Testing shows wireless and wired download speeds the same??

[provlima]

I have a laptop and desktop both using the same Cisco/Linksys E1000 router.
The laptop is using a wireless connection and the desktop is connected to the router by ethernet cable.

When I run a speed test on both the laptop and the desktop the download/upload speeds are about the same. How could this be??

 

[tigsounds]

Why wouldn't they be the same? They both get the internet from the same source. Consider yourself lucky, it works properly.

 

[Guest]

To be annoyingly pedantic, download and upload speeds should not be the same on an ADSL service -- the A stands for Asymetric (as in faster Down than Up by design).

However I suspect that wasn't the issue you wanted to raise.

The speed via wireless is usually about half that of ethernet due to the duplex operation of wireless (ie half the stated bandwidth is sending, the other receiving).

This may not matter on a service that's already slow but it will limit maximum speed on a better service.

A more likely answer to your puzzle is that the measurement is wrong. You need to time a large download, making sure that speed at the supply side is similar at the time of measuring. The best way to do that is to several tests and average them.

This will be a far better measure of performance than a spot check by a download speed testing site.

 

[provlima]

Fihart,

thanks for your reply but perhaps my post wasn't written clear
I am using Comcast broadband, W7, and an 802.11n wireless router

I have always been under the impression that an ethernet wired connection from the router to a pc was much faster than a wireless connection.

When I did several speed tests comparing the download speeds between my wired and wireless speeds
The results were very similar and showed no significant difference-about 6.3 Mbps

What would you believe to be "real world"download speed of a wired ethernet connection?
What is similar real world speed of wireless connection?

I currently own a (DOCSIS 2.0) motorola cable modem but Comcast recommends a DOCSIS 3.0 modem.
Would purchasing a DOCSIS modem improve my speeds?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Guest]

Maximum speed of Ethernet is implied by the alternate term of 10/100 which are the two standards to which the connection conforms. The (presumably) old standard of 10kbps and the new of 100kbps. I'm assuming this means kilobytes per sec but internet service is expressed as MegaBits per sec (just to confuse buyers).
The latest NICs claim Gigabyte performance.


Max wireless speeds are allegedly as follows 11mbps (wireless b) 54mbps (g) and 108 (gsuper). But of course this is max capacity -- the actual speed with duplex is around half that and I think gsuper is basically marketing-speak.

As far as wireless n is concened I don't believe a word of the following but it may make interesting reading:http://80211n.com/80211n-speed.html

I'm sorry this doesn't really answer your query but none of this is relevant so long as the service you are receiving is at a lower speed.

I think that's what you need to worry about.