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Recently I wanted to transfer some movie files (ranging from 1gb to 4.5gb) from one computer on the ground floor to another on the first floor.

The wifi router Im using is this one most likely:

my wifi router

The speed at which I am able to transfer averages around 1Mb/s.

How can I make it faster.

Both the laptops that I am using for transfer are relatively new so the wifi adapters in them cant be too slow. None of the hard drives in the laptops are SSD but I still would like to know how I can increase the transfer speed.

Also the wifi signals on the laptop arent too bad.

Thanks.

umair
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3 Answers3

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Assuming you mean 1 MB/s, this seems about right. A realistic system like this probably has a hardware maximum of about 54Mbps and a usable link bandwidth of about 20Mbps given typical parameters of distance, interference, and so on.. There are 8 bits in a byte, all data has to be sent twice (once to the AP and once from the AP), data has to be acknowledged, and it takes time for devices to switch from receiving to transmitting.

So, start with 20Mbps usable link bandwidth. All data has to be sent twice, so that leaves 10Mbps. Time for handoffs and acknowledgements is about 20%, so that leaves 8Mbps. There are 8 bits in a byte, so 1MB/s is about what we'd expect.

For a transfer between WiFi devices using an AP over 802.11g under realistic conditions, 1MB/s is about right.

David Schwartz
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There are a few things that are working against you here:

  • The router is old and doesn't support 802.11n (assuming your laptops are capable of "n" that could make a big difference)

  • Distance between router and laptop

  • Degradation of signal due to physical obstacles (i.e. the floor)

  • Degradation of signal due to intereference from other wireless devices (cordless phones, mobile phones, neighbours' wifi, etc.)

  • Concurrent connections to your router

Remember that advertised Wifi speeds are based on utopia-like conditions. The average user has at least some conditions not working in their favour that significantly decreases performance.

On my Wireless N setup at home, I get 10 MB/s in the living room and 3 MB/s from the bedroom. That's how sensitive the whole Wifi thing is.

misha256
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I needed to transfer 7G folder over WiFi from Mac to Ubuntu. It seems Ubuntu autodiscovers ssh servers, so naturally I mounted one and fired up rsync. Turns out, doing it this way adds unnecessary layer, since rsync can already use SFTP internally.

rsync from SFTP mountpoint to Desktop -- around 2MB/s

rsync directly over SSH -- around 3MB/s

So 30% bump, and also resume functionality actually works!

seeker_of_bacon
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