Wireless Vs Wired Networks

[Cloud23465]

WOW! That's the word that came to mind when I did these speed tests. The Uploads where pretty close in speed but the Downloads where huge in difference.

Ethernet
Download Speed 2749 KB/Sec Transfer Rate
Upload Speed 216.8 KB/Sec Transfer Rate
Viewable results of Ethernet test

Linksys Wireless-G W/Speedbooster @ 75% Signal Strength
Download Speed 793.3 KB/Sec Transfer Rate
Upload Speed 214 KB/Sec Transfer Rate
Viewable results of Wireless test

So... I'm looking at 3.5 Times more speed with Ethernet vs my usb wireless adapter. I've never used Ethernet on my computers... just my Playstation 2 for online pay of socom and that's about it. I never knew it was this much faster on my desktop... and this is just using Cat5 ethernet cable. Cat6 is a bit out of my price range right now but I'll eventually get some. Though runing the cable under the house was a pain... it looks like it's going to be well worth it.

[campy]

To me, wireless is worth a speed hit for the convenience. I have no problem with the download speeds I'm getting, and I like to move around the house. Then again, wherever I end up I usually plug my laptop into AC power, so there's a wire tying me down. Still, running cable from my basement to the 1st & 2nd floors would be absurdly expensive.

[Cloud23465]

Yeah.... when it comes to mobility you can't beat wireless. I'm setting up a piece of ethernet for my laptop so when i'm downloading thouse huge adobe , Java, & Microsoft updates. But i'll still have the ability to be on the other side of the house with it to surf the net and check emails (though I really don't do that to much) But I wouldn't want to run ethernet from one floor to another either.

[Greenmandmz]

Is it your LOT in life to torture me with this topic?!?!

After spending the antecedent of 7+ hours last night and this morning manipulating and fussing with my wireless expander and its accompanying software to once again get an uninterrupted wireless signal to my room, you wander over to GJA and post THIS?!

And that's after my post detailing how I had just gotten my internet connection fixed!

You hate me, don't you! :P

Actually, the person hosting the wireless connection from where I get my signal had been planning to secure it for several weeks now and just did so yesterday. What that meant for me was that I had to reprogram the expander to carry a secure signal instead of an unsecured one. Of course, it seems these things are always complicated than they should be because when I take my computer and wireless expander down to the room where the router is to reconfigure the expander, I start the process and it doesn't want to cooperate. It didn't help that directions were less than accurate when trying to make this work. I tried a number of different steps before the expander finally decides to it wants to detect the wireless router that I have been sitting next to the entire time! I'm not sure if it was a glitch in the software or problem with the expander. Or maybe it was the wireless router itself. That signal has been suspect for awhile when I've used it in the past.

Anyways, I got the problem fixed and I have the network key to allow me access. The connection is noticeably faster now that only a few people are using it. Another problem solved (again).

@ Topic: You're right that you can't beat wireless for its mobility. I prefer a wired connection myself, but in this case, I'll take what I can get.

[Cloud23465]

Is it your LOT in life to torcher me with this topic?!?!

After spending the antecedent of 7+ hours last night and this morning manipulating and fussing with my wireless expander and its accompanying software to once again get an uninterrupted wireless signal to my room, you wander over to GJA and post THIS?!

And that's after my post detailing how I had just gotten my internet connection fixed!

You hate me, don't you! :P

Wow! That's all i can say because I gave up on the range expander I have. It would work fine then stop so i said the heck with it. I still have it but don't use it (makes a great paper weight)

As for the torcher thing? Sounds like fun

[TransWarpDrive]

Is it your LOT in life to torcher me with this topic?!?!

After spending the antecedent of 7+ hours last night and this morning manipulating and fussing with my wireless expander and its accompanying software to once again get an uninterrupted wireless signal to my room, you wander over to GJA and post THIS?!

And that's after my post detailing how I had just gotten my internet connection fixed!

You hate me, don't you! :P

Wow! That's all i can say because I gave up on the range expander I have. It would work fine then stop so i said the heck with it. I still have it but don't use it (makes a great paper weight)

As for the torcher thing? Sounds like fun

Be sure and close the cover before striking that match, now...:P

[jeriddian]

Is it your LOT in life to torcher me with this topic?!?!

After spending the antecedent of 7+ hours last night and this morning manipulating and fussing with my wireless expander and its accompanying software to once again get an uninterrupted wireless signal to my room, you wander over to GJA and post THIS?!

And that's after my post detailing how I had just gotten my internet connection fixed!

You hate me, don't you! :P

Wow! That's all i can say because I gave up on the range expander I have. It would work fine then stop so i said the heck with it. I still have it but don't use it (makes a great paper weight)

As for the torcher thing? Sounds like fun

Be sure and close the cover before striking that match, now...:P

Now, now children... ...let's behave.............NOT!

BTW, the word is torture.... .....just thought I'd be a little 'Phillish'....

[TransWarpDrive]

Is it your LOT in life to torcher me with this topic?!?!

After spending the antecedent of 7+ hours last night and this morning manipulating and fussing with my wireless expander and its accompanying software to once again get an uninterrupted wireless signal to my room, you wander over to GJA and post THIS?!

And that's after my post detailing how I had just gotten my internet connection fixed!

You hate me, don't you! :P

Wow! That's all i can say because I gave up on the range expander I have. It would work fine then stop so i said the heck with it. I still have it but don't use it (makes a great paper weight)

As for the torcher thing? Sounds like fun

Be sure and close the cover before striking that match, now...:P

Now, now children... ...let's behave.............NOT!

BTW, the word is torture.... .....just thought I'd be a little 'Phillish'....

Yep, we know; just havin' fun with some silly wordplay...:P

[Sir Sebastian]

Wireless systems are a pain to set up if you haven't done it before. I struggled for something like two days trying to get my first wireless router to work. Nowadays, it takes a few minutes.

And, yes, even the basic (100mbit) ethernet is faster than the fastest wireless (remember, the actual transfer rate in wireless is always a lot lower than the theoretical maximum), but unless you're moving massive amounts of data between computers, it doesn't matter. Even a basic 54mbit wireless is faster than any broadband available for consumers (though there have been locations where can get a 100mbit connection), so if you mainly use the Internet, you're not going to need the extra speed.

I have a fileserver (with about 600GBytes of storage space) set up in my walk-in closet, which I have turned into a tool shed/server room. The server connects to two computers (the main one in the living room, and the secondary in the bedroom) via cat6 Ethernet cable, and wirelessly to my laptop.

Most of the time I don't need all the speed (and unless you're running a Gigabit network through long distances, you don't really need cat6), since the data flowing around is mostly streamed video and music, in compressed form. But when I occasionally have to move some data or install software through the network, it's nice not to have to wait so long. But being the techno-geek that I am, I'm still going to upgrade to Gigabit ethernet at some point.

[Cloud23465]

Wireless systems are a pain to set up if you haven't done it before. I struggled for something like two days trying to get my first wireless router to work. Nowadays, it takes a few minutes.

You've got that right. Linksys has made wireless networking so easy... to the point of pushing a secure network button the the router and that's it. Though when I did move I had to change the channel of my wireless from 6 to 3 because there were about 3 other networks that I was picking up that were on the same channel. My router didn't seem to work to well till I did that and now everything's great.