can my laptop use 8mb broadband...

[fidds34]

Hi thier, im a little confused... im just about to change my broadband service from ntl to bt, i live in the uk... now my question is this.

Currently my laptop connects wireless, my speed is 10mb but on my wireless linksys WRT54GS router i only get 4.5mb d/l speed. The wireless adaptor in my laptop is intel pro wireless 3945 ABG.

I would like to know if BT say thier wireless hub they provide will suply 8mb wireless, can my laptop use the full 8mb or is it only ever gonna get what i was getting before, ie; 4.5mb

Hope i have made this clear, thanks in advcance for any help you can give.

Fidds

[TonyT]

Your laptop is capable of 54 Mb/sec depending on the quality of the wifi signal. Not to mention that when downloading www files, the download rate is often capped at the www server that holds the files.

[fidds34]

Thanks for the promt reply, so if the quality of my wifi was the highest speed available, what is the fastest my laptop would get if it is 54mb per sec, would it go as fast as 8 mb download speed providing the www server would go that fast?

Fidds

[PrivatePyle]

It will go as fast as the slowest point on the network between you and who you are downloading from.

So if the the wirless is getting a good signal and everything is setup nicely, on adsl you should be able to expect about 80% of your advertised speed.

I'm on 2mb adsl and my speedtests are about 1800kbps

edit : To answer your question though, your laptops wireless should be perfectly capable of coping with a 8meg connection, when ntl start doing 50meg connections is when maybe it could potentially be the bottleneck, but I'm looking forward to worrying about it

[YeOldeStonecat]

Thanks for the promt reply, so if the quality of my wifi was the highest speed available, what is the fastest my laptop would get if it is 54mb per sec, would it go as fast as 8 mb download speed providing the www server would go that fast?

Fidds

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You current hit about 4.5 megs with your Linksys....they say their wireless unit will go up to 8 megs...but you're mixing brands, environment, etc...there's no guarantee. Realistically you can expect to hit between 4.5 - 8 megs. There's no way to tell how mixing two brands of wireless will turn out before actually trying it.

Personally if you have a wrt54gs I'd stick with that..latest firmware, or if you're adventurous....I'd flash it with DD-WRT or Hyper-WRT...both are 3rd party firmware..and will give you optimal performance. I use on, with my lappy I can pull 13 megs from my cable connection..and that's with my laptop on the second floor 3x rooms across my house from the access point.

[fidds34]

Thanks for all the help guys, Fidds