Wireless internet and USB 1.1 versus 2.0

[bigwigg]

Hi,

I just set up a wireless network at home, and the computer using the wireless D-Link usb adapter doesn't have usb 2.0 capabilities. The internet speed now varies anywhere from 1.0 Mbps to 10.0 Mbps, and it's far too often on the low end.

My question is: will getting a usb 2.0 card for this computer get connection speed up, or is it more likely a signal issue with the router.

It's confusing because I checked out my internet service, and the maximum speed is only 3 Mbps per second. What is so exciting about having a 54 Mbps wireless adapter when the internet can't travel nearly that fast anyway?

Any insight into these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Nodsu]

Your internet connection is 3mbit, other people may have much more and besides, there is more to networking than the internet.

When you talk about the "internet speed", do you mean the connection speed reported by your wireless thingie in the system tray or the result of some speed test you ran?

 

[bigwigg]

Thanks. I think I reveal my greenness with this post.

When I talk about internet speed, I'm talking about the status box (or wireless thingie) from the system tray. I tried to do some ftp transferring just a moment ago and the time was quadrupled. It was painful, so I've got the modem hooked up to the slow computer and off the network (temporary solution) now, and the wireless thingie from the system tray now shows my internet speed at 100Mbps.

I'm guessing the wireless thingie from the system tray isn't too accurate.

Touche on the "more to networking than internet". I guess my concern is to know if upgrading to usb 2.0 will improve the network speed, or if it's simply a signal problem. I get a 'low signal' most of the time.

Brian

 

[tdeg]

USB 1.1 is max 12Mbps, so I guess that could cap your wireless speed using that USB key.

Getting a USB 2.0 wireless card might speed up your connection to your LAN, but it won't help with internet speed. If the top speed your ISP gives you is 3Mbps then it is the bottleneck.

Where you will notice a difference with a faster card is if you do transfer files from within your lan (ie. from 1 pc to another). Even there though, you probably won't notice much of a difference unless the files are fairly large.