Hi,

A open question for those network techies on this forum.
I am sure the ADSL link I have is slower then the wireless link, and indeed the ethernet- but tell me if I connect a PC with wireless and a PC using an ethernet which will be faster @ internet access- if indeed either?

Mark

None will be faster, the bottleneck is at the ADSL line which is the slowest link in the equation. Typical speeds are:

ADSL: 5 Mbit
Wireless: 54 Mbit
Ethernet: 100 Mbit

You will never get a true 54mbps from Wireless, you'll probably find you get somewhere in the region of 1-10mbps.

Wireless can have high latency too, so from a user experience point of view web browsing may seem quicker via wired ethernet.

True, but I don't think it would be a very noticeable difference, if at all.... even with wireless being a half duplex mode of data transfer. I haven't noticed any speed difference when browsing the web (cable vs. wireless) with the aforementioned speeds being applicable to my setup.

No subjective difference between wired and wireless.

But Ethernet is safer. More difficult for intruders.

To add, if you have a wireless setup and for example have an internal NAS which is wired to your router, it's certainly better to use Ethernet (now gigabit!) if you are working with large files over a network.

Moving large files can be a pain over a wireless network.

You can also get a 'rough' idea of your actual performance by conducting this test...

It is the weakest link - goodbye.

Seriously whatever is your slowest component is going to slow you down in any situation.

You could be talking about two different PC's? Then the configuration of those will also count into which is faster on ethernet hard wired or wireless.

If it is the same PC then fine. Hardwired is going to be that little bit faster and might I say a little bit more secure than the wireless option. Whether it is fast enough to notice that's another question.

Is your internet access that slow that you need to speed it up?
If so you end up paying more for a better connection.

The other thing to consider is what sites are you connecting to? We are all at the mercy of the routers, servers, and connections of all the sites out there. So again it's back to the weakest link, smallest component etc.

http://perftest.cablecom.ch is a good place to check your speed - avoid latency with going across to Hamerica and the like.

You may get extremely bad latency on a wireless connection. It's all about MTUs and the like.

I get 22Mbps across my wireless network. That is saturation point (and wow, it's on Vista!).

And this is not a computer help forum. Try www.dslreports.com if you need help with your connection