New World

[rjundi]

This may be obvious to some. Using a wireless connection no matter what the router you connect to is still slower by a good margin from using Ethernet cable. My router is an E3000 which is capable of high wireless speeds.

I a plugged in a 100' Cat 6e cable to my Notebook with a 1Gbps ethernet port to wireless router and ahhhh.

Interestingly the download speed is very close on speed test sites but latency(time to make connection) is nearly double. This adds up when you are connecting to multiple sources on a website quickly.

 

[Pablo]

In theory you are correct, and I agree what you say must be true.

That said - In my network, honestly I can't tell the difference - in fact some of wireless set-ups seem the fastest. IMHO I have such mixed bag of PC's, the variables of that given particular PC override the connection type. YMMV.

 

[Nick R]

I can tell you that is for sure. I play some online games, CoD Multiplayer, WoW, and when I used to play on a wireless connection, latency and ping times were horrible. Now the router and cable modem are in my room, I'm hardwired, and the latency has dropped to less than half. (From about 320ms WoW down to about 110)

 

[hate2work]

I can tell no difference in speed between my hard-wired desktop and my wireless connected laptop. Router is a Belkin G, shown below.

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=136493

 

[bepperb]

You might not notice if the bottleneck is your connection between the isp and the router and not the router and the machine.

But yes, wireless is much slower, doesn't duplex, and is subject to a lot of things that can slow it down.

 

[Pablo]

Check out the speeds I just posted in speed test. As I noted, wireless is not a bottleneck in my system.

 

[Cutehumor]

for casual web browsing, wireless is fine. but I definitely notice that the wireless isn't fast enough for games/movie watching online.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

N-spec wireless is needed for HD quality streams. Not just 130K, either, but the 300+ is what you want. el cheapo N-spec routers glorify the "n" rating but it's not worth the purchase. Jump up a grade or two to the 300+ spec, there is where the speed difference really comes into play.

 

[OVERKILL]

I can stream HD just fine over my wireless.

It is very dependent upon the wireless hardware and wireless NIC's in question.

It is not a matter of simply "wireless will always feel slower". Because there are many instances where it won't. Or the difference in latency is indistinguishable by the end user.