100mbps up / down connection dropping to 50 up / down with APE?

Question

I have a symmetrical 100Mbps fibre internet connection. When I connect my MBP via ethernet, I get a reasonable 93Mbps up / down. However, connecting with my Airport Extreme (802.11n) I'm only getting about 50Mbps up / down.
I'm being told by my ISP that I should expect a drop if connecting via WIFI, but 50% sounds a bit extreme.
Can anyone advise on a) whether this is to be expected, b) how I can improve this?

Answer 1

N wireless at 2.4ghz, is limited to max link speed on the apple products of 150Mbps.. since wireless is half duplex it gives a max transfer speed of around 60Mbps.. and real world a bit less.. often a lot less.
So open your wireless info in the top menu, holding down the option key when you click it, and see what channel and what band you are on. Plus the link speed.
This is gen4 Time Capsule so = Gen5 AE.
Transmit rate is 145Mbps.
Here is the 5ghz result.
I have named the two bands differently so I can force connection to whichever I choose.
5ghz is much faster.. and on later (Gen4 AE and after should link at 450Mbps on N wireless Mac from 2011 and later).
Gen1-3 will have max link of 300Mbps.
But at range the speed drops rapidly and it will swap to 2.4ghz unless you have it named differently.
You may struggle even on 5ghz to get full ethernet speed but perhaps 80% of it.
Wireless is good .. for good speed up close is required. Place the computer in the same room as the AE and do the test.
If it is very slow even on 5ghz, and the link speed is high there is another issue.