Wireless at home

strangerica

Hey how are y'all

Quick one for ya

We have 2 computers at home with windows xp on them and i want a laptop as well. our internet is only 3mbs connection so i want to know if having wireless will effect it.

Will it give 1mb to all three or 3mbs to all?

cheers me dears :beer:

doverswot

The router will share the available bandwidth between the connected devices, so if all 3 of your computers are simultaneously receiving data they will in effect obtain a throughput of 1mbps. External factors such as speed of web sites etc will mean it's not exactly allocated like this.

strangerica

Thanks doverswot that very helpful. As its already slow I guess its not worth the expense - what a shame though. Thanks anyway and have a great day )

macman

There's no expense, as you new laptop will come with wireless built in. If you don't have a wireless modem/router, then you can blag one for free off your ISP, or for about a tenner upwards on eBay if not.

societys_child

Don't think you'd notice any difference unless you were all streaming video or something at the same time. My "up to 8 meg" gives a d/l speed of 1.3Mb at best but I can normally stream a video (depends on site) with 2 other comps being used at the same time. Wow - 3Mb .. pure luxury;)

strangerica

Thank you guys
My mate says that if i get cat5 cables instead of wireless then i can have all 3 on line at 3mb each. But he's not sure so do you know if that is true or not.
Thanks.

lucylucky

strangerica wrote: »

Thank you guys
My mate says that if i get cat5 cables instead of wireless then i can have all 3 on line at 3mb each. But he's not sure so do you know if that is true or not.
Thanks.

Your mate is incorrect.

Dave_C_2

How are your two computers connected to the internet (your router)? If it's by cable then it's already cat 5 if it's going to an ethernet port.

If all you are doing on all computers is regular surfing like reading MSE:), emails, facebook, twitter and so on then you'll never notice.

You will notice if you all start downloading music, watching youtube, playing on-line games etc. at the same time.

I assume you haven't noticed any difference when using 2 computers on the net instead of just one.

Dave

strangerica

Dave_C wrote: »

How are your two computers connected to the internet (your router)? If it's by cable then it's already cat 5 if it's going to an ethernet port.

We have a Thompson Speedtouch 330 USB modem that is on 1 computer only.

Dave_C wrote: »

If all you are doing on all computers is regular surfing like reading MSE:), emails, facebook, twitter and so on then you'll never notice.

You will notice if you all start downloading music, watching youtube, playing on-line games etc. at the same time.

Dad gets emails with youtube links and video downloads. The other computers would just be for regular surfing and all three would need Windows Updates.

Dave_C wrote: »

I assume you haven't noticed any difference when using 2 computers on the net instead of just one.

We haven't yet got a router, hence my question on wheather going for a wireless or cat5 option.

macman

First thing to do then is get rid of the Speedtouch. USB modems are obsolete and flakey.

fred7777

strangerica wrote: »

Thank you guys
My mate says that if i get cat5 cables instead of wireless then i can have all 3 on line at 3mb each. But he's not sure so do you know if that is true or not.
Thanks.

doverswot was correct saying "if all 3 of your computers are simultaneously receiving data they will in effect obtain a throughput of 1mbps"

However if all three are on line but only one is receiving data it will get 3mbps. So your mate is correct in that all three can receive 3mbps, just not all at the same time.

In reality though unless you are all using applications which require lots of bandwidth you will be OK with your existing cables and a laptop with built in wifi. I have around 3mbps and manage to watch iplayer on one machine whilst someone shops on another and I check my email on my phone over wifi.