New Airport N network limited to 3.7mb/s

[tomvs123]

I recently purchased a new airport extreme and express to replace my older G equiment.

I have the extreme connected to my dsl internet and a few computers. The express is in a different room and is in wireless-bridge mode with a computer connected to it. So basically, I've got two rooms pretty far apart that I didn't want to run an ethernet cable between, so the express is acting as my internet bridge.

The extreme and express are the only wireless networking devices used and they are set to 802.11n only, 5ghz.

When I transfer a file between a computer connected to the extreme and a computer connected to the express, I get an average of 3.7mb/s (Wireless N should provide around 8-11mb/s).

I've tried the following things:
- I've transferred files through ethernet through the same computers (obtained 50mb/s)
- Had the express in the same room as the extreme and still got 3.7mb/s
- tried 2.4 ghz mode, g mode, robust networking on/off, wide channels on/off, security off, NAT off (on the extreme), and still got a max of only 3.7mb/s.

Either there's a setting I'm not seeing, or I'm starting to think that the WAN port of the express is limited to 3.7mb/s as it was primarly meant to be connected to an internet connection rather than a computer.

Anyone have any advice, or do you have a similar setup where you are getting more than 3.7mb/s between an express and an extreme?

[waw74]

i have an express N and a MacBook Pro

when in the same room i get 5-7mB/s

when in the living room(through 2 walls and a hallway) i get 3-5 mB/s

I'm using 5ghz wide channels

if i remember correctly, 5ghz is very susceptible to interference by walls and such.

[tomvs123]

This doesn't have anything to do with interference as I get the same 3.7mb/s when the airport devices are feet from each other and when they're 30 feet apart.

From what I've researched so far, it looks like the airport express is in WDS mode which means bandwidth is split between at least two wireless channels(?). Unless there's a firmware update or hack that resolves this, I don't think you can get more than 3.5-4mb/s out of an airport express in bridged mode.

Though I may be wrong - so if anyone has able to get 7+mb/s out of an airport express while bridged, please post here along with your configuration.

[DoFoT9]

that does not make sense, you should EASILY be getting 20mbp throughput on 802.11n @ 5ghz.

i would check your settings and try again. that kind of throughput would indicate interference, and lots of it.

lol and no the WAN port is not limited to 3.7mbps, it is a gigabit ethernet port...

[thomahawk]

maybe your ISP? modems usually like limit the amount you can go through
like mine i cant go any past 1.4 mb

[DoFoT9]

maybe your ISP? modems usually like limit the amount you can go through
like mine i cant go any past 1.4 mb

yes good point, OP are you testing this by downloading from the internet, or are you actually transferring files from computer to computer?