Wireless to wireles networking

[Tangolima600]

Hey guys. I have two linksys wrt54g wireless routers. I intend to use one as an access point connected to the other one which is the router via a cat5 cable. I figure since wifi is half duplex, having computer a connect to access point a , to stream video to computer b connected to wifi b , should aleive the half duplex congestion that would happen if you were streaming files between two computers with one wifi access point as the mediator.

Is my logic off when I set this up? I notice a slow transfer rate in transfers and notice a fluctuating connected speed on the computers transferring. I heard that the linksys firmware affects the transfer rates and doesnt make it efficient.

Let me know what you think

 

[Tangolima600]

Bump, any takers on this one? Any more details you guys need?

 

[NoNameNY]

What you want to accomplish is a wireless bridge

#1

Determine the coverage area. When using two or more routers, the coverage area should be divided, and each router should be placed in a location central to each subdivision. If you're adding a wireless router to an existing network, this might mean moving the first router.

#2


Decide which router is the primary router. The primary router is connected to the Internet, a wired LAN or other networks. It should be the one closest to the wired network connections or the one with the best line of sight to another wireless network. Also, the primary router should be a high-end router, allowing for larger state tables and more users.

#3

Buy an after-market antenna, as the antennas that come with most routers don't have very good range. Getting quality omni-directional antennas can boost the range and signal strength of each of the routers, which, in turn, will reduce the overall cost by allowing fewer routers to cover more area.

#4

Deploy the primary router carefully. This router is the most important and requires the most setup time and options. Set the Service Set Identifier (SSID) and Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) key, configure the Internet connection and test the router with some clients (computers). Once you get the primary router deployed, deploying the other routers should be easy.

#5

Deploy the secondary routers, which should be configured to work in "bridging mode." Secondary routers should be deployed around the perimeter of a large area or at "hot spots" where placed users will gather--for example, at a park bench or table.

 

[Tangolima600]

NonameNY, great suggestions but I am having an issue of speed, not distance (<500kb/s when transfering files between two computer on the wireless setup I explained above. Also, I live in a two room apartment with full reception between both computers in question.) I want to first make sure that my network layout is logical and if so, what can I do to effectively increase throughput of two computers on a wireless network.

 

[NoNameNY]

there is a lot of overhead for things like encapsulation and gaps between packets.Interference, signal levels vs local noise, reflections and other usage
specific issues can have a big impact on useful throughput as well. All protocols drop to lower data rates as conditions degrade.So with 802.11g you will get something on the order of 25 Mbps total (under good conditions, if you are lucky). 802.11g is designed to be backward compatible with 802.11b, so the amount of
overhead usually goes up since the system has to make the channel and data comprehensible to the older, slower devices if they happen to be around. But - there can be much more data going in 1 direction or the other depending on load. The protocol is effectively demand driven, so apart from overhead signaling, the channel is only occupied by either the AP or the PC when there is actual data to send. It sounds like you were testing the link, perhaps by moving a file or using
a test utility. such tests often move nearly all data in 1 direction, so the results you saw is probably 90% or more of the total data moved. The test you did might have included IP and MAC overhead rather than just application data (depends on what got counted) and might have included data in both directions - without knowing what you were measuring and where the through put numbers came from - I really cant tell.