How close to reality is DIR-655's client tx rate?

[zjohnr]

As I mentioned previously, two days ago I started using a DIR-655 A4 with v1.21 firmware.

One of the "new" (to me) features is a list of all the wireless clients currently connected to the DIR-655. It's under "Status->Wireless" when you open the router in your browser.

The info provided for the connected clients is

• the SSID the client used when connecting (did I phrase that correctly?)
• client's MAC Address
• client's IP Address
• Mode, for example 802.11n (2.4GHz)
• Rate (Mbps) supposedly the "actual transmission rate of the client"
• Signal (%) "a relative measure of signal quality"

I'm just wondering if anyone can offer any guidance as to how much trust I can place in the displayed Mbps rate?

I realize what I probably should do is run a WLAN to LAN throughput test and see how this number compares to numbers I get when moving actual data. At the moment though I don't have any test software to do this.

Figured next best thing was to ask and see if anyone else had tried this already. Just curious. The number I currently see seems to range between 117 and 130 Mbps for signal strengths between 96% to 98%. That seems overly optimistic to me.

-irrational john

 

[jdabbs]

For benchmarking, you may want to take a look at jperf.

 

[thiggins]

The rate is going to be the link rate negotiated by the client, not actual throughput.
See "Fix 1" in this article for an explanation:
5 Ways To Fix Slow 802.11n Speed

 

[zjohnr]

The rate is going to be the link rate negotiated by the client, not actual throughput.
See "Fix 1" in this article for an explanation:
5 Ways To Fix Slow 802.11n Speed

Tim,

Thanks, but the number I'm seeing is not the static "300 Mbps". It is some sort of a dynamic measure which changes over time. (The web page must be auto refreshing?)

I'm not sure how the router is deriving the numbers, but I think the firmware is extracting some sort of status info from the router's radio.

When I started typing this reply it showed 117 Mbps and 88%. But it has shown 134Mbps 80%, 104Mbps 77%, 117 Mbps 84%, and 130 Mbps 96% as I have rechecked it while drafting this reply.

All this happened while the laptop is just sitting in my lap. You might want to connect to your DIR-655 and take a look at it. (In your copious spare time, of course. )

It's sorta fun if you have a geekish OCD twist to your brain. I'm not sure yet though what, if any, relationship it has with reality.

-irrational john (FWIW 130 Mbps 100% as I post this.)

 

[thiggins]

Again, you are seeing the link rate. It is changing because the adapter and router are continuously negotiating the connection rate.

 

[zjohnr]

Again, you are seeing the link rate. It is changing because the adapter and router are continuously negotiating the connection rate.

I did not realize that the client laptop and the router negotiated a link rate that was less than the more commonly displayed theoretical 11.n marketing max of 300 Mbps. I guess I assumed it was more analogous to wired ethernet where the hardware negotiated the max rate of 100 or 1000 Mbps and then just did the "best it could" after that.

Then again, I am essentially ignorant about anything but the gross user interface aspects of wireless. So its not surprising to me when I turn out to have been clueless.

I'll have to take the time sometime later this week to set up jperf ... or netmeter as you recommended in the article you pointed me to ... and see what sort of WLAN <-> LAN file transfer throughput I'm seeing and compare that to the link rate of the moment from the DIR-655.

It would be nice if other software, such as Window's Wireless Network Properties would also display this number. Even if it ain't "reality", it still seems to be a step or so closer to it than just always throwing back a hard coded value of "300 Mbps".

Oh, well.

Is this continuously negotiated connection rate typically shown in the status displays of the other routers which compete with the DIR-655? Again, just curious.

-irrational john