Achieving maximum Airport speed?

[mcdj]

I recently upgraded my Roadrunner cable service to "Premium", 20mb down/1mb up. Previously I was at 8/512k.

When I had 8/512, speedtest.net regularly showed I was getting very close to 8mb down, wirelessly, via my 12" Powerbook (802.11g) through the AEBS (802.11n in G compatibility mode)...in other words, very little loss of throughput. It was almost as if I was hard wired right to the modem. Life was good.

Life is still good, but I wonder if it could be better. Now that I've upgraded to 20mb service (which connects at around 18-19mb via direct connection), my speedtest results on the Powerbook max out in the 8-12mb range, from the same place in the house as my pre-upgrade tests. Not slow by any stretch, but obviously not as fast as hardwired.

Strangely, to me anyway, the wireless upload speed (just under 1mb) is nearly identical to that of my hardwired desktop. This seems to suggest the wireless connection is fairly solid.

I've deleted the airport plist on the Powerbook, changed the channel on the router, changed security from WPA to WPA/WPA2. Are there any other tweaks I might try, or is this the best performance I can expect? I was under the impression that the AEBS in G mode was good for up to 35mb.

Thanks.

 

[mcdj]

64 hits, 0 ideas? Pretty please?

 

[WildPalms]

Do you have another computer in the house with wireless access that you can test transferring a file from your PowerBook to the other computer and determine the consistent speed? I dont get the full 54 mbits/s but very, very close, but I'm also in close proximity (around 24 feet away). You should be able to expect 48 mbits/sec which exceeds your internet connection. Why you're seeing 8-12 mbits is odd, but should be improvable.

I'd like to see what transfer rates you get computer to computer via the base station as this excludes all the other routing, filtering etc