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BadaBing!!

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 16, 2010
402
1
Bought an Airport Extreme yesterday after reading mostly excellent user reviews.
I'm just wondering why my WIFI client ( iPhone4, iPad2, Airport Express and IBM T410) won't connect at faster speed though.

Here is my config
(I also tried some other configs but with almost all the same results)

AE_1.jpg


AE_2.jpg

And the reported clients connection speeds (All at 3 ft from the AE):
AE_3.png

iPad2, Airport Express and T410 (OK Speed) all connected to the 5Ghz band and sitting few feet from the AE
Why aren't they connected at faster rates ?

Some iPerf performances test from the T410 when within 3ft too
Code:
[176] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63880
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[176]  0.0-10.0 sec  65.9 MBytes  55.3 Mbits/sec
[268] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63885
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[268]  0.0-10.0 sec  68.7 MBytes  57.7 Mbits/sec
[256] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63887
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[256]  0.0-10.0 sec  73.7 MBytes  61.9 Mbits/sec
[252] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63888
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[252]  0.0-10.0 sec  65.4 MBytes  54.9 Mbits/sec

And from about 20ft and few walls
Code:
[252] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63941
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[252]  0.0-10.0 sec  56.2 MBytes  47.1 Mbits/sec
[256] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63943
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[256]  0.0-10.0 sec  46.5 MBytes  39.0 Mbits/sec
[268] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63944
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[268]  0.0-10.0 sec  47.1 MBytes  39.6 Mbits/sec
[176] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63946
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[176]  0.0-10.0 sec  46.8 MBytes  39.3 Mbits/sec
[260] local 192.168.200.50 port 5001 connected with 192.168.200.54 port 63947
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[260]  0.0-10.0 sec  40.5 MBytes  34.0 Mbits/sec
 
Last edited:
could be distance, the 5ghz band weakens a lot faster then the 2.4ghz band when you move away form the router.
 
could be distance, the 5ghz band weakens a lot faster then the 2.4ghz band when you move away form the router.

I was editing my post when you posted but no, all the devices are within 3-4 feet of the Airport ...

I was wondering if I should by the AEBS or the Netgear WNDR3700 ... I might go and by the Netgear to compare speeds but honestly, I don't really want to take time to do it :confused:
 
I enabled 40Mhz (instead of default 20Mhz) and I'm getting very nice speeds from my T410 (which now shows a connected speed of 270Mbps)

Speed measured few feet from the router:

Code:
C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49275 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  93.6 MBytes  78.5 Mbits/sec

C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49276 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  92.7 MBytes  77.7 Mbits/sec

C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49278 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  91.8 MBytes  77.0 Mbits/sec

and

Code:
C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>netio -t 192.168.200.50

NETIO - Network Throughput Benchmark, Version 1.31
(C) 1997-2008 Kai Uwe Rommel

TCP connection established.
Packet size  1k bytes:  10087.40 KByte/s Tx,  9142.63 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  2k bytes:  12.48 MByte/s Tx,  8891.17 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  4k bytes:  12.27 MByte/s Tx,  9891.57 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  8k bytes:  12.83 MByte/s Tx,  11.16 MByte/s Rx.
Packet size 16k bytes:  13.08 MByte/s Tx,  10.52 MByte/s Rx.
Packet size 32k bytes:  13.26 MByte/s Tx,  14.42 MByte/s Rx.
Done.
 
Less impressive from about 15 feet and 3 walls from the Airport though

Code:
C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>netio -t 192.168.200.50

NETIO - Network Throughput Benchmark, Version 1.31
(C) 1997-2008 Kai Uwe Rommel

TCP connection established.
Packet size  1k bytes:  5385.50 KByte/s Tx,  4222.90 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  2k bytes:  5671.33 KByte/s Tx,  4419.66 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  4k bytes:  4953.83 KByte/s Tx,  5129.97 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size  8k bytes:  4886.41 KByte/s Tx,  6024.12 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size 16k bytes:  6108.07 KByte/s Tx,  5290.56 KByte/s Rx.
Packet size 32k bytes:  4660.43 KByte/s Tx,  5569.24 KByte/s Rx.
Done.

and

Code:
C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49414 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  36.8 MBytes  30.8 Mbits/sec

C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49416 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  35.8 MBytes  30.0 Mbits/sec

C:\Users\18225\Documents\My Dropbox>iperf -c 192.168.200.50
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.200.50, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 63.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[128] local 192.168.200.53 port 49417 connected with 192.168.200.50 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[128]  0.0-10.0 sec  43.5 MBytes  36.5 Mbits/sec
 
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