Ethernet/Wireless

Tom Mortensen · Post by **Tom Mortensen** » 26 Feb 2006 1:18 pm

Is wireless capable of transfer speeds equal to ethernet connection, given a good signal.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 26 Feb 2006 1:37 pm

Tom Mortensen · Post by **Tom Mortensen** » 26 Feb 2006 2:22 pm

So, an ethernet connection speed is 100Mbps.
At best 802.11b is going to give me 54Mbps.
I ran a speed check and downloaded a file @ 4Mbps.
I'm connected to cable so I assume this goes up and down a bit depending on traffic.
Then would it be safe to assume that I will never approach 54 Mbps on this connection?[This message was edited by Tom Mortensen on 26 February 2006 at 02:47 PM.]

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 26 Feb 2006 3:20 pm

Tom, that is absolutely correct you will never approach 54 mps on a wireless connection or an internet connection for us consumers. That's the way it is now but in a few years we'll be able to transfer files both wirelessly and internet wise at those speeds then we'll all have to have gigabit ethernet cards in our computers. Most of the newer computers already have gigabit ethernet controllers in anticipation of that day.

Bob[This message was edited by Big Bob Martin on 26 February 2006 at 03:25 PM.]

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 26 Feb 2006 8:44 pm

Tom, if you downloaded a file at 4 mbps, yer doing real fine....

I'll swap my 44 to 56 kbps with you any day.

New political slogan...

A chicken in every pot, and a T1 into every living room...[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 26 February 2006 at 08:45 PM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2006 2:44 am

There are many factors that affect data speed. Your "connect" speed to the ISP is only one factor. You could have a broadband connection with, for example 4 Mb/sec speed but the actual data throughput will be something less and depending where and when you are downloading from a site can and will play a big part in the overall data throughput speed.

Same way with a dial-up connection. Your modem connect speed is only that, the speed that was negotiated by the modems when it made the connection. During actual data transmission the modems are constantly negotiating a data speed based on the "current" conditions of the telco line. And, different modems can have different connection speeds and one that connects faster may even have a lower data throughput speed.

The overall network data throughput, whether wireless, broadband or dial-up gets very complicated.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Feb 2006 5:48 am

Wireless network access points are totally insecure out of the box, and wide open to war drivers or even neighbors with wireless network adapters. In order to secure your wireless access point you must enable various levels of encryption and create a unique SSID, and even filter connections by MAC address. All of these protective measures will cut your wireless data transmission rate by two to four times.

I found this out after securing a small business WLAN that ended up with such huge loading times for their databases that they abandoned the wireless network and went back to an ethernet LAN. Wireless is fine for low bandwidth stuff like the Internet, or for simple file sharing, but when it comes to huge databases that must be opened quickly they don't cut it with encryption engaged.

In case anyone was going to ask what the worry is about securing the WLAN, I found 6 fulltime interlopers after two days of operation. After I locked down the security measures the interlopers were gone, but so was the file transfer rate. You can't allow outsiders to freeload on a wireless network where personally identifiable financial information is involved.

The net results of my experience with this was that the 801g network slowed to around 13 mbps effective throughput, with strong encryption and MAC filtering. That is only slightly better than the old T-base 10 cards they used to employ in the old days.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
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Jon Bergh · Post by **Jon Bergh** » 27 Feb 2006 5:50 am

Just wanted to add this in here, Jack.

It's true that when simply going from your computer out to the internet you'll not notice a difference between wired/wireless, you will indeed notice if you have to move large amounts of data between different computers on your own little network. Even when downloading something gigantic there's no benefit for me to go wired instead of wireless.

I have a couple of machines, and if I want to move more than 50meg of data it's worth my time to connect my laptop up with a wire.

Most of what goes on here is just web activity, therefore the laptop running wirelessly is just fine.

Hope this helps.
-jon

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 27 Feb 2006 9:51 am

I am curious. I am a network IS guy with a medical lab. I just tested my download speed and i am on a T1. I downloaded at about 145 kps. I would like to know how you get 4mbs if I am on a T1 and get 145 kps.[This message was edited by Ron Sodos on 27 February 2006 at 10:04 AM.]

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 27 Feb 2006 9:54 am

I just read carefully the posting up above. The 100 mbs on an ethernet LAN has nothing to do with the internet connection speed. The 100mbs is internal on the LAN before the Internet connection. I am on a gigabit network here at work but only download at 145kps to the Internet on a T1.

It is important that you understand the difference between internal network and Internet connection. No matter how fast your LAN is, the connection to the Internet is not relevant to that speed. We have 3 T1's between 3 facilites here. 2 are hospitals and I am at the lab. Even though we have a gigabit network Our 1 T1 line to the Internet gives me 145kps download speed.[This message was edited by Ron Sodos on 27 February 2006 at 10:05 AM.]

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 27 Feb 2006 10:27 am

I have lots of technical info about modems and baudrates here:
http://www.wizcrafts.net/modems-101.html

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.

Tom Mortensen · Post by **Tom Mortensen** » 27 Feb 2006 12:36 pm

Ron,
I went to a few different internet sites that offer a speed test.
That's where I came up with the 4Mbps number(download).
Upload tests averaged 365kbps on the same connection.
At a hotel today using their high speed wireless to connect to the internet.
download-489kbps
upload-487kbps

[This message was edited by Tom Mortensen on 27 February 2006 at 12:54 PM.]

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 28 Feb 2006 6:15 am

No matter how fast your LAN is, the connection to the Internet is not relevant to that speed.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it this way:

A fast LAN won't make a slow connection to the Internet any faster. But a slow or congested LAN can kill throughput on a fast Internet connection.

Ron, if you have any influence with the bean counters you might have them check out pricing on fiber, if it's available. In my experience T1 pricing hasn't kept up with the times. Telcos are still charging a T1 premium like it's 1994. Just as an example, I've got 30Mbps fiber into the office for about $350/mo. Compared to, say, $250 for a T1 (a good price in my area) you're getting roughly 20 times the capacity for $100 more. If you drop the fiber speed to 15Mbps the cost goes down to about $100. Tell 'em you can save 'em money

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 28 Feb 2006 6:23 am

Telcos are still charging a T1 premium like it's 1994.

Milk the cash cow until it dies.... Isn't that genuine Harvard Business Review business model?[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 28 February 2006 at 06:23 AM.]

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 28 Feb 2006 8:23 am

We are a 100 million+ corporation and I am a lowly Network tech so I just do what i am told here. We have fiber between floors and gigabit between PC's. T1's to the Internet and between facilities. We have about 30 main servers including 2 IBM Unix boxes. Anyway all I think about is steel guitar anyway. LOL

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 28 Feb 2006 11:30 am

Telcos are still charging a T1 premium like it's 1994.

Here in Cloverdale, the T1 costs me close to $800/month.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
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Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 4 Mar 2006 9:58 am

I am on a gigabit network here at work but only download at 145kps to the Internet on a T1.

That may be 145kBps, or 145killobytes per second, and not 145 killobits per second. Killobytes are 8 times as big as killobits. Since a T1 is 1.5megabits/sec (if I recall correctly), then 145 killobytes/sec seems about right. (The reason the download speed in killobytes/sec isn't exactly 1.5megabits/sec divided by eight is that handshaking and various other overhead eats up some of the bandwidth.)

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | MSA U12 | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?
[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 04 March 2006 at 09:58 AM.]