My brother and I are connected through a wireless router we bought (802.11b) that boasts 11 mbps. At 11 mbps an MP3 song should go from my computer to his in less than a second. However, it takes about 5 - 6 seconds per song. Is there some hidden setting in windows that doesn't let the files go at full speeds? What can I do to remedy this?

A typical mp3 is probably about 4 MBytes. Your transfer is at 11Mbits which is about 11/8 or 1.4 MBytes per second. So your transfer is probably about right. ...give or take a few bits here and there.

11 Mbps is the bandwidth, not the speed. There is a difference. Depending on the size of the file 5-6 seconds seems about right when you consider all the hoops the data has to jump through to get there. Imagine you have six computers on a network A,B,C,D and E Computer A sends a file to computer B and it goes a 5.5 Mbps. At the same time computer C also sends a file to computer D. That will also go at 5.5 Mbps with no reduction in speed becasue they are within the bandwidth. Hovever if computer D comes along and tries to send a file to computer E at the same it will slow the other four down and all of them will end up sharing the 11 Mbps between them at 3.6 Mbps. Also ovr a wirless network, the quality of the connection will effect the actual speed of transmission as well. Stuart

[quote]11 Mbps is the bandwidth, not the speed. There is a difference.[/quote] I beg to differ on that. They are in fact two ways to say the same thing. theoretical max data rate = bandwidth In my post above, I assumed no other network traffic active at the time.

Using wireless to transfer data is slow. 802.11b states 11Mpbs but you will never get anywhere near it no matter what you tweak. You are getting results which are normal. If you want to transfer files quickly run CAT5. Even 802.11g is not even five times faster as they claim. You have become a victim of ad hype. KTTD