Need Help: Slow transfer speed over LAN

[koushik]

Hi,

I am using a Netgear N150 router for my internet connection. All the devices are connected via wi-fi to my router - PC, Laptop, and some Android phones.

I generally download stuffs from internet or rip CDs, BDs & DVDs on my PC. Recently, I bought a laptop for myself and thought of streaming the movies and music from PC (Win 8.1) to my laptop (Wind 8.1). So I shared the folders with everyone without password.

Music is okay, but the Movies which are even 1-1.5GB is not playing smoothly. Then I decided to copy a movie from my PC to my laptop and the speed is painfully slow. About 300-700 KBPS. Copying over LAN should atleast give 100 Mbps speed if not more.

I have also tried with my cousin's router (D-Link N150) but the thing is same there as well. Slow transfer speed.

What am I doing wrong here? Please help.

 

[manniraj]

Hi,

I am using a Netgear N150 router for my internet connection. All the devices are connected via wi-fi to my router - PC, Laptop, and some Android phones.

I generally download stuffs from internet or rip CDs, BDs & DVDs on my PC. Recently, I bought a laptop for myself and thought of streaming the movies and music from PC (Win 8.1) to my laptop (Wind 8.1). So I shared the folders with everyone without password.

Music is okay, but the Movies which are even 1-1.5GB is not playing smoothly. Then I decided to copy a movie from my PC to my laptop and the speed is painfully slow. About 300-700 KBPS. Copying over LAN should atleast give 100 Mbps speed if not more.

I have also tried with my cousin's router (D-Link N150) but the thing is same there as well. Slow transfer speed.

What am I doing wrong here? Please help.

Check whether your router and laptop are 10/100/1000 ethernet ports which means that the LAN ports are gigabit enabled. I think the /1000 denotes gigabit and the standard ethernet LAN ports on most of the basic laptops being only 10/100. So you need to verify that both on the router and laptop.

 

[koushik]

Check whether your router and laptop are 10/100/1000 ethernet ports which means that the LAN ports are gigabit enabled. I think the /1000 denotes gigabit and the standard ethernet LAN ports on most of the basic laptops being only 10/100. So you need to verify that both on the router and laptop.

Thanks!

I will check that once I reach home. Even if it is 10 Mbps, still, don't you think the speed is lower than it should be. I should atleast get 10 Mbps over LAN. I get internet connect speed more than what I getting over LAN. I get to download at 500-600 kBps (3 Mbps connection) from Internet.

 

[musicbee]

I have the same router and it works very well for streaming, but with a couple of caveats.

How is the PC connected to the wifi network? Via 150N USB adapter? Anything less will be a bottleneck as I've previously used a G USB adapter and it was painful to use especially for streaming. So consider an N150 USB adapter for streaming video.

Also, most routers don't deliver the promised speeds i.e. 150N will mostly only give 65 mbps (or 54 mbps) and not the claimed 150 mbps (its only a theoretical max). BTW the 65 mbps is the best, move to another room or a distance and it drops drastically.

Simply put an N300 router is a minimum for HD video streaming, but you will get best results from dual band AC routers.

To get best results from the N150 for video streaming...
1. Keep the distance to less than 15 feet and without walls or obstructions in the middle.
2. Ensure throughput is at least 40 mbps (that's what Blu-ray and HD video need for throttle free streaming).
3. Drop file size to 700 mb to 800 mb instead of the 1.5 GB. Even here distance will be an issue. Don't expect large files to stream over a large distance.

I use an AC router for video and music streaming, works without hassles, the N150 is best suited for ISP where it performs better than my max ISP speeds of 50 mbps. I've never hit anything higher than 72 mbps on my N150 and that's the best scenario where I'm wirelessly connected, but seated next to the router and in such cases HD video streaming works very well... but moving anything over 20 feet or moving to another room the video streaming will struggle for anything more than 400-500 mb in size.

 

[ajeshkumarts]

It may be possibly due to
1.interference from other Wifi network in the vicinity - Check the other wifi network and the channels they use (WifiInfoView is a free windows based app for this. there are some Android apps also - I am not familiar with them). Check the channels used by other networks and change channels. it may help sometimes. Google it and you get many tutorials
2. obstructions like walls between the source & destination - if possible try a wired connection for HD content streaming. I use power line adapters as i have constraints in wiring the place with Ethernet cables. power line adapters work well where the electric wiring is done well.

