How fast should wifi be compared to ethernet?

[smokey982]

From the small amount of research I've done the Linksys EA3500 seems to get good reviews. PC Magazine gives it an editors choice. And at $99 it's about where I would like to be on price. Does anyone have any input on this model?

I have a Dish Hopper, Apple TV, Xbox 360 (rarely use), and Ooma VoIP phone hard wired from the router. And iMac, iPad, and iPhone that uses wifi. My home is one level, but I have a screened in back porch that use my iPad and iPhone so wifi out there is a must. Any thoughts?

http://store.linksys.com/Routers/Li...and-USB_stcVVproductId145330233VVviewprod.htm

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[jugghedd]

There's a big thing that many people miss when doing these tests. You really need to consider how the internet and your ISP work. Your provider can only guarantee speed from your house to them. The rest is out of their control FOR THE MOST PART. Unless you're using a test site at your ISP pop (point of presence) or local office where your connection terminates, its an inaccurate test. I guess if the test site was connected through your ISP, it would be fairly accurate. If you open a command prompt (DOS) and type "tracert x.x.x.x" x.x.x.x being replaced with the name of the test site, you'll see all of the devices and networks it goes through. Some will time out depending on if they allow the trace through their devices.

Another thing to consider is that the wireless speed is only between you and the wireless router. Back to the ISP is hard wired. So, lets say you have a 100 Mb connection to the ISP (just for example). Although extra bandwidth during times of network congestion can help overall, pushing over 100 Mb is a moot point. Take that scenario a step further. Unless you have a 100 Mb path straight through to whatever end device/server you are trying to reach, the additional bandwidth wont help.

I guess the thing to learn is that more bandwidth is almost always better. But, marketing and comparing apples to oranges as they sometimes do just confuses the consumer. The end result always seems to e the same. Higher bills and you always needing additional services/bandwidth/devices/upgraded plans.

 

[John Kotches]

jugghedd:

Who only has one device connected to the internet these days?

The "extra" bandwidth is slowly getting eaten up.

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[king3pj]

There's a big thing that many people miss when doing these tests. You really need to consider how the internet and your ISP work. Your provider can only guarantee speed from your house to them. The rest is out of their control FOR THE MOST PART. Unless you're using a test site at your ISP pop (point of presence) or local office where your connection terminates, its an inaccurate test. I guess if the test site was connected through your ISP, it would be fairly accurate. If you open a command prompt (DOS) and type "tracert x.x.x.x" x.x.x.x being replaced with the name of the test site, you'll see all of the devices and networks it goes through. Some will time out depending on if they allow the trace through their devices.

Another thing to consider is that the wireless speed is only between you and the wireless router. Back to the ISP is hard wired. So, lets say you have a 100 Mb connection to the ISP (just for example). Although extra bandwidth during times of network congestion can help overall, pushing over 100 Mb is a moot point. Take that scenario a step further. Unless you have a 100 Mb path straight through to whatever end device/server you are trying to reach, the additional bandwidth wont help.

I guess the thing to learn is that more bandwidth is almost always better. But, marketing and comparing apples to oranges as they sometimes do just confuses the consumer. The end result always seems to e the same. Higher bills and you always needing additional services/bandwidth/devices/upgraded plans.

Speedtest.net might be a slightly inaccurate test of true bandwidth. When the OP is only getting half of the speed he gets from a wired connection when he connects to WiFi there is a problem though. Plus I would say the speed is more accurate with a site like speedtest than staying within your ISP's network. Most of your real world internet usage will be outside their network so why only test inside.

Another thing, people are using routers for more than just internet access these days. Even if some of these routers' transfer speeds are much faster than your internet connection you can still get good use out of that extra speed. If you are streaming HD video or transferring files between devices in your internal network that extra bandwidth can come in handy. Of course a wired connection would be more ideal for those situations.

 

[jugghedd]

I dont think speed tests are invalid. It just helps to understand how theyre really working. They can be good for comparing wired vs wireless. But, yeah if you have latency between your wired and wireless, there's a problem. Also, if you have latency on the wireless at speeds less than the wireless top speed its sorta odd. There's some really cool stuff going on with fractal patterned curcuit board antennas that are pushing signals to the limit on wireless too. Its crazy how you can be in close proximity and still not get full wifi signal sometimes.

