wifi bit rate

[Konstantin Svist]

On 05/21/2012 02:33 PM, JD wrote:
> On 05/21/2012 01:34 PM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
>> On 05/21/2012 01:18 PM, JD wrote:
>>> Any wifi protocol savvy people who can explain this:
>>>
>>> iwconfig wlan0
>>> wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Private"
>>>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 
>>> 00:AA:BB:CC:DD:EE
>>>           Bit Rate=18 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm
>>>           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2346 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
>>>           Power Management:off
>>>           Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-36 dBm
>>>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>>>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:25   Missed beacon:0
>>>
>>> The access point is a 54G wifi gateway and router.
>>>
>>> My wifi card is the Atheros AR5008 which is an 802.11n card.
>>>
>>> How could the bit rate be restricted to 18Mb/s??
>>> Is this a problem with the ath9k driver or the wext driver?
>>> PS: I did not have the issue until installing FC16. This
>>> problem was absent in FC14.
>>>
>>
>> I thought wifi adjusts the data rate on the fly based on how strong 
>> the signal is. Try moving the laptop closer to the router, at least 
>> just to see if the rate goes up...
>>
> No difference!!
> Stuck at 18mb/s
>
> By the way: I changed wifi interface on my machine to an rtl8187
> and still iwconfig reports  18mb/s, with full signal quality at 70/70 !!!
>
> # iwconfig wlan1
> wlan1     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"Private"
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 
> 00:AA:BB:CC:DD:EE
>           Bit Rate=18 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm
>           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2346 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-25 dBm
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:21   Missed beacon:0
>
>

Hm, you're right - the quality is out of 70 and the rate is really low.. 
here's mine:
wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"Redacted"
           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 
00:14:D1:C4:4C:3F
           Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=14 dBm
           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Power Management:off
           Link Quality=62/70  Signal level=-48 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
           Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:20   Missed beacon:0

Maybe it's because I'm also connected over ethernet, so wifi is not 
being used, so it's in powersaving mode of some kind..?
See if your rate goes up/down if you're actively transferring a bunch of 
data.