Help with Virgin superhub and WRT54GL

Slinkie

Slinkie

Slinkie

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Joined
21 Oct 2002
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UK
Hi all,

I recently had my cable upgraded from 10mb/s to 60mb/s. In doing so I also got a new superhub.

From the superhub, over my wireless network to my laptop it get around 40mb/s when I am next to it. However, the wireless signal to my gaming PC upstairs is rubbish!

What I want to do is turn the superhub to modem mode and send the signal through my WRT54GL. However, when I do this I get a good signal to my PC upstairs but only a max of around 12-13mb/s download.

What I need is help with either increasing the efficiency of the superhubs wireless strength or help with setting up my WRT54GL to increase speed accross the network.

Notes:
WRT54GL firmware is tomato 1.28
I have an n card in my laptop and a g card in my desktop.
Being right next to the WRT54GL does nothing to improve the download speed where as I get max when right next to the superhub and very poor when on my gaming pc upstairs.

Thanks all
 
Can't imagine you'll get much more out of a wireless g card, though the main issue is going to be the WRT54GL's WAN port isn't good enough for 60Mb. You'd be best upgrading it to something else, one of the Asus routers would be my recommendation.
 
Broken Hope said:
Can't imagine you'll get much more out of a wireless g card, though the main issue is going to be the WRT54GL's WAN port isn't good enough for 60Mb. You'd be best upgrading it to something else, one of the Asus routers would be my recommendation.
Click to expand...

Thanks, what I don't understand is the router speed is 54mb/s and I have a n card in my laptop so why am I only getting 12mb/s when right next to it. I'd be happy to get 40mb/s over wireless for the time being while I look into my options for new routers etc.

There must be some settings in the router to help increase the speed?
 
I would suggest something other than the WRT54GL, it doesn't have the WAN-LAN throughput for your connection. Even if you was directly wired to the WRT54GL you wouldn't reach max speed of your connection.
 
I still don't understand though, if the router has a connection speed of 54mb/s and the network card (which is capable of those speeds) in the laptop which is next to the router but connected via wireless, why is the speed limited to 12mb/s rather than the 54mb/s?

I just want to understand how it should work
 
Slinkie said:
I still don't understand though, if the router has a connection speed of 54mb/s and the network card (which is capable of those speeds) in the laptop which is next to the router but connected via wireless, why is the speed limited to 12mb/s rather than the 54mb/s?

I just want to understand how it should work
Click to expand...

You might be too close (weird I know) or there is heavy congestion in the area?

This is by the by anyway as the WRT54GL is NOT good enough anymore, it's max is about 40 Mbits.

I personally have the Linksys E4200 for £100.

1. Buy a N router and N cards to get better speeds.
2. Cable it.
 
54Mb/s is the theoretical maximum throughput, this speed is never obtained in real life because you are not in a controlled environment, you have surfaces that the signal can bounce off of and interfere with itself, you have some surfaces that the signal will be absorbed by, others that it'll pass through but lose signal strength by partial absorption in doing so. 802.11g uses 2.4GHz which is very crowded these days, it only allows for 3 non-overlapping channels, and if you have more than 3 wi-fi networks in the area then there will be some overlapping which will cause interference.

As you move further away the signal drops and gains more interference, so to compensate the router will use a different modulation scheme that is more resistant to noise but at the cost of having a slower throughput. It's just how wi-fi works, you can never get the full speed in real life, and depending on the construction of your house and wi-fi networks in the area you may never get a decent speed between rooms.
 
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