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jsolo1
Premium
join:2001-07-01
| WRT54G v3.0 ULTRA-SLOW LAN throughput
Getting ready to do a wireless WDS install this weekend.
Picked up 2 wrt54g routers, both v3.0
Got the wds link setup nicely with alchemy 1.0 .
Started playing testing various functions.
WAN throughput over wds seems to be just fine.
LAN throughput over ethernet is terribly.
Two machines wired to the same router are getting practically 0 - 2 MB/s. Throughput extremely sporadic (EXTREMELY).|__|__|__|, where the | are the peaks to ~2MB/s, the rest of the time, its almost nothing.
I flashed back the linksys firmware 3.03.xx (whatever is on their site as being the latest). No help there.
Tried the two 4.00.x betas that are floating, same results.
In fact, i thought it might be the router, so I tried the other wrt, exact same results.
Ok.. Perhaps a network card setting... Plug cables back into my own wrt54gs (v1.0), and boom, I'm transfering at 7MB/s sustained, with occasional peaks to 8.5 MB/s.
I've gone over all the options on the slow WRT's, nothing jumps out at me.
I've read about all these speed issues, and about the router rebooting, etc... but this speed throughput is pathetic. 20 minutes to transfer a 600meg file over 100baset... unheard of!
So... Is there something obvious i'm overlooking, or have linksys products really gotten that bad in the past 12 months?
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Living in a state of insanity & disillusion | |
jsimmons
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-24
Falls Church, VA
| Here's a guess... Linksys did change the ethernet chip in the newer routers. There is a possibility that one of YOUR nic's isn't auto negotiating the correct mode (Ie half/full duplex) and there is a mismatch.
If there is a mismatch on the duplex, but the speed is correct, you will be able to move data, albeit very slowly.
The best way I know of to check this is to go into a command prompt on each PC and run "netstat -e" command. This will give error statistics on the ethernet nic. If the errors are > 0 and rising over time, then bingo - you've found the probable cause. You can try forcing your NIC (in the nic advanced settings) to either half or full duplex to see if that helps. Once the mismatch is cleared up, the error counts should be 0, or if rising, the increase should be negligable. With modern nics and quality cables, the error counts should stay near 0.
Errors can be caused by bad/low quality cables too.
I've seen this behavior frequently (not on a WRT54G router), but on a variety of LAN switches.. .including some of the most expensive ones Cisco makes. 
Let me know if this helps.
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"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler."- Albert Einstein | |
jsolo1
Premium
join:2001-07-01
4 edits | I changed the negotiate mode to forced 100mbps FD and HD, similar results.
The error rate was relativel low (under 100), and after restarting the nic, it didn't go up.
However, I did find the problem ! 
My topology is like this
---- = cat5e or cat6
//// = wireless
[ROOM A] cable modem --- wrt54g(1)
///////
[ROOM B] wrt54g(2) --- PC1
................................--- PRINTER1
................................--- HUB in basement
.........................................|--- PC3
The hub in the basement is an old (vintage 1998 or so) linksys 5 port with an uplink. Regardless which port I tried, I got slow throughput with the v3 wrt54g.
As soon as I connected wrt54g(2) directly to PC3 (via cat6), I was flying at ~9MB/s steady.
Talk about a mismatch. The hub has no setable options, nothing to adjust (though it cost a good buck back in the day).
I spent 4 hrs last night tearing my hair out trying to figure out WHY this POS was not working.
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Living in a state of insanity & disillusion | |
jsimmons
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-24
Falls Church, VA
| Ahhh... a little more complex config than your OP mentioned. Yes.. if possible use switches rather than older hubs. Its normal to see some errors (framing, collisions, etc.) on true ethernet hubs. But on switches, the errors should be 0 or very very small numbers.
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"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler."- Albert Einstein | |
jsolo1
Premium
join:2001-07-01
| Slightly complex
I honestly did not even consider the hub being the cause until I came down into the basement and noticed it this morning.
I've had this setup for nearly a year, and it functioned great with the 1.0 GS units. Out of sight, out of mind, you know...
When I do a wireless install, I tend to do as much of the config as I can in *MY* test environment, rather than onsite at the client. Especially with new hardware [revisions] I had not used in the past. In most cases, there isn't much to do other than flash the router to whatever firmware I'll be using and have a test run.
With a WDS setup AND new hardware, things get trickier.
Unlike other LAN speed issues posted which seem to be heat related, I doubt this is. Not much heat can be created since it's hardly hitting 2 or more MB/s.
Any word on when 3.1 or high revision of the G version is coming out?
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Living in a state of insanity & disillusion | |
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