Airport Extreme/Express to Ethernet

[unplugme71]

In the same room with no interference, what's the actual possible data transfer in Mb/s from a mac connected via Ethernet to airport extreme with a wireless bridge to an airport express with Ethernet connected to a mac mini? Both are wireless N capable. I know what wireless N can do - but does the conversion from wired to wireless to wired add a lot of overhead/performance reduction?

The distance apart is 35 feet.

 

[dXTC]

The iMac-to-Airport Extreme connection is Gigabit: 1000 Mb/sec.
The wireless N connection, assuming no interference and thus excellent signal: 150 Mb/sec, double that if MIMO is available on the model of Airport Express you have.
However, your bottleneck is the Express-to-mini Ethernet connection. The current Airport Express's Ethernet connection only does 10/100, not Gigabit like the Extreme. The previous model also had this limitation on its Ethernet jack.

This leaves a 100 Mb/sec maximum throughput (megabit, not megabyte) in your stated system.

My recommendation? Have the mini join the Extreme's wireless network directly; you'll have a theoretical improvement of at least 50% in your transmission rates, assuming the same lack of interference in the room.

 

[Menel]

In the same room with no interference, what's the actual possible data transfer in Mb/s from a mac connected via Ethernet to airport extreme with a wireless bridge to an airport express with Ethernet connected to a mac mini? Both are wireless N capable. I know what wireless N can do - but does the conversion from wired to wireless to wired add a lot of overhead/performance reduction?

The distance apart is 35 feet.

If you run them at 2.4GHz, you'll have a wireless link of 150mbps. If you run them at 5Ghz, you should link at 240-300mbps.

The lowest common link speed is 100mbps, due to the 10/100 port mentioned by dXTC. But that's not data.

After protocol overhead, at the OSI application layer, you're probably looking at 80mbps (or 10MB/s) data throughput.

That's if you are having the Express "join" the Extreme.

If you have the Express "expand" the Extreme's network, cut those numbers in half due to WDS overhead.

The wired-wireless conversion itself doesn't add any performance reduction, other than some negligible latency.

 

[unplugme71]

My thought was to put the mini in another room and run the ethernet through the wall. I forgot the express was only 10/100.

Maybe swapping the express for another extreme would be better for performance unless I can get a strong signal still.

 

[Abdulhaq]

The iMac-to-Airport Extreme connection is Gigabit: 1000 Mb/sec.
The wireless N connection, assuming no interference and thus excellent signal: 150 Mb/sec, double that if MIMO is available on the model of Airport Express you have.
However, your bottleneck is the Express-to-mini Ethernet connection. The current Airport Express's Ethernet connection only does 10/100, not Gigabit like the Extreme. The previous model also had this limitation on its Ethernet jack.

This leaves a 100 Mb/sec maximum throughput (megabit, not megabyte) in your stated system.

My recommendation? Have the mini join the Extreme's wireless network directly; you'll have a theoretical improvement of at least 50% in your transmission rates, assuming the same lack of interference in the room.

[doublepost=1486704631][/doublepost]Do you mean to say that a Mac-Mini connected to the latest Airport Express via Wireless (N) will perform faster than if it is connected directly with an ethernet cable? Then I can assume that if I use an AC adapter (like the Edimax one) the the Internet connection speed will be much faster than connecting with an ethernet cable.

 

[Altemose]

My thought was to put the mini in another room and run the ethernet through the wall. I forgot the express was only 10/100.

Maybe swapping the express for another extreme would be better for performance unless I can get a strong signal still.

If performance is what you are pursuing, then you cannot beat Gigabit Ethernet speeds offered by running wire with a Gigabit switch.