Router

queensway_boy

Don't know if this has been on before but i know nowt about these things.Is the wireless routers as good as the wired ones in terms of performance?

JimArnold

No IMHO wired is better
Faster, more secure, more reliable but a lot less convenient

gizmoleeds

The current most-common standards for wireless routers are:
- 802.11a which is 54Mbps
- 802.11b which is 11Mbps
- 802.11g which is 20Mbps

As most broadband connections are 512kbps - 2Mbps there shouldn't be any difference in the speed of a wireless connection

mhendo

gizmoleeds wrote:

The current most-common standards for wireless routers are:
- 802.11a which is 54Mbps
- 802.11b which is 11Mbps
- 802.11g which is 20Mbps

As most broadband connections are 512kbps - 2Mbps there shouldn't be any difference in the speed of a wireless connection

I think you'll find both 802.11a & g are 54Mbps as standard. I believe the difference between the two is "a" is at 5GHz frequency, and "g" is at 2.4Ghz frequency.

I use 802.11g with WPA security/encryption enabled without any problems.

gizmoleeds

mhendo wrote:

I use 802.11g with WPA security/encryption enabled without any problems.

I thought it didn't sound right whe I wrote it - I forgot which was which so googled it and that was what the website said.

Anyay, the point is it is much higher then broadband speeds.

Edit: bad website was http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/8/802_11.html

JimArnold

While the point about just about any network is faster than broadband speeds is correct there are other things that you may wish to do with a network - including backups - which may transfer large amounts of data

I always advocate at least one wired connection - that way if you have a problem it's easier to isolate where the problem lies - modem, router or wirelss connection

mhendo

I'm wondering if I will lose the speed available on my soon to be 24Mbps ADSL2+ connection.

In a review, I saw my router, along with others, tested for their throughput over a 100Mbps LAN port, and using various 802.11g wireless cards/adapters.

On a 100Mbps LAN usign CAT5, the throughput was approx 61Mbps.
Using wireless to connect at a distance of 1 metre, throughput approx 13-16Mbps.

To see the full speeds of my new ADSL2+ connection, will I need to revert back to a wired connection to my router???! Any thoughts?

Rex_Mundi

Better to wait and see what sort of speeds you get from Be*. Although they are advertising 24Mbps. The maximum speeds quoted are actually the ATM speeds of the line, so maximum TCP/IP throughput on a perfect line would be around 21.5Mbps downstream and 1.1Mbps upstream. This is on a perfect line. I saw the results of their first trials recently averaged at approx 18Mbps.

Check your actual speeds on a computer connected straight to the modem, then see if you need a wired connection. If your speeds average over 13Mbps, then it may be worth changing your setup to get full use of your new ISP speeds.

steve!_10

mhendo wrote:

I'm wondering if I will lose the speed available on my soon to be 24Mbps ADSL2+ connection.

In a review, I saw my router, along with others, tested for their throughput over a 100Mbps LAN port, and using various 802.11g wireless cards/adapters.

On a 100Mbps LAN usign CAT5, the throughput was approx 61Mbps.
Using wireless to connect at a distance of 1 metre, throughput approx 13-16Mbps.

To see the full speeds of my new ADSL2+ connection, will I need to revert back to a wired connection to my router???! Any thoughts?

Well your connection will only be as fast as the slowest part of the network, but as a home user are you really going to notice the difference in performance over 16Mb and 24Mb? Those sort of connections really only start pulling their weight when you have lots of people using it at the same time. Only then will you see the extra oomph.

mhendo

I need to test this sort of thing out, as I may consider testing this out on a few Remote Access users I have at work. With the systems they use (many at once), including web based application and DIP systems so they have a large amount of up & downstream traffic.