Question about wireless accesspoint

**bigfeta** · December 7th, 2004, 04:52 PM

Hey there, I was planning to swap my current cables with a wireless solution. I'm thinking of buying a DLink 108Mbit accesspoint and DLink 108Mbit PCI-card. Then I heard something about not getting 108Mbit when buying 108Mbit stuff. I heard that the real speeds are aroung 50 Mbit. If so, is that devided between all the computers connected to the accesspoint or does every computer get it? I only have 3 computers on th network, but I have a 100Mbit internet connection. Is it stupid to go wireless?

**GroundZero3** · December 7th, 2004, 05:44 PM

are you going to be transfering large files over the wireless? i.e divx movies and such?

or just using it to share off internet and the occasional file?

**Siliconjunkie** · December 7th, 2004, 05:46 PM

a) it's doubtful you have a true 100Mbit internet connection
b) With wireless you will rarely if every see 100% of the rated speed, 50% is probably a good guess.

**bigfeta** · December 8th, 2004, 03:25 AM

Well, I am planning to use it for many things really, both transferring large files from and to the internet and regular browsing.

**muno** · December 8th, 2004, 08:37 AM

Does accesspoint work like switch or hub? Basically what bigfeta asked, but I'm intrigued about it, too.

I can't get 100% usage even with cabled 100mb lan, so highly doubtful it'd be happening with wlan.

**Cruez** · December 8th, 2004, 09:17 AM

The access point kinda works like a repeater. We have one setup in the office to link to the wireless router in the house.

**kwebb** · December 8th, 2004, 12:20 PM

An AP is a wireless hub. That's it. Shared bandwidth VERY similar to a hub except the medium data is transferred on.

Also, you will never ever ever see 108 Mb with your 108 Mb WLAN. Won't see 54 Mb if you have a 54G WLAN and same applies for 11Mb realworld throughput on a .11b WLAN. Overhead. Silicon's 50% is about right, providing your client to AP association is strong. Keep this in mind however. You won't get 100 Mb on your wired LAN either, switched or not, although it is much more efficient than a wireless infrastructure. A good wired LAN and disk subsystem on the nodes you may see upwards of 85-90 Mb in raw throughput.

Also, no, you definitely will NOT get 50Mb realword with those channel bonding 108Mb solutions. Perhaps you may get in the 25-30 once you bench it. You may want to wait for pre-N gear or Broadcom's 125 Mb solution (which I believe some vendors already have) They were getting 35-40 Mb actual throughput in their labs. For what it's worth, that is outstanding for a WLAN.

**bigfeta** · December 8th, 2004, 04:10 PM

or maybe I'll just wait till the throughput is closer to 100Mbit. Don't wanna waste my 100Mbit internet connection! :-D

**Tekk** · December 8th, 2004, 04:24 PM

I dont know where you are getting a 100Mbit INTERNET connecting but hey more power to ya

There is only 1 Pre-N wireless product for the consumer right now and its made by Belkin. According to articles it does give a much stronger signal in comparison to G technology and it does give a better throughput (dont remember how much better but it was in the 30-40s range in labs). You will definitely pay more though for this technology because its pretty new and also there are no other products to compete with belkin right now.