How to tell if I am getting wireless N speeds

silvine

I am not sure if I am getting full wireless N speeds from my iMac and Linksys WRT610N router.

I tried to transfer a 10GB file from my iMac to another PC on my network (this PC is plugged directly into the router) and it took over two hours. So I logged into my router on my Mac and enabled Wireless N only. When I applied the changes, Airport immediately lost its connection and the only way I could get access the router again was by reseting the router.

Any ideas? How long should it take to transfer a 10GB file on a wireless N network?

Talisman

Open Network Utility (Applications > Utilities) and select the Airport interface it will tell you what the link speed is.

On my home network, 130 Mbit/s gives approximately 11-12 Megabytes per second in terms of transfer speed.

The speed achieved can be influenced by wireless interference, walls, radiators.

snappieT

Not all iMacs support N (and from the sounds of it, yours doesn't, if it couldn't connect to an N-only network). There are firmware updates for some models available, but not all.

See http://www.apple.com/wifi/80211/

silvine

snappieT wrote: »

Not all iMacs support N (and from the sounds of it, yours doesn't, if it couldn't connect to an N-only network). There are firmware updates for some models available, but not all.

See http://www.apple.com/wifi/80211/

Mine is a 2010 iMac so it must have wireless N. I'll check the settings in network utility and post back.

Type 17

A 2010 Mac definitely has N capabilities without any extra adjustment/update.

Assuming your router also is N-specced, you should try deleting the record of the network from the Mac's Network preferences and join it again, with N-only settings active on the router.

silvine

I tried deleting and re-adding but it won't recognise my password. Weird. I'll have to reset it again.

Does the router channel make a difference?

Talisman

The router channel makes a difference in terms of interference. If there are other wireless networks nearby using the same channel or adjacent channels then it will reduce the network performance.

This may be techie overload but the wireless network uses a 20Hz range. Each of the wireless channels is a 5Hz increment on the lower channel. So for example if the router is set to channel 5, it is using radio frequencies that are assigned to channel 3 (-10Hz) up to channel 7 (+10Hz) so if there are any wireless networks nearby that are using those frequencies it will affect your network performance.

Try switching the channel to the lowest or highest and see if that improves things.

silvine

Thanks for the responses. My router is working again and the reception is fine. I checked the speed the Network app and it says its 144 Mbit/s. Is this what I should expect from a wireless N router? If so I'll leave it alone.

CivilServant

You'll never get full wireless N speeds. If you're getting over 4MB/sec then it's working. 10GB over two hours suggests 1.4MB/sec ,well within G speeds.

stimpson

I have a WRT610N. Took me a while to get it working with the MacBook at N speeds.

It turns out that Macs ( or at least my Macbook) only support N speeds on 2.4GHz. The great thing about the router is that it lets you run 2 separate wireless networks on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Using a dedicated band for only N devices means that they don't drop down to G speeds (like a mixed network when there is a G device on the network). I used the 5GHz band for my old phone as it only had G speeds.

Attached is a screenshot of my settings page

silvine

Got it working thanks.