Wireless generation speeds vs Ethernet, but...

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Kreative
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Joined: Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:57 am

Wireless generation speeds vs Ethernet, but...

Post by Kreative »

Hello,

I am new to these forums and I'd like someone to clarify wireless vs Ethernet speeds for my situation. I have read that 2G Wi-Fi speeds range in kilo-bit scale, and the 5G Wi-Fi speed is 1 Gigabit. At home, I used to be connected to an Ethernet cable connecting to my router but now my computer is connected by a wireless connection 3 meters away from the router int he same room. I am connected to a 2G connection from my router, even though I am receiving speeds of about 30 megabits. Does the generation of wireless connection affect the download / upload speeds and/or ping? I think I remember having speeds of about 50 megabits when I had my Ethernet cable as my plan is up to 60 megabits, however now it seems it is 30, my brother insists that speedtest always showed an average of about 30 megabits on his computer and others whether wireless or not, but I remember higher speeds. Only a bad laptop in my home can receive my modem's 5G connection, whereas my computer can only receive 2G.

In my situation:

Is Ethernet cable much better than 2G?
What's the deal about 2G being so fast whereas sites online say it's domain is in the kilo scale?
Should I continue using 2G or should I use Ethernet cable, I do often download very big files.

Kind Regards,
Kreative
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Philip
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Post by Philip »

2G-3G-4G usually refers to mobile networking and wireless data, not home networking. There is more info on it here: http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-are- ... tworks-365


Wi-Fi Wireless networking is under different standards, 802.11b (11 Mbps) 802.11g (54 Mbps), 802.11n (increments of 150 Mbps per stream in the 2.4GHz frequency band), and 802.11ac (speed in increments of 433Mbps, in the 5GHz frequency band).

Wired Ethernet has different standards as well, it is usually either 100Mbps or 1 Gigabit per second.
Wired Ethernet is usually faster than Wi-Fi, and much less prone to interference. If you are only 3 meters apart, there is no reason to use Wi-Fi.

Wireless speed will depend on the standard (i.e. 802.11n vs. 802.11ac, etc.) and the number of "streams" or channels that can be transferred simultaneously to the network adapter in your client computer. You can get the general idea of wireless speeds here: http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-is-t ... reless-374

In essence, speed is advertised in both directions, and combining all radios/standards of the wireless router, so you can't get the rated speed to one client. It would be an easy test to connect your client PC with an Ethernet cable and see if there is any performance difference.

I hope this helps
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