Why are wireless networks so crap?

mrochester

mrochester

mrochester

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Newcastle upon Tyne
This is both a rant, and a plea for any help that may be available!

I have a BT Business Hub wireless router (manufactured by 2Wire) and (up to) 3 wirelessly networked PCs (which are now all wired). I had to get shot of the wireless aspect, because quite frankly, it was total crap for streaming media to the Media Centre PC in the living room. I decided to give wireless a second chance, and as my new mobo includes built in wifi, it was my PC that went wireless, while all of the others remained wired.

In Vista the signal status registeres as Excellent, and the speed shows the stated 54mbps (although I know in real terms I get far less than this). However, even with this apparently fantastic signal, I simply cannot stream a 170mb 20minute long Simpsons episode from my PC without it stopping and starting like a clapped old banger.

I have always been under the impression that a wireless G network has more than enough bandwidth to handle these sorts of streaming duties, so why, in light of the apparently perfect wireless network connection that my PC has, is the whole thing such a big pile of crap that doens't work very well?

It'd be great if anyone could chime in with any suggestions that might help improve matters, or simply tell me once and for all that I might as well give up on wifi. Needless to say, I am now back to a wired connection pending further research into the matter.

Thank you for your time

Michael.
 
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NorthstaNder said:
I'm sure someone will give you a definite answer, but I don't think 54mbps is fast enough to stream media smoothly.
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I'm doing a test now by transferring 1.7GB file between the 2 PCs, and I'm getting a pretty constant 2.3MBps transfer rate, which apparently equates to about 18mbps, which should be more than capable of streaming.
 
cant complain, my 15 quid TP link wireless router gives me a steady 54mbps anywhere in the house, perfect for streaming HD films from my study pc to the lappies
 
SiHH said:
My standard talktalk router gives me 54mbps throughout my place no probs :)
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Are you talking about it showing as being connected at 54mbps, or actual throughput of 54mbps? My PC shows the wifi is connected at 54mbps, but the actual throughput is only 18mbps.
 
mrochester said:
Are you talking about it showing as being connected at 54mbps, or actual throughput of 54mbps? My PC shows the wifi is connected at 54mbps, but the actual throughput is only 18mbps.
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18mbps but its more than enough for streaming :)
 
Is it obstructions causing your trouble or will this happening even if you are close to the router?

Try this
If it is obstructions, reduce the connection speed on the receiving pc. If you need a lot of data resends at the higher speed this will cause stuttering in a video stream as a simpsons cartoon doesn't need a lot of bandwidth, try a lower speed see if it helps.

Also have a look and see if there are any buffering options on the media player that you are using, if so increase the buffer size. This will slow down the media start time, but will help the media player stream better.
 
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Do a search for "WLAN Optimizer". Useful for killing off the polling done by Vista every minute or so which causes a momentary 100% pl spike.
If on XP then there is a similar issue with the "Wireless Zero Configuration" service.
 
what are you trying to stream

iplayer / itv catchup both play fine on 3 different laptops ive tryed with the bebox router

but they all seemed to keel over at the prospect of streaming 1080p trailers from apple (understandable really !)
 
Have you tested the connection between the two PC's with iperf or similar? It might help you see if you're getting enough throughput or not in general. You should be..

Always go wired if you can though, better by a mile.
 
wireless is crap - buy a homeplug kit and never worry again.

1. buy kit
2. plug first plug into the powersocket closest to router
3. connect cat5 lead from plug to router
4. plug second plug into power socket next to computer
5. connect cat5 cable from plug to pc
6. grab beer, sit back and congratulate yourself while streaming pretty much anything short of a blu ray.
 
Trouble with wireless is you get a lot of packets dropping off. Can be prone to interferance. Try changing the channel your router is on
 
mrochester said:
~something something~

170mb 20minute long Simpsons episode from my PC without it stopping and starting like a clapped old banger.
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170MB in 20mins.... You could stream that on a 1.2Mbps connection.

You either live in a Microwave or something else is amiss.

Does the connection remain constantly up? Response time? Dropped packets?
 
Wifi does (often) stink due to the large range of factors that affect it.

Your router has settings for transmit power you could try upping it if possible (there are some settings hidden by the BT firmware with workarounds ) but its more likekly that vista is screwing up (drivers and services often poor though improving) or some external influence such as neighbours on the same channel, microwaves on etc. You can use netstumbler etc to see if theres other networks around and move your connection to minimise sharing.

Channels 1, 6 and 11 overlap the least.
 
Mr.Stu said:
170MB in 20mins.... You could stream that on a 1.2Mbps connection.

You either live in a Microwave or something else is amiss.

Does the connection remain constantly up? Response time? Dropped packets?
Click to expand...

I'll explain exactly what happens when I'm watching it. All of a sudden, the video will stop, and eventually I'll get the Windows Media Centre menu as if the video had actually ended. When I select 'restart' it thinks for a while and eventually says 'Cannot play video'. When I go back to view the video selection available on my wifi PC, it's all gone, as if my PC were switched off. A few moments later, it'll all appear again, and off we go again.

The strange thing was, last night when I was transferring a test 1.7GB file, MSN disconnected and reconnected me about 3 times, but the transfer didn't fail. Vista never reported that the connection had been lost. I have no idea how to see how many dropped packets there are.
 
Just out of interest, I decided to stream a video file in the other direction (Media Centre PC in the sitting room ----> My PC) over Wifi, and the 1.2GB recorded TV program streamed without ANY problems at all, even whilst I was also transferring 13.4GB of files over the network.

Downstairs I have Windows MCE 2005 and my PC has Vista Ultimate. Can anyone make any suggestions based on this information?

Thanks!
 
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