Slow transfer of local files over wireless

[drennan]

Hi. My transfer rate (of local files) is really poor over wireless, like 500mb is taking 2 hours. Here is my setup... Mac laptop to billion router (via wireless), billion to PC via ethernet cable, second ethernet card on pc to cable modem. I used to have this all hardwired (laptop to PC by ethernet) but recently introduced the router so I can work in another room. My wireless signal is always strong and doesn't seem to be dropping. If I download a file from the internet its ok, i'm averaging 900kb/s so the data transfer doesn't seem to be dropping or lagging when routing through from the internet. The problem seems to be with local transfers to my mac from the PC drive and the external USB hard drive connected to the PC. Transfer is ok when hardwired to the pc nic so maybe the router is the cause. The fact that internet throughput is ok makes me wonder if its something to do with config within vista though. What i'm getting is similar to when a drive is on its way out and it struggles to read data but this isn't the case as same prob when trying to transfer/access files on 2 internal PC drives and the external usb drive. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks

[mjc]

On the wireless machine, ping the router...then post the times for the ping.

Then repeat, pinging the other computer. Post those times, too.

What firewalls do you have running?

[drennan]

thanks. I have all firewalls off at the moment to test this. I'm a bit confused about my setup at the moment. My router IP was 192.168.1.254 but this address is unavailable now, maybe because I was advised to turn off DHCP on the rtr to get wireless to work? My knowledge is fairly limited. Apple networking is telling me my rtr IP is now 192.168.0.1 and if i traceroute to an internet IP, it says 192.168.0.1 is called vista, then the next hop is 10.247.4.1, then next hop is the IP my ISP has allocated me. these are the results when I ping the vista machine from my mac.

PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=2.536 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.969 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.894 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=0.942 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=15.244 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=10.672 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=1.710 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=0.954 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=18.791 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=128 time=2.040 ms

--- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.894/5.475/18.791/6.455 ms

let me know if you need anything else checked, thanks

[drennan]

If i run an ipconfig on the vista machine I get no default gateway for en2 and 86.5.100.1 as default gateway for en1. I presume this is the card that my cable modem is connected to. Here are the results when I ping this IP from my mac

PING 86.5.100.1 (86.5.100.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=14.341 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=7.541 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=9.093 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=6.342 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=22.299 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=7.638 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=9.889 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=7.071 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=6.955 ms
64 bytes from 86.5.100.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=14.439 ms

--- 86.5.100.1 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 6.342/10.561/22.299/4.800 ms

I just tried transferring the 500mb folder again and it transferred 4.1mb almost instantly and said 7 mins remaining. It then locked for a minute or so and when it resumed, it had transferred 9.3mb and said remaining time about 2 hours. So as I said before, its almost like the transfer is sticking and unsticking, like when a disk is damaged.