 

[mike123abc]

If you do a speedtest on ethernet and get lets say 50mbit/sec, then do it again via wifi and get 14mbit/sec (what happened to me before I upgraded my router), then you can definitely spot a problem.

If it is 50mbit vs 45 well it is probably about as good as you are going to get. I have a 50/5 connection. I can get 50 on wired easily, on my iphone 5 I just tested and got 45.58 down and 5.15 up. I would say that my new wifi router is doing its job.

 

[smokey982]

If you do a speedtest on ethernet and get lets say 50mbit/sec, then do it again via wifi and get 14mbit/sec (what happened to me before I upgraded my router), then you can definitely spot a problem.

If it is 50mbit vs 45 well it is probably about as good as you are going to get. I have a 50/5 connection. I can get 50 on wired easily, on my iphone 5 I just tested and got 45.58 down and 5.15 up. I would say that my new wifi router is doing its job.

May I ask which router you purchased?

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[mike123abc]

May I ask which router you purchased?

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Netgear N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4000, but it is about 2 years old now, so probably a bit dated. But, it goes about as fast as my connection, so good enough for now.

 

[Neutron]

Security on your wifi will impact your speeds as well. I usually only get 1/3 to 1/2 of my 30mbps download speed because I have wpa security and my ssid hidden. This is across my house about 50-60 feet away from my router that I'm seeing these speeds on my 4S


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[king3pj]

Security on your wifi will impact your speeds as well. I usually only get 1/3 to 1/2 of my 30mbps download speed because I have wpa security and my ssid hidden. This is across my house about 50-60 feet away from my router that I'm seeing these speeds on my 4S


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I use WPA 2 on my AirPort Extreme and still get my full speed. I do not hide my SSID though. I have heard that WEP can affect speed but I think WPA was supposed to address that.


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[Teehar]

I know that on wifi,my netgear routers won't give full speed unless you choose wpa2 security.

 

[king3pj]

Security on your wifi will impact your speeds as well. I usually only get 1/3 to 1/2 of my 30mbps download speed because I have wpa security and my ssid hidden. This is across my house about 50-60 feet away from my router that I'm seeing these speeds on my 4S


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According to the WPA Wikipedia I just read you should expect to see about a 5% decrease in speed but definitely not 2/3rds decrease. That is a 5% total wireless network speed not Internet speed. I see no difference in speedtests on my wireless laptop and wired gaming PC because my WiFi network speed is much faster than my Internet speed. If you are seeing that much of a decrease in speed it sounds like you would benefit from a new router.



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[jimdandyvi]

Pointless to hide SSID. Most if not all WiFi scanning utilities inSSIDer, etc. pick up all WiFi networks and give someone wishing to try and connect all the info they need. Not broadcasting the SSID just makes it harder to connect some of your devices.

You need to use WPA2 to have a linkspeed potential of greater than 54Mbps.

Distance, walls and floors are what slows down WiFi. Under ideal conditions 40 - 60 Mbps is the maximum you are going to get from a Wifi connection. Interference from other networks and other devices will also slow you connection down.

While this is plenty for most people that are surfing the web higher speeds are great if you are backing up your files on your network or streaming uncompressed video.

 

[Teehar]

Under ideal conditions 40 - 60 Mbps is the maximum you are going to get from a Wifi connection

Do you mean actual or what the device reports?I have several wifi devices and most report 150-300Mbps.

 

[mike123abc]

I use WPA2 with AES

 

[jimdandyvi]

Do you mean actual or what the device reports?I have several wifi devices and most report 150-300Mbps.

That is the Link Rate and has very little to do with what you actual speed might be. Think of that as a speed limit on a highway. How fast you go will depend on your car, how much other traffic there is. Link rates are mostly marketing hype.

The best way to test you network's speed is to run a LAN speed test and see how fast you can store a file to another device on your network. Then run some speedtests to see how fast your Internet connection is.

 

[Frank Jr.]

[url]http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/#prettyPhoto[/URL]

I shared this in the Pub back in March. Hope it can help. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/306910-Spy-On-Your-Neighbors-WiFi-(sort-of)?p=3119496#post3119496