Wireless connection speed

jjscott · 25th December 2010

I have a Linksys WRT54GX router, two laptops running XP that connect wirelessly to the net and desktop with XP that is hardwired to the router.

The laptops and the router support 802.11a/b/g so the highest connection/transfer speed is 54 mbps.

I performed several internet connection speed tests on one of my laptops and on the desktop. Here are the results:

Laptop:
Download - 8.86 Mbps
Upload - 0.49 Mbps

Desktop:
Download - 12.74 Mbps
Upload - 0.47 Mbps

Question:

- Will my router provide a separate 54 Mbps connection channel for each laptop or will they have to share one 54 Mbps connection?

I checked the wireless connection icon in the system tray on each laptop when they were connected last night and they were both connected at 48 Mbps. I checked them again this morning, one was connected at 24 Mbps while the other was at 18 Mbps. Last nights test leads me to believe that they would each receive a potential 54 separate channel. Is this correct?

- I'm assuming that I would not receive any internet surfing benefit from upgrading my hardware to one that supports 802.11n since my internet connection only averages 8.86 Mbps download. Is this correct? I believe that that the only benefit would be file transfers between systems on my home network. Correct?

Thanks

**rsinfo** · 26th December 2010

A wifi connection is a shared connection. Everyone is sharing the same bandwidth & as the no.of users increase, bandwidth falls off very fast. So you would have heard people not to have more than 15-20 connections to the same wifi as after that the speed simply drops off to near non workable.

Wifi signal would fluctuate from computer to computer unless wifi is within 10-12 feet with clear line of sight & no obstructions of the computer. Don't bother about these fluctuations.

The transfer between the systems would go up if you switch to 802.11n but still nothing beats wired networks.

**TonyT** · 27th December 2010

Also:

80211b = 11 mb/s
80211g = 54 mb/sec
80211n = 600 mb/sec

However, those figures are on paper only (or in shielded clean rooms). For example, if you have a 80211g wlan, 54 mb/sec, and even if your connection software says "connected at 54 mb/sec, you will never see 54 mb/sec throughput. You'll probably get about 30 mb/sec max.

The connection between a wifi adapter and an access point is never constant, it varies second by second. There will also be packet loss and interference, even if minimal, which reduces the rate.

The "download & upload" rates are regulated by your ISP. It's unlikely your ISP provides rates that esceed the wlan rates. A 80211g wlan rate is the rate between the computer and the access point and has no bearing upon Internet upload/download rates.