Internal network testing...

[John Kotches]

I haven't been getting the throughput that I would like to be seeing on my WiFi setup so I thought that I would install some tools to see where the limits are coming from.

One of the nice things about Mac OS is that it's a member of the *nix family of Operating Systems so lots o' stuff is included... Like apache and php. I downloaded speedtest.net's mini app and did some testing of throughput. What I came up with was interesting.

This is testing internally on the machine itself:



I'm going to be doing some other testing throughout the night to see what I get and hope to figure something out soon.

Regards,

 

[John Kotches]

Unfrotunately, I can't seem to boost throughput above about 22 MBit/second and none of my devices is connecting at wireless N even though all of them are capable of doing so.

Methinks the WAP is the issue.

 

[John Kotches]

Internal speed test copying from the Synology NAS:

The file was a DVD that was ripped to an MKV, 6050MB according to scp. I used scp and a copy from the nfs share to test my read speed from the NAS. Jumbo Frame supported and enabled throughout the chain from Mac Mini to NAS and this was on a dedicated NIC to the NAS -- no other traffic. So I'm getting about as good as I can get for throughput. Please note that scp is an encrypted protocol and will limit throughput significantly. The nfs connection is nfs v3 using TCP protocol.


Read from NAS:
scp: 7 min 2 sec, 14.4 MB/sec, 115.2 Mbit/sec
nfs: 1 min 5 sec, 93+ MB/sec, 744 Mbit/sec

Write to NAS (same file from read):
scp: 7 min 27 sec, 13.5 MB/sec, 108 Mbit/sec
nfs: 1 min 10 sec, 86+ MB/sec, 691.36 Mbit/sec

Not bad performance for modestly priced hardware. It's becoming clear to me my issue is the WAP. I'll have to live with it until the 802.11ac routers/WAPs come down in price some.

 

[lparsons21]

Could the speed issue be caused by a mix of devices. IOW, in my network everything is 'N' @5Ghz except for a couple wireless printers that are 'G' and I thought I read that in the case of mixed, that the network suffers from some slowness.

Unfortunately I'm working on very old memory which isn't all that good these days!

 

[jimdandyvi]

Look for the MAC equivalent of LAN Speed Test. Start testing speed between two devices connected directly to the router with Ethernet cables. Then start experimenting with WiFi.

To get a link rate of above 54Mbps you do need to use WEP2. If you have a mixed network of G & N then you will lose some potential throughput.

 

[John Kotches]

lparsons:

it could very well be the mix of devices and that's why I ordered a dual band router. I'll just use it as an access point but still it could help with the situation.

my biggest frustration is that all of my devices are wireless n capable but none of them are connecting to the current router with wireless n.


for what it's worth, I was very surprised by the throughput to and from my NAS. it looks like some of my performance bottleneck there was not using jumbo frame. to keep issues from occurring, I have a separate subnet for anything using jumbo frames and that network has no routing on it.



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[jimdandyvi]

Just to clarify. A dual band router means that it has both 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz radios. In the 2.4Ghz band most if not all devices will connect with B, G & N.

The 5Ghz radios are really most useful in connecting to devices in the same or next room. The 2.4Ghz has much better range using both N & G.

 

[John Kotches]

Jim:

I'm aware of that, and the devices that I will be connecting on the 5 GHz band will be in the next room all around. Of course 2.4 GHz has better range -- lower frequencies go through walls better. My big issue at this point is that all devices are wireless N capable and none are actually connecting to my router with Wireless N, only G.

It wasn't a big expense, I picked up a refurbished Linksys while I wait for the Ubiquiti Wireless AC Access point to go down in price.

Cheers,

 

[kenny4269]

Methinks the WAP is the issue.

I've seen this before.
My router complained that I needed WPA2/AES encryption for N speeds.

 

[John Kotches]

I've seen this before.
My router complained that I needed WPA2/AES encryption for N speeds.

WAP is Wireless Access Point in this context.

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[Poke]

Yeah it could be the type of encryption due sure some brands of wireless NICS do not talk well to certain brands of wireless routers even though all the wireless devices are N. I seen were wireless routers encryption has to be change so that those wireless NICS can communicate better to the router which then effects all of the devices connecting too it. Just a thought.

 

[John Kotches]

I changed encryption from tkip to aes, which improved performance from below 20 to about 30 mbit/second.

I'm seriously thinking about a ubiquiti unifi AP. Does anyone have experience with them?

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