Another option is to upgrade to a more powerful router. Hope this helps

 

[koushik]

3. Drop file size to 700 mb to 800 mb instead of the 1.5 GB. Even here distance will be an issue. Don't expect large files to stream over a large distance.

Laptop WLAN speed is 72 Mbps and that of PC is 100 Mbps. I even tried connecting PC with Ethernet cables and results were same. I am working sitting just besides the router. Even when sitting over the router, it can't stream video properly. I tried a 700 MB file and it somewhat worked.

How to check what is the delivery speed of the router?

Will adding an unmanaged switch help? Can I create a LAN using only a switch, disconnecting the router?

 

[haisaikat]

Hi Koushik, you said in your first post that all devices are connected via Wifi. So I am assuming when you are transferring from PC to laptop the bandwidth of the wifi (150N is single stream 802.11n) is shared by both the devices so if you want to test the true bandwidth then keep at least one of the devices on wired lan with router and when testing no other devices should remain connected to wifi. Also note that if you have G devices in your network then while they transmit or receive over a N network the entire N network drops to G speeds degrading the data transfer rates.

Moreover you said that Laptop WAN speed is 72 mbps which means your actual transfer speed should not be more than 72 / 8 = 9 MB/s however this can further drop if there is data packet losses causing the laptop / pc to re-transmit the same package, you can check packet loss between your source and destination using ping <destination ip> -t and after some time do Shift+C to end that and see the packet loss summary. Do not go by the connection rate between the PC's adapter and the router which is shown in connection properties because it does not reflect the throughput performance when data packets are transferred.

Also as someone already suggested please also try adding a powerful wifi adapter to the laptop and PC that has a potential longer throw to be able to safely reach your router which is the problem is most cases since laptop's packet transfer strength is usually less than that a router which makes the wifi visible to laptop but the laptop fails to throw the packet to the router in return.

Some additional improvements tips to explore are here and there are numerous such articles over internet 10 Wireless Router Features You Should Be Using but Aren't | PCMag.com

 

[theironhorse]

Hi,

I am using a Netgear N150 router for my internet connection. All the devices are connected via wi-fi to my router - PC, Laptop, and some Android phones.

I generally download stuffs from internet or rip CDs, BDs & DVDs on my PC. Recently, I bought a laptop for myself and thought of streaming the movies and music from PC (Win 8.1) to my laptop (Wind 8.1). So I shared the folders with everyone without password.

Music is okay, but the Movies which are even 1-1.5GB is not playing smoothly. Then I decided to copy a movie from my PC to my laptop and the speed is painfully slow. About 300-700 KBPS. Copying over LAN should atleast give 100 Mbps speed if not more.

I have also tried with my cousin's router (D-Link N150) but the thing is same there as well. Slow transfer speed.

What am I doing wrong here? Please help.

its 100mbps... thats megabits... so ideally you will get 10 MBps real throughput on Lan..

disable firewall and antivirus and then re check...

 

[koushik]

Also note that if you have G devices in your network then while they transmit or receive over a N network the entire N network drops to G speeds degrading the data transfer rates.

This is a good point that you have mentioned. Are you sure about it?
If technically that is the case then here the culprit may be so many Android phones that are around.

Let me try with switching off the wifi connection from the mobiles.

 

[mowgli80]

You are dividing your wifi bandwidth between server and client which might be the reason. I would suggest connecting the PC through ethernet cable so that it does not consume the wifi bandwidth which would then be completely available for the client.

 

[haisaikat]

Are you sure about it?
If technically that is the case then here the culprit may be so many Android phones that are around.

Let me try with switching off the wifi connection from the mobiles.

Yes I am quite certain that speeds will drop but yes may still be better than G-Only networks but a drop is expected for sure. Also try with WPA2 / AES encryption and see if that is improving your throughput. If that also still does not work, try removing the encryption completely (Open network) for testing purposes only. Even in open networks you can apply security using MAC filtering.

 

[jagdish_p]

You are dividing your wifi bandwidth between server and client which might be the reason. I would suggest connecting the PC through ethernet cable so that it does not consume the wifi bandwidth which would then be completely available for the client.

+1 to above. Do not use WI FI for both PC and Lap Top. Try connecting at least the PC with an ethernet cable.
The other reason for slow speeds could be a slow write speed on your lap top disk as it is dying. Do you get good speeds when you try and copy from say a memory stick to lap top through USB?

Also note that a 72Mbps WI FI connection will at best give you around 5 MBPS transfer speeds.

 

[koushik]

Here is an update.

I have tried with one Ethernet cable to the PC and tried copying a large chunk of data around 25GB.

