Setting up Airport Extreme for fastest network

[ksgant]

I must be doing something wrong, as I can't for the life of me figure out why my wireless network is so slow...or maybe it's the fastest it can go as-is.

I have the AirPort Extreme running 7.5.2 running on the Router that AT&T DSL has to hooking to the Net. That's fine, I get about 5 to 5.5 mbps on average of my 6mbps line on the net. Peak bandwidth coming in is 648 Kbps

Yet, when I try to copy a file from computer to computer on my wireless network, I'm getting about 5.5 to 6 mbps on a file that's like a gig. On a file that's 1.6 GB, I'm averaging about 5 minutes for the transfer between computers. Both these machines are running on the 5 GHz network. I have "Use wide channels on", security is WPA2 personal, but everything else is on "automatic" (meaning Radio Mode which under that says 802.11a/n - 802.11b/g/n) and Radio Channel Selection is "Automatic".

Yet I read that in theory it should be up to like 300mbps? Is that right? Or at least 50mbps...but 5-6 mbps?

Do I have something screwed up? Am I expecting too much? Am I confusing Mega-bit with Mega-byte and I should be subtracting or adding a zero or something?

btw, all the devices hooking to this Airport are Apple products.

 

[miles01110]

You are expecting too much.

 

[ksgant]

You are expecting too much.

So 5 or 6 mbps is normal and people talking about 50mbps or 300mbps wireless are on something else?

 

[miles01110]

So 5 or 6 mbps is normal and people talking about 50mbps or 300mbps wireless are on something else?

"Up to 300 Mbit/s" (802.11n technically supports up to 600 Mbit/s) is the theoretical maximum that 802.11n supports. I don't know how or when this was achieved, but real-world results are always significantly lower.

The data rate you actually experience can be due to lots of things; RF behaves in funny ways in the real world. Multipath, interference from outside sources, obstacles, and numerous other factors contribute to a low-quality signal. I don't know what your setup is, so I can't make any educated guesses as to why yours seems to be going at the rate it is going.

 

[ksgant]

The "error of my ways" it seems is that I AM confusing megabytes and megabits. Sheesh, what a noob.