Home wi-fi '30% slower' than fixed broadband

[Taf]

People relying on home wi-fi are getting significantly slower speeds than from their fixed broadband connection, research suggests.

The study ran one million tests over 14,000 wi-fi connections in the UK, US, Spain and Italy.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12688839

I know there are processor overheads for wifi, but 30% seems a lot!

[Stuart]

30% may seem a lot, but bear in mind that wireless encryption imposes a significant load on the router.

Also, interference will slow down a WiFi connection significantly as well, and, as noted in the article, a lot of equipment uses the same 2.4GHz bandwidth as most WiFi routers.

[Waldo Pepper]

Not entirely convinced about the overheads re-encryption.

Depends on the router. I have a blue Netgear Pro VPN setup and get the same throughput with or without encryption on 54G.

I would imagine the bottleneck is the slow PC. Especially if AVG is running.

Most top end routers do the encryption in hardware which is fast enough for most users.

Tag onto that a slow PC and you see you get what you pay for in terms of a router and PC.

Decent dedicated hardware to do AES encryption is far faster than a 54G network can handle on full smoke in realtime.

[Stuart]

Although a slow PC will slow down the network connection regardless of whether it's wired or wireless.

As you say, it also depends on the router. Professional routers tend to have more onboard processing power than low end consumer routers.

[cookie_365]

It's 30% slower on average - so if you've got your router set up right you'll be getting close to full speed, offset by all the people who haven't and are getting massive hits because their wireless card is latched on to their phone instead of their router

[qasdfdsaq]

Encryption should have nothing to do with it as even average routers from 10 years ago had no problems running encryption at full speed. Since then they've had dedicated hardware for it such that processing power should be a non-issue.

Interference and range however are two major issues reducing speed, though I can't help but wonder what kind of speeds they're talking about. With UK average broadband speeds still lower than 10mbps, so say your average wireless speed is 7mbps (30mbps loss), that implies that most people have wireless networks that run 70% slower than they should be (wireless G doing 20-25mbps typically). That level of loss is actually something I don't see too often, unless going through quite a bit of range.

I'm going to be a little skeptical on this one until I see actual numbers.

[toonlight]

Originally Posted by Taf

People relying on home wi-fi are getting significantly slower speeds than from their fixed broadband connection, research suggests.

The study ran one million tests over 14,000 wi-fi connections in the UK, US, Spain and Italy.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12688839

I know there are processor overheads for wifi, but 30% seems a lot!

Been saying this for years since this Wireless tech came to the general public, wireless works if you got good spec'd wireless router equipment, home that hasn't much walls & not built with solid stone walls (interior). If the you have the above condition, forget it - go with a wired network full stop, then see you'll see how much speed you've gained with the best set up for to gaming (no lag) or to file share around the home.(wired network)Even put up your own Ethernet cabled network around your own abode if you wish.

The biggest point of all is, no problems; in solving any problem you have with your network your own-self -free of charge. (wired) compared to wireless, unless you know much about advanced wireless settings. Then there the law aspect (UK) wise as account holder of the connection, your legally responsive/accountable to whatever passes over your network illegal or legal. If the old bill knocks your door, with a warrant for some computer crime from your open wireless network you will be put in front of a court of law to face the charges, even jail time too. (read it up for yourself) Millennium act

Easily broken down to this: wired
Plug & play connection, little hassle of connection problems.

Wireless; Fiddly channel bandwidth settings, cutout/s on busy network usage, over top laggy for gaming on network, sometime never works in some abodes or very short distance & vry slow speeds compared to a wired network in most cases. Bandwidth theft, hijacking of network from an outside source. Network tapping, acts of theft of personal details/financial loss/identity theft as you input the data over the network, on times even with a passworded secured router. Should I go on & on ?
For those say my connection is encrypted with hardware/software off/of my wireless router, never say never it's very breakable if you want to get something eg: data off your network. For hard wired router users, for peace of mind unplug your computer/network connection after use every time, that way theres no way in, when your not using your computer or are away.

I hope I've broken my reply down enough for all to digest with there morning breakfast or munches, yes some items are old but are needed to remind people out there, that something simple like a wireless router/mobile phone has more flaws in it than my washing board drainer letting water though on Sunday evening washing the days dirty pots.

