Wireless transfer speeds?

[ggulliver]

I'm considering buying a wireless NAS for backup, but am concerned by what some consider to be unreasonably slow transfer speeds.

I'm non-tech and struggle to understand much of this stuff, so hopefully I can explain this well enough.

If I've understood things correctly, even though wireless (300Mbps) will only transfer at approx two-thirds of USB2 (480Mbps), the likely rate is 30 MB/sec and so a 1gb file should transfer in approx 30 seconds plus some extra time for the drives to handle things - a total of maybe approx 45-60 seconds.

So, from a practical viewpoint, the slower transfer doesn't seem to be a big problem. Or have I gotten this completely wrong?

 

[robbieduncan]

300Mbps is under absolutely ideal lab conditions with the devices basically sat on top of each other. Try and find some real-world tests. I suspect the real speed will be half that or less.

 

[WesCole]

With my Airport Extreme, I usually only get ~6-9 MB/sec...

 

[waw74]

for file transfers inside my network, I normally get around 11 MB/s, maybe 14 in short bursts.

on a retina MBP, and linksys e4200 - 5GHz- 802.11n.

if you've got older G wireless, expect it to be around 1-2 MB/s

USB should be around 25-30 MB/s

at 11MB/s a 1GB file should take about 1:42.
Speed calculator

 

[Kurwenal]

I average around 10 using current-model Extremes. The first backups (using a combination of Time Machine and SuperDuper!) are painful but after they complete I find that the subsequent, incremental backups are fine and happen in the background (or at night) without me even noticing.

 

[waw74]

small update...

i've been using dd-wrt on my linksys. the wireless has been been a bit flakey (as was noted in the dd-wrt forums), had to reboot every day or 2 when the wireless dropped out.
Just reverted to factory firmware, I'm getting 33 MB/s up and down (yes big B, not little b), in the same room, about 5-10 feet away from the router. using both activity monitor during a file transfer, and using black magic disk speed test to read/write to a network drive.

this is 5GHz N, wide channel.