Wifi Link Speed

[monicakm]

What would be considered a good "Link Speed"? My signal is strong. My link speed, right now, is 13. Is that number directly related to my browsing and download speeds? Under Setting- Connection- Wifi, tap on your wifi connection. What is your link speed? Now mine is 72.

 

[Josh Smith10]

Mines sitting at 78.

 

[jimcapraro]

Mine is 150 Mb per second

 

[Dale_M]

The closer to AP (access point) the faster Wifi speed will be.... My home system gives me a 76mb which is definitely faster than my internet speed when I am in same room as AP.... If you have slow DSL /Internet... Speed between modem/AP and "device" is probably not really important as long as its faster than your i-net service...

Dale

 

[monicakm]

The closer to AP (access point) the faster Wifi speed will be.... My home system gives me a 76mb which is definitely faster than my internet speed when I am in same room as AP.... If you have slow DSL /Internet... Speed between modem/AP and "device" is probably not really important as long as its faster than your i-net service...

Dale

I am in the office with my tablet, 2 feet away from the router. Signal strength is "very good" and my link speed is 72Mbps. Is the router my "access point? My computer is also routed thru the router. Internet service is Hughesnet satellite. Currently my download speed, tested with testmy.net, is 9.1Mbps. Not sure where to find my "link" speed on the desktop (if it has one). There are so many times I'm dead in the water trying to get my tablet to pull up a website but my desktop will open the same url in a jiffy and sometimes they're basically the same in speed of opening pages. I have a Linksys E2000 and wondering if I need a new router.

 

[MarkHansen]

According to the Performance Specs for that router when using the 2.4GHz frequency (based on a review by CNet), 74.2Mbps is the best you can get. When using the 5GHz frequency, you can get up to 93.4Mbps. Based on that, I would guess you're using the 2.4GHz frequency

 

[monicakm]

According to the Performance Specs for that router when using the 2.4GHz frequency (based on a review by CNet), 74.2Mbps is the best you can get. When using the 5GHz frequency, you can get up to 93.4Mbps. Based on that, I would guess you're using the 2.4GHz frequency

Thank you Mark. I went thru my router's advance settings (on line) and saw where I am using the 2.4GHz frequency. Can it negatively affect something else? This will speed things up? Along with this change, I have other options...Network Mode: Mixed, Wireless A, N or Disable.
Channel Width: Auto (20 or 40 MHz. Channel: Auto or a whole host of numbers from which to choose. SSID Broadcast: Enable or Disable. Just changed it to 5GHz. We'll see what happens.
edit: I have both my Galaxy S5 and my Note 10.1 in front of me about 2 feet from the router that is now at 5GHz. My S5 (is in Wifi mode) and reports a link speed of 144Mbps. Don't know what it was prior to making the change from 2.4 to 5GHz. My tablet is going from 52Mbps to 72Mbps. I've seen it as low as 13.Restarted the devices after the change...no difference. So what has changing the frequency do?
Thanks,
Monica

 

[B. Diddy]

Please keep in mind that your wi-fi connection speed to the network is not the same as the download speeds that you measure on sites like Speedtest.net. The wi-fi connection speed is the maximum rate at which devices on the network can communicate with each other. So for example, if you were transferring files from one computer on the local network to another via wi-fi, the transfer speed could go as fast as 54 Mbps, if that's what the wi-fi connection speed is listed as.

But measuring your download speed is based on the ISP's delivery of the internet to where you are. If you're only paying for the 5 Mbps data plan from your ISP, then you'll only get 5 Mbps max download speeds--you won't suddenly get 54 Mbps. Now, if you're paying for a 100 Mbps data plan, and your wi-fi router only broadcasts at 54 Mbps, then you won't be able to take advantage of that full 100 Mbps download speed if you're connected to the router via wi-fi.

 

[MarkHansen]

@monikakm
The link speed is the data transfer rate between WiFi connected devices and the WiFi router (hot spot) itself. As B. Diddy points out, this is not the same as your internet speed. However, if you have a really slow internet connection, having a fast WiFi router can help when devices on your WiFi network talk to each other (like sending data to a printer, for example).

Switching to a different band on the WiFi router can result in problems if, for example, you have other devices in your area (your home or perhaps your neighbor's home) which use the same band and interfere with your use (or you interfere with their use). I've seen interference from devices such as wireless phone handsets, wireless audio repeaters, etc. Also, it does no good to switch to the 5GHz band if your WiFi device doesn't use this band.

The bottom line is that if you switch to the 5GHz band and are happy with the performance you get, you should stick with it. However, there may be other considerations. You can do a Google search on the differences between 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi router bands and see what you get.

Good luck.

 

[John Chambers1]

585 MBPS when connected to a ASUS RTAC66U router

 

[sure why not]

AC is a whole different ballgame than Monica's 802.11 N router.

If she has satellite internet, internet speeds can be effected by inclement weather and all sorts of things.
Also, know that her 9.1Mbps is shared by all devices.
If the home PC is trying to update, her S5 is backing up or syncing and she is trying to access the web on the tablet, things are going to slow to a crawl. (as if 10Mbps isn't already a crawl these days)

Selecting the 5G band will obviously double data rate on her LAN.
But it will also be affected by something like a microwave oven and the shorter wavelength will not penetrate walls as well or reach as far.
This should be no problem if she's sitting in the same room with the router.

 

[Ima OpGamer]

My "link speed" is 344mbps

 

[Dale_M]

The real indicator will be to get a "speed test" the will show wifi link speed AND internet speed in same readings ... I believe in almost every case (except under some extremer) wifi speed will be much faster than i-net... Data can only flow as fast as slowest link in system...

Much of what Mark Hansen says about wifi links (LAN side) is correct about when it comes to speed in "local" networks...

Dale