1. PC connected to router with Ethernet cable
2. Laptop was on wifi. All other wifi devices were disconnected.
3. PC --> Lappy || average speed was 2.8 MBps
4. Lappy --> PC || average speed was 4.95 MBps
5. PC streaming, Lappy playing || tried few movies of 1-3GB. All played back somewhat smoothly.

 

[koushik]

Will this router serve my (our) purpose a bit better?
Flipkart link

 

[musicbee]

Will this router serve my (our) purpose a bit better?
Flipkart link

Don't even consider the D-Link unless it has WDS and works with WDS Bridging. Otherwise the N150 will be wasted and cannot be put to use as a repeater... at least not wirelessly.

Also, unless you have devices with 802.11ac don't bother with dual band routers. Fact is the 5GHz range is very limited, the 2.4GHz range is way better. Also, only the modern devices like the latest smartphones and tablets come with the 802.11ac standard.

3 solutions...
1. Buy a dual band router and use the N150 to extend the range. Best option and will also ensure you put the N150 to good use and you can easily cover a large home with wifi seamlessly. I'd recommend a router with AC1900 at the least, that's N600 + AC1300. The D-Link short changes both, but price also needs to be a consideration as good dual band routers start at 10K.
2. Buy an N300 router. Dual band is not required unless you have devices with the 802.11ac standard and 802.11n will be here for a while. The 802.11ac standard has excellent b/w (1300 mbps), but limited range, so only recommended for wireless streaming of HD content within a short distance. The TP-LINK TL-WR841N (N300) is the best device I'd recommend here (costs around Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1300).
3. Get the D-Link, but ensure it has WDS for WDS Bridging and can work in conjunction with the N150 to increase the wifi network. Best solution at a budget.

 

[koushik]

Thank you very musicbee. Not really eager to spend 10K for router alone, so I found solution no.2 best suited for me. I stay within 15-20ft radius of the router.

This should do well as you have suggested - TP-LINK TL-WR841N

 

[haisaikat]

koushik, just an word of caution, 802.11N protocol is based on MIMO which is essentially having multiple active channels in the same stream to do parallel transfer. So if your existing laptop or PC wifi adapter does not support N300 then inspite of having a N300 router the wifi will work in N150 mode only.

Yes theoritically if two devices connect in two different N150 channels then there is some hope of added throughput if both will remain on wifi but then again I do not think if there is a way to ensure that. Moreover even if your laptop has N300 adapter then also there is no guarantee that you will connect in N300 since the additional channel bandwidth is lost over a distance.

There may be one aspect of buying a N300 router over a normal N150 which is in terms of higher capacity of transmit power in N300 since it has to transmit two stream simultaneously. Nevertheless Buffalo routers have some of best transmit powers in the market. However for Indian markets in sub 2K range I would suggest buy something that has upgrade able antennas.

Best of all solutions, if possible drop the idea of video streaming over Wifi, I have gone via that route some years back and finally came to the conclusion that nothing beats the reliability and ease of a gigabit wired network. If you have larger rips 10GB+ wired option is the way to go. Not sure when will H265 become popular to relieve us from this trouble.

 

[musicbee]

Thank you very musicbee. Not really eager to spend 10K for router alone, so I found solution no.2 best suited for me. I stay within 15-20ft radius of the router.

This should do well as you have suggested - TP-LINK TL-WR841N

Yup, that's the one. Might be cheaper on Amazon.in (if you have not already purchsed on Flipkart).

Use WDS and the N150 to further extend the wifi range.

 

[haisaikat]

Use WDS and the N150 to further extend the wifi range.

I think both repeater and WDS modes can potentially reduce the network throughput to half since both are store and forward based mechanisms which uses the same stream for storing and re-transmitting effectively reducing the actual throughput of the network.

 

[musicbee]

Also note that if you have G devices in your network then while they transmit or receive over a N network the entire N network drops to G speeds degrading the data transfer rates.

Just catching up on this thread and just wondering if that's a G standard issue?

I have an AC router (AC1300 + N600) and an old N150 that is used to further extend the network and I've never see this issue. Devices connected to N150 work at N speeds and devices connected to the AC router continue to enjoy AC speeds at the same time.

If anything the AC router gives me the promised speeds, I've connected at 1300 mbps at times and for the most part stream at 900 mbps or more for HD content. The N150 however never ever gave me 150 mbps, max was 72 mbps, but mostly 65 mbps.

Have an old Belkin G that I must connect and test this out, time permitting.