wifi bit rate

[Bill Davidsen]

Tom Horsley wrote:
> Just for curiosity, does anyone actually know for sure
> what units the programs involves are calling "mb/s".
> Maybe one of them thinks it means megabytes and
> another thinks it means megabits :-).

Generally people are starting follow the standards, although that's only generally:
  mb or mbit bits
  mB  bytes x 1000000
  miB bytes x 1024*1024
Since a common rate in the 802.11 standard if 54 mbit that's probably right.

My Intel 2200 wireless:
eth0      IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"TMR-2"
           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:02:6F:5D:79:48
           Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0
           Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Encryption key:RedacteD   Security mode:open
           Power Management:off
           Link Quality=93/100  Signal level=-35 dBm  Noise level=-87 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:1  Rx invalid frag:0
           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:5

And Ralink on USB with rt2800usb driver:
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"TMR-2"
           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:02:6F:5D:79:48
           Bit Rate=81 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm
           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Encryption key:off
           Power Management:on
           Link Quality=56/70  Signal level=-54 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:15   Missed beacon:0

802.11n uses 2.462Mb band and/or 5.xxx Mb band, the high band being less noisy 
in many cases and possibly giving a cleaner connection.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot