Wireless Speed Questsion (hardware related)

Meant to answer in last post:

If it's truly a wireless router, then it would have an antenna. I don't have a wireless router, but I think that the antenna is on the card which you put inside the PC. The router itself is what's connected to the internet. The router sends messages to the card through the air (not wires - hence the term 'wireless'). The distance has an effect on speed, though I'm not sure exactly how (I don't have a wireless router, but I too will be getting one). I don't know if it either works or it doesn't, or if it gradually decreases speed.

Note that the router itself doesn't care which computer it's connected to. The router and the computer are seperate entities. It doesn't matter to the router how fast or slow a computer is -- its job is to send and receive signals from it. And if you connect 2 computers, 1 fast, 1 slow, to the router, it will treat them the same. The slow computer will not have any effect on how fast the other computer can browse.

Distance and barriers can slow a router down. For 50 feet or more, my recommedation is look for a router with longer range support. Walls, and other obstructions have an effect too.

If it's a wireless router, then what role does the cable play?

Ok, my assumption is that your using the router both to share internet access and to create a home network between multiple computers.  You've identified that you have at least 1 desktop, and presumably you have other computers as well.

Now, typically, your broadband modem (cable, DSL, what have you) will connect directly to your router.  If you want to position your router far away from your modem you can do this via ethernet cabling (of which it sounds like you bought a lot).  Note that long cables may *slightly* decrease speed but it should not be noticable.  The maximum certifiable length of cat5 cable (which I assume you bought) is 100meters -- if you need a longer distance than that, we can talk about other options.

So now presumably your network looks like this:   modem ---cat5 cable--->wireless router

Now, if your computers have ethernet cards you can connect them to the router via more ethernet cabling (most home wireless routers come with 4ports).  So long as you don't exceed the 100m limit, this will not be a problem.  It is generally recommended that at least one of your home computers be connected via ethernet cable to the router -- this is of *tremendous* benefit when it comes to upgrading/configuring/troubleshooting the wireless router.

As you probably know, you can also connect a number of wireless clients up to the wireless router -- specifics on doing this will vary by brand.

As for your last question -- the speed of a computer has some effect on network speeds.  If it is a slow machine (slow harddrive, CPU, and network card for instance) you may notice decreased performance.  It should not slow down any other client's internet access speeds though, if that's what you're concerned about. 

Hey Thanks for the Responses! 

One quick follow-up question regarding the length of the cat5 cable, is it 100 meters per run from the router to the ethernet card.  That is, with the 4 ports on the wireless router, could I run, for example, 2 X 100 meters from 2 of the ports?

On the speed of the computer attached to the wireless router, I am only concerned about the Internet access speeds broadcoast throughout the wireless network.  The slow computer is an extra old system that I had around and is being used to configure and upgrade, that's it.

 

Thanks!

 

Scott