I bought a ZyXEL WAP3205 Wireless N Ethernet Bridge to replace my Buffalo Airstation WLI-TX4-G54HP Wireless G Ethernet Bridge. I have a Linksys WRT610N Wireless N Router. With the Buffalo bridge, I was getting around 3.0 MB /sec transfer rates. With the ZyXEL, I get around 125 KB / sec. The Wireless N device is not even in the ballpark of the Wireless G device I am trying to replace.
Any thoughts about what could be causing this, or steps I could take to troubleshoot the problem?
Update
I was able to get the router to perform better, but it's still not quite cutting it. I'm planning to return it and try a different brand. Here's what I did:
- I tried moving the bridge right next to the router. This did indeed improve the throughput. If the router was set to mixed mode (G+N connections allowed), I would get around the Max G speed (7 MB/sec). When I set the network to N mode, I would get 14 MB/sec. Better, but not the 30 MB/s I was hoping for.
- For some reason, the new bridge takes time to "sync". At first the throughput is horrible, but it eventually climbs to a respectable speed after 15-20 minutes or so.
- I could live with 14 MB/sec, but the new bridge seems to "hang up" often. Transfers move more quickly, but there is a large delay before the transfer starts. This happens with web pages as well, for some reason. I'm not sure what causes this behavior, but I'm going to punt on this particular bridge.