Chocs away >toonlight

[Stuart]

You forgot:

wired:
requires you to run cables to every room you want to have network access. This can be both time consuming and expensive. Especially if you wish to cable every room, and wish to hide the cables.
can also be difficult to install if you have restrictions on doing stuff to the house (e.g it's Rented or Listed).

Also, how secure wireless is depends on where you live and who your neighbours are. If you live in a road where you have no cars around, and your nearest neighbours are either trustworthy or beyond the range, you could even run with no encryption and be secure.

It's swings and roundabouts. Both wired and wireless have pros and cons.

[toonlight]

Originally Posted by Stuart

requires you to run cables to every room you want to have network access. This can be both time consuming and expensive. Especially if you wish to cable every room, and wish to hide the cables.
can also be difficult to install if you have restrictions on doing stuff to the house (e.g it's Rented or Listed).
It's swings and roundabouts. Both wired and wireless have pros and cons.

Oh Stuart, I forget you where at my side......on times

Well plug in & play method of a Ethernet lead is much simpler as it has two ends, each in the other than fiddling around with channel settings & band channels as you get with wireless if you do get it to work. There different ways to create a wired network so one way is have few ethernet leads in places but ain't carpets/underlay made in there way to allow you bury all these lead under them if you have restrictions in a room? (direction/layout/to<>from router) Think out side the box not just on walls or home plugs.

Originally Posted by Stuart

If you live in a road where you have no cars around, and your nearest neighbours are either trustworthy or beyond the range, you could even run with no encryption and be secure.

So you would really trust a neighbour, with your unsecured wireless connection? even if you where put in the dock (court) for computer offences under the "Millennium act" even if you didn't do anything. Remember the account holder is fully legally accountable to whatever passes over your network illegal or legal in a court of law. So meaning a long criminal record for yourself, trusting your neighbour/s & alike who comes passed.

Just passing on a point/view nothing more than that

Nice to speak to you sir Stuart

toonlight

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by toonlight

Oh Stuart, I forget you where at my side......on times

Well plug in & play method of a Ethernet lead is much simpler as it has two ends, each in the other than fiddling around with channel settings & band channels as you get with wireless if you do get it to work. There different ways to create a wired network so one way is have few ethernet leads in places but ain't carpets/underlay made in there way to allow you bury all these lead under them if you have restrictions in a room? (direction/layout/to<>from router) Think out side the box not just on walls or home plugs.

The thing is ,powerline networking is not secure. Even assuming your consumer box does a good job of filtering the data before it gets out onto the power cable in the street (which isn't, apparently, a given), you still have the problem of it travelling along 10s of metres of mains cable that is not RF shielded inside the house.

Someone with a decent HAM radio could probably pick up the signal straight from the cable.

You can encrypt Powerline comms, but this means it's as secure as Wireless.

The other things you suggest all take time. I wasn't talking about necessarily putting sockets in each room (although in the long term, this is actually better).

So you would really trust a neighbour, with your unsecured wireless connection? even if you where put in the dock (court) for computer offences under the "Millennium act" even if you didn't do anything. Remember the account holder is fully legally accountable to whatever passes over your network illegal or legal in a court of law. So meaning a long criminal record for yourself, trusting your neighbour/s & alike who comes passed.

Depends where you live. My aunt lives on a private road, and only has three neighbours within 100 metres. All of whom she apparently knows well and trusts. Other people rarely pass within 100 metres of the house, so, yes, she would probably be quite safe with an unsecured wireless network.

I, however, live in a road where, while the road itself is quiet, and I trust my neighbours, my house backs on to a carpark, so if I leave my wireless unsecured, I am asking for potentially illegal users. Hence I secure it.

Just passing on a point/view nothing more than that

Nice to speak to you sir Stuart

toonlight

You too.

[qasdfdsaq]

See the security problem with wireless has already been solved. Supplying all wireless routers/APs preset with WPA2 on using a randomly generated key means they are secure by default.

The other issues not so much, but probably could.

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by toonlight

There different ways to create a wired network so one way is have few ethernet leads in places but ain't carpets/underlay made in there way to allow you bury all these lead under them if you have restrictions in a room? (direction/layout/to<>from router) Think out side the box not just on walls or home plugs.

Easiest way is like mine, weatherproof cat6 ran around the outside of the building to the rooms that need it.