Slow wireless file transfer

phil675

phil675

phil675

Soldato
Joined
15 Jan 2005
Posts
4,569
Location
UK
Hi there,

I've started swapping files between my new netbook and my desktop, using either windows network drives or FTP. The transfer speed never seems to go over 200kb/s and usually hovers at around 65kb/s. I've downloaded things at 800-1000kb/s off of the internet wirelessly before so I'm confused as to why transferring between PCs is so slow. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks :)
 
Wireless transfer speeds are generally pretty terrible. I can barely get 1MB/s from my server which is wired to the router. Having both devices wireless I would be surprised if you got faster than 400 ish :\ Have you tried plugging one into the router and testing it again? Or plug both in when you need to do transfers?
 
Both of the pcs are upstairs away from the wires so using wires Isn't an option. I just don't see how using a usb pen is faster than my networking, why can I receive files from the net at 1mb but pc to pc is so slow?
 
1) Wifi bandwidth is shared by all devices on the same channel. Transferring a file between 2 wifi devices will immediately halve your throughput to either device.
2) Since the bandwidth is shared on a channel, interference and your neighbours competing wifi will give significant fluctuations in performance over time. There are only 3 independant channels on 2.4GHz as used by the majority of kit. Maybe use inSSIDer to see if you might be better on a different channel.
3) If you are not using modern N kit throughout then your wrouter will usually downgrade the link speed of all wifi devices to the speed of the slowest one e.g. even if your netbook has a good signal and can link at 54Mbps on its own, but your desktop has a weaker signal and can only reliably link at 12Mbps, then whenever it is on, ALL wifi devices on that router will link at 12Mbps (now shared so actually simultaneous 6Mbps per device).

Does the netbook have a wired port? You could move it near the desktop and simply use a crossover cable (normal cable is fine if using GbE) to wire it directly to the desktop when necessary.
 
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Wireless 802.11 a,b,g are all half-duplex mechanisms, so it can either send or recieve and not at the same time as anything else. Each client gets a time to tx / rx - I've heard it described as token ring but over the air.
This is the prime reason for slow pc>pc transfer over wireless when both clients are wireless. The other things that will impact wireless are listed about, slowest client (depends on the grade of the AP) interference from other 2.4 ghz devices and other wireless networks....

If you need to transfer a lot, I would use a flash drive or some kind of power line device, to at least link the desktop to the router via a cable.
 
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