Average 5 b/s download speed!

[ndundiz]

I am in Afghanistan currently and connect to an open source wifi network provided by a local contract company. The problem I faced originally (so I thought) was that the internal antenna in my MacBook was very week. The routers I connected to were all several yards away. If I was even able to connect, the speeds were insanely (ripping out handfuls of hair) slow! So, I purchased a 600mW repeater to connect my laptop to. I thought my problems would be over. Even though the solution pulled my net speeds up, they still average between 5 and 30 Bites/s. This cannot be right.

What are my options?

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

The answer depends on a lot of factors really. To begin with - what sort of rates are you expecting? What rate do you see hardwired to the router if it's accessible to you. I can't imagine that data rates are terribly high there anyway - but obviously - if you really meant 5bps - then yes - that's morse code slow.

Is anyone else around you getting better performance? Any jammers in the area?

 

[ndundiz]

I did mean 5bps...that is the slowest and I have watched it dip that far down! There is nothing jamming at that freq that I know of, at least not back where I live. And as far as the rate, I get around 170bps back home on my DSL network...I would love half of that and I have always considered that to be a slow connection.
It is pretty slow for everyone, but the guy who runs it declares it is faster than I am making it out to be. He blames the speed on me having a Mac!

 

[BrianLachoreVPI]

I guess I'm still slightly confused - you say you get 170bps here in the US on your DSL network? That's really not much better than 5bps these days. The question is - what should you be getting. For instance - is there a guy next to you with a laptop getting significantly higher data rates?

 

[blairtechguy]

I am in Afghanistan

That may be a reason. Not only is the network probably being throttled it may be providing internet to a lot of clients. Does anyone else using this network have the same issues?

 

[ndundiz]

Everyone I know, says the speeds are slow. However, I do not know the specific numbers they are running. They don't seem to complain as much as I do...maybe that is just my nature!