Wired vs Wireless Router for Cable Modem

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@SunShineCA wrote:

We have a Dell Dimension 8250 desktop running Win XP Pro, a Dell Dimension XPS B1000r desktop running Win 2000 Pro, and an HP laptop running Win 2000 Pro. We currently have a wired router, LinkSys BEFSR41, connected to our Time Warner Road Runner cable modem, Motorola SB5100.

My husband wants to switch it to a wireless connection using LinkSys WRT54GS so that he can move around in the house. We never do any file sharing between any of the computers, so the sole purpose for having a router is to share the connection to the internet.

My questions are: (1) Would I see any performance (internet access) difference from my desktop (8250) by switching to a wireless router, even if I'll still be connected via a wired connection to the device; (2) LinkSys tech support suggested that I purchase an adapter for my desktop to connect to the wireless router via the wireless connection. He claims that I'll have better speed to connect to the internet that way. Is that true, or is he trying to sell me something extra that I don't need?

Thanks so much for your advice in advance...

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You should see minimal performance impact if any. The only exception is in the case of buggy router firmwares that may cause problems. i.e. avoid Belkin like the plague because their routers love to crash. I've heard widely differing reviews of nearly every manufacturer out there - some people LOVE the Linksys WRT54G series, while a friend of mine tried it and it was the most unstable piece of junk we'd ever seen. He is using a different Linksys model now (WRV54G I think?) and actually likes it, which shocks me because he's an extremely picky guy. :)

The Linksys tech support guy is either lying or utterly clueless (likely clueless) - 802.11g is capable of a 54 Mbps signaling rate and rarely even achieves 50% of that in real-world throughput due to nature of how channel access is shared. It also has inherently higher latency (delay) than a wired connection. Wired Ethernet has a signaling rate of 100 Mbps (1000 in some cases but not commonly supported by most wireless routers and supported by only 50% or so of new desktop/laptop systems) and can easily achieve 90% or more of that in real-world throughput. There are 108 Mbps extensions to 802.11g that are nonstandard and have major compatibility issues, but even when they do work, the real world throughput is less than that of wired Ethernet. Going from wired to wireless is a guaranteed way to decrease performance AND more importantly reliability.

Since you're not transferring data between machines on your network that's all irrelevant as Time Warner only provides a 5 Mbps downstream connection. I think the upstream (outgoing) speed is 512 kbps.

BTW I believe the WRT54GS is the SpeedBooster version - If you're not transferring lots of data between machines on your network, don't bother with SpeedBooster. Vanilla 802.11g hardware is more reliable and consistent, and less prone to compatibility problems.

Thanks so much for your advice.  We went and got a LinkSys WRT54G instead of WRT54GS, thus saving $20.  :smileyhappy:  I configured it to use WPA-PSK instead of WEP on my own, no thanks to no help from the LinkSys tech support.  If you have any suggestion on further securing the network, I would very much appreciate it...

Hardware is Version 5 and firmware is Version 1.00.9, released on 05/16/2006.  I'm using my desktop via the wired connection and my husband is using a laptop via wireless -- so far so good.

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@NemesisDB wrote:

just fyi for the wrt54gs. rev4 had the ram and flash greatly reduced. rev5 and 5.1 flash was further reduced and the OS switched the VxWorks (making it very difficult to install 3rd party firmware).

This may not matter to you, but the wrt54gs (and indeed the wrt54g) aren't near as good as they used to be.

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Given that the last time I used a WRT54G was well before that and it was NOT a good experience - good thing I went Netgear. :)

just curious, does the hardware revision happen to be lower than 5?   there's always a chance you got lucky and got an old one.

glad it's working