Hi All, I currently have a WET11 on our second floor and a WRT54GS on the first floor. There is no wiring between the two and I have the WET11 providing a wireless connection from a Netgear switch to the WRT54GS. I've recently upgraded my Comcast service to 8 Mbps but I can only pull about 3 from the upstairs. When I plug in to the LAN port on the WRT54GS I get 6.5 to 7.5 (expected) without any trouble. The connection status on the WET11 configuration page says it is connected at 11 Mbps to the WRT54GS but I can't seem to pull any more than 3 or so. The signal strength is steady at 85% sometimes more. Would a higher powered antenna provide me with any more boost to increase the speed of the upstairs segment or will I need to look at wiring the two together? Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Unfortunately you can't expect to get throughput of more than about 50% of the rated performance out of Wifi equipment. The overhead required by the wireless protocols just makes this a fact of life even under optimal conditions. 802.11b equipment (rated at 11Mbps) often doesn't get more than 4-5Mbps See this review of the WET11 @ TomsNetworking.com for confirmation. You're only options are to run cable between the devices or replace the WET11 with 802.11g equipment (rated at 54Mbps) which should get you 20-24Mbps under optimal conditions.
