USB2 Wifi only getting 36mb/s?

USB 2.0 is rated 480*Mbit/s (60*MB/s) per controller and is shared amongst all attached devices.
Although typical hi-speed USB devices can be written to at rates around 25–30*MB/s, and read from at rates of 30–42*MB/s, according to routine testing done by CNet. So you getting around 36 MB/s which is a read speed is about what you should be expecting and there is nothing wrong with your mac or USB wifi adaptor. Hopes this helps

 

According to your second screenshot you are using WEP. Aside from WEP being more or less the same thing as no protection at all, the maximum transfer rate for 802.11n using WEP authentication is 54 Mbps as specified in the IEEE 802.11n standard. (Related reading)

No. USB WiFi and USB mass storage are not quite the same. The link speed most definitively is not 36 MB/s. Believe it or not, the label says "Mbit" for a reason.

 

I use the same dongle (my AP Extreme kept forcing kernel panics), and I typically get 52MB/s.

 

You're welcome, glad it worked out.

Sure you're not getting 52 megabit/s? Sounds far more reasonable than 52 megabyte/s...

 

True. My bad.

 

Hi there,

That looks to be 36 Mbps, as in 36 megabit/s not 36 megabyte/s.

Most cable ISPs have a 15-25 megabit/s rating.
DSL is even slower around 6-10 megabit/s.

Unless you have fiber to the home (like Verizon Fios which is 50 megabit/s I believe), you probably won't notice a difference.

May I suggest to use your internal AirPort card and run a bandwidth test on http://www.bandwidthplace.com for example.

 

Yes, you are completely right. Definitively megabit. Like the OP actually wrote, and that I've already pointed out to the ones confusing the units.

Unless of course you want to communicate locally, like streaming from a computer to an AppleTV just like the OP wanted. In that case you will notice a difference...

I'm tempted to ask if you actually bothered to read the thread, but that would probably sound hostile and somewhat rude, so I won't.