How we test.... wireless networks

When testing the wireless performance of routers we’re interested in how they actually perform not maximum throughputs. To do this we test with WPA security turned on, which slows down the wireless network slightly, but is realistic as you should not be running an unprotected network.

We test with a Centrino notebook’s internal network adaptor, as these will commonly be used with wireless routers. We also test using own-brand network adaptors, as these usually achieve the best performance. Our results are graphed against reference scores obtained from a Hawking 802.11g Wireless Router with no turbo modes, using our Centrino notebook.

As well as testing pure performance, we also check our routers for usability and features. There’s no point in buying a router that’s very quick but impossible to configure.

Near and Far throughput test

WHAT IT DOES: We copy a 100MB file from a notebook to a shared network folder and time the file copy. The file size (converted to megabits) divided by the time taken gives us the transfer rate in Mbit/s. We perform the test three times and take an average of all three results.

The point of testing at near and far ranges is to see how well the router copes with distance. The better it does at a distance the better it’s likely to do in your home where there’ll be a lot of walls and doors to get through.

Test bed

Intel 1.66GHz Pentium M
512MB RAM
Intel 802.11b/g wireless network adaptor

Reference scores

Hawking 802.11g wireless router:
Own-brand near: 15.07Mbit/s
Centrino near: 15.07Mbit/s
Own-brand far: 14.89Mbit/s
Centrino far: 14.89Mbit/s