chrbb Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 I'm in a medium size school, square shaped with 12 classrooms, I've got 3 buffalo wireless access points that I've arranged almost in a triangular pattern, about 40 yards max apart. Set the channels at 1, 6 and 11. Some of the time whilst the signal strength is good to excellent, the speed is only 5.5mbps. Is this likely to be a laptop driver problem or the way I've set the wireless up?
OutToLunch Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 Silly question but what is the speed the rest of the time? I assume they are 11g units? If they're 11b then 5.5 is about right anyway most of the time! Do you have any rogue machines pulling it back down to 11b from 11g?
flashsnaps Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) If your wireless devices are all working on 802.11g then it could be in need of a driver update on the Laptop, or the Buffalo WAP may need to be updated with the latest firmware? Buffalo Technology - Support - Downloads Edited May 22, 2008 by flashsnaps
chrbb Posted May 21, 2008 Author Posted May 21, 2008 Speed varies from 56 down to 5.5. we do have an old laptop with a 11b adaptor but that runs at 11mbps. Will that one laptop drag down the speed for the rest?
strawberry Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 it will in indeed, a single 802.11b adapter reduces the bandwidth on each laptop.
Whitestar Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 It also depends on how far away you are from the AP. The laptop will sacrifice bandwidth to keep a connection going when you move further away from the access point.
Michael Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 If you set your Access Point to auto, it should cater for b and g speeds. You can buy 54g cards everywhere now for little money - either as a USB or PCMCIA card.
SYNACK Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 Speed varies from 56 down to 5.5. we do have an old laptop with a 11b adaptor but that runs at 11mbps. Will that one laptop drag down the speed for the rest? It can do, depending on the access point it will most likely drop the AP into compatibility 11b mode if it finds an 11b host as this is the default behavior. You may want to use netstumbler or something similar to see what the signal strength and interference is like at your site as well.
chrbb Posted May 21, 2008 Author Posted May 21, 2008 I'm not sure the old laptop is lowering the speed as I had that laptop and a newer in the same room and at one point the newer one was at 54. If I set the access point to cater for b g and n will it adjust the speed accordingly without affecting all the laptops?
SYNACK Posted May 21, 2008 Posted May 21, 2008 I'm not sure the old laptop is lowering the speed as I had that laptop and a newer in the same room and at one point the newer one was at 54. If I set the access point to cater for b g and n will it adjust the speed accordingly without affecting all the laptops? Depends on the AP, what model of buffalo AP are they?
chrbb Posted May 22, 2008 Author Posted May 22, 2008 Checked the access points today I have them set for wireless bgn, everything else is default.
SYNACK Posted May 22, 2008 Posted May 22, 2008 In the case of the AP below it does follow the speed step down behavior, Unless it has two radios embedded into the AP it will have to step the speed down to be able to communicate with the 11b client. buffalo ap lower speed when 11b connected - Google Search 54Mbps Wireless Bridge Base Station User Manual WLA2-G54C File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML It is the policy of Buffalo Technology to improve products as new technology, ... Communication speed will drop to. 11Mbps when 11b devices are connected. ... http://www.comprawifi.com/.../Routers/WLA2-G54C_Manual.pdf - Similar pages
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