer ranges from 600 KBs for dvd to 2 MBs for HD.
So based off of what I have seen the media computer (25 ft away) works but it seems to be close when the incoming media is 2 MBs and the wmp300n network adapter is at 14 Mbs.
The problem I have is that I want to have 3 - 4 media computers connected wirelessly. I don't see this happening with the current router and I don't feel confident about it happening with a dual band router. I would like to hear from anyone that has a similar system running or possible ideas on how to.
Thanks
What you've described sounds as though you're not actually using N spec. From that range and with that signal, you should have a link rate well over G spec's 54mbps limit. You failed to mention some basic info such as your exact firmware build, what encryption you're trying to use (N spec only allows WPA2 AES or none), and what drivers you're using for the wmp300n. _________________ Read the forum announcements thoroughly! Be cautious if you're inexperienced.
Available for paid consulting. (Don't PM about complicated setups otherwise)
Looking for bricks and spare routers to expand my collection. (not interested in G spec models)
OK this what I have and know:
firmware version DD-WRT v24 sp2 (10/10/09) mega build 13064
WEP encryption
wmp300n driver - 802.11 Linux STA driver the link is http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
Ubuntu's network software has a bug. It doesn't display the speed correctly as in my situation mainly displaying 14Mbs.
Signal quality 61 - 71 % via dd-wrt software.
I decided to disable the encryption and do a file transfer test. I copied a 1.2GB file from a lan computer to my wireless computer. This is what I got from viewing my network history graph:
Average speed transfer - 9 MBs or 72 Mbs with spikes up over 100 Mbs.
Then I increased the tx power from 71mW to 84 mW and ran the file transfer test again.
Average speed transfer - 10 MBs or 80 Mbs with spikes up over 125 Mbs.
I then enabled the mac filter to only accept the wireless computer.
Based off the results it seems the wep and the ubuntu software issue were the problems.
One other question concerning the number of computers that can be used on a network. The current wireless computer uses between 15 - 20 Mbs for a HD video and the wireless router is only really good for half of its rate (270 / 2 = 135 Mbs). In theory I could have 6 wireless connections. It seems that I remember that the more traffic you have the worse the signal gets. So I'm still not sure how many wireless connections could be made at one time.
Based off the results it seems the wep and the ubuntu software issue were the problems.
Unfortunatly it's a known issue..Wpa supplicant is not really efficient.
Quote:
One other question concerning the number of computers that can be used on a network. The current wireless computer uses between 15 - 20 Mbs for a HD video and the wireless router is only really good for half of its rate (270 / 2 = 135 Mbs). In theory I could have 6 wireless connections. It seems that I remember that the more traffic you have the worse the signal gets. So I'm still not sure how many wireless connections could be made at one time.
In fact in Internet access normal use each client-router request doesn't happened(hopefully) at the same time. this allow yo to have lot of clients connected.
