Variance in network speed

Hi,

I'm using a Netgear DG834GT router to form a wireless network with my desktop running XP and my laptop running Vista. I'm hitting a good broadband speed of 10-12mps on both the desktop, which accesses my 16mps broadband connection directly through the ethernet connection on the router, and on my laptop which accesses the connection wirelessly.

However, the speed of wireless file transfer over the network can vary greatly. Sometimes a video file can be streamed from my desktop to my laptop without any stuttering, other times the network seems unable to transfer it fast enough. And sometimes it will only take a few minutes to transfer a few hundred megs worth of video files over the network, othertimes over an hour.

Are these variances in the wireless network speed to be expected? Caused by variances in the air like mobile phones, radio waves, etc?

The router is rated as 802.11g, which I understand is 54mps, although it claims to be running in 108mps mode.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Things to concider.

How much traffic is your area network seeing, how busy if the internet between you and the server.

How busy is the server on the other end. 20 requests or 2000 requests.

When the kids in the area get home from school and start running IM programs, it can and has knocked me for a loop.

The variance in speed is just on file transfer between my desktop and laptop on my home WLAN. Surely this wouldn't be affected by what's going on with the wider internet?

Or, when you ask how much traffic my area network is seeing, do you mean other wireless networks that are in the range of my computers? Although I'm just connected to my network, about 2 or 3 other wireless networks from the houses around me also show up as potential connections. I hadn't considered that - I guess it would make sense that the activity of these are still 'in the air' and could affect the speed of my wireless network.

Fast Ethernet wired connection works at 100 Mbps. That's the standard speed, and it can be reached because the cable provides a shielded communication channel for each workstation.

On the other hand, wireless works at up to 54 Mbps for 802.11g or 108 Mbps for proprietary extensions of the standard. This speed fluctuates in time because the communication environment is susceptible to all kinds of interference. The maximum advertised speed can only be sustained in the proximity of the access point, and without any interference from electronics which use same radio frequencies - cordless phones, for instance. Neighboring WiFi networks also interfere with your own communications.

This is why wireless networks have a choice of 11 channels, to share the frequency range with less interference and higher density of networks. By default, most wireless devices are set on channel 6. Change your setting and see if that helps. A wireless network monitor could tell you what other networks are in your area and what channels they're running on.

Changing the channel (to 3 from 6) has really sped things up and everything's working well now! Thanks for the tip.

I'll bear in mind the effect of other wireless networks in the area in the future.