Wireless speed limited to 54 Mbps?

If you have an access point (AP) or a router configured to use WEP, or WPA-TKIP encryption, your wireless transfer speed will be limited to 54 Mbits/second.

This is caused by 802.11n, the spec prohibits using higher throughput with WEP or TKIP as the unicast cipher.

If you use WEP or WPA-TKIP encryption methods, your data rate will likely drop to 54 Mbps, as devices will be connecting using the legacy IEEE 802.11g standard, rather than failing to connect, or using 802.11n which allows for higher throughput.

To solve this, simply use newer encryption, such as WPA-PSK (AES), or WPA2-PSK (AES) if supported by all your wireless devices.


WEP and TKIP compatibility will slow down your wireless network considerably for all clients.