802B vs. G

Linksys tech support said if I upgrade my 802B wireless router to a
"G" that I will get internet speed improvement even though my 3
wireless network cards remain "B". Is this true ?
They said the theoretical 11 mps of the "B" router is being divided
by 3 (due to the 3 computers on the net with "B" network cards- even
if two of the machines are idle and unused). True ?
They also said that even though with the presence of slower "B"
network cards such that they couldn't enjoy the 54 mps of "G", at
least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having
their 11 mps throughput or bandwidth being divided by 3. True ?
Any other reason why my internet connection is so slow ?
Thanks for any help.

Bob

On 24 Nov 2004 09:49:47 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (bob) wrote:

>Linksys tech support said if I upgrade my 802B wireless router to a
>"G" that I will get internet speed improvement even though my 3
>wireless network cards remain "B". Is this true ?

No. You would have to replace BOTH your router and client radios with
802.11g equipment to get a speed improvement. It might be possible to
get a slight improvement by simply replacing the router, as the newer
hardware tends to have somewhat better radios.

Incidentally, your internet speed is limited by the speed of your DSL,
cable, or satellite connections. If it's a 1.5Mbit/sec DSL line, then
no amount of tinkering with the wireless hardware is going to give you
a download speed faster than 1.5Mbits/sec.

> They said the theoretical 11 mps of the "B" router is being divided
>by 3 (due to the 3 computers on the net with "B" network cards- even
>if two of the machines are idle and unused). True ?

No. Traffic is distributed roughly evenly between active
workstations. Idle workstations do not present a load.

> They also said that even though with the presence of slower "B"
>network cards such that they couldn't enjoy the 54 mps of "G", at
>least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having
>their 11 mps throughput or bandwidth being divided by 3. True ?

Muddled. There is no divide by 3, so forget that part of the puzzle.
What they're mumbling about is that a pure 802.11g connection will
give you about 22Mbits/sec thruput. However, the presence of even one
802.11b device will slow down the 802.11g hardware to about
9-11Mbits/sec thruput. Therefore, if wireless speed is an issue,
replacing ALL the hardware with 802.11g radios is required.

> Any other reason why my internet connection is so slow ?

Worm, virus, spyware, trojans, RF interference, QoS misconfiguration,
lousy signal, wrong RWIN (for W95/98), etc. Not enough info supplied
to offer specific suggestions.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

bob wrote:

<snip>

> least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having

Is that a proprietary additional QoS offered by Linksys? AFAIK the
802.11b places an upper limit of 11Mbps transfer rate. I have seen
various implementors claiming 22Mbps using proprietary extensions, that
require you to use their NICs/WAPs exclusively.

> their 11 mps throughput or bandwidth being divided by 3. True ?
> Any other reason why my internet connection is so slow ?

I have had 802.11b to connect a notebook to a broadband cable connection
for a number of years. The Internet connection is not physically fast
enough to saturate the 'b' WLAN (i.e. there is no difference in Internet
connectivity between WLAN or 100Mbps LAN). What Internet activity occurs
on the other machines hooked up to the WLAN?

AT

On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:35:43 +1100, in alt.internet.wireless , Andrew Tyson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>bob wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having
>
>Is that a proprietary additional QoS offered by Linksys? AFAIK the
>802.11b places an upper limit of 11Mbps transfer rate.

'they' in the original quote refered to 54G cards.

> I have seen
>various implementors claiming 22Mbps using proprietary extensions, that
>require you to use their NICs/WAPs exclusively.

Yes, this works by using 2 channels I believe, one for Tx and one for Rx.


--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

They're pissing on you, and telling you it's rain!

One reason you should consider buying another brand, when you do decide to
upgrade. Netgear comes to mind.

Bill Crocker


"bob" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Linksys tech support said if I upgrade my 802B wireless router to a
> "G" that I will get internet speed improvement even though my 3
> wireless network cards remain "B". Is this true ?
> They said the theoretical 11 mps of the "B" router is being divided
> by 3 (due to the 3 computers on the net with "B" network cards- even
> if two of the machines are idle and unused). True ?
> They also said that even though with the presence of slower "B"
> network cards such that they couldn't enjoy the 54 mps of "G", at
> least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having
> their 11 mps throughput or bandwidth being divided by 3. True ?
> Any other reason why my internet connection is so slow ?
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Bob

"Bill Crocker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<Yo-dnUcX1Y8ggjjcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> They're pissing on you, and telling you it's rain!
>
> One reason you should consider buying another brand, when you do decide to
> upgrade. Netgear comes to mind.
>
> Bill Crocker
>
>
> "bob" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> > Linksys tech support said if I upgrade my 802B wireless router to a
> > "G" that I will get internet speed improvement even though my 3
> > wireless network cards remain "B". Is this true ?
> > They said the theoretical 11 mps of the "B" router is being divided
> > by 3 (due to the 3 computers on the net with "B" network cards- even
> > if two of the machines are idle and unused). True ?
> > They also said that even though with the presence of slower "B"
> > network cards such that they couldn't enjoy the 54 mps of "G", at
> > least they would be allowed to max out at 22 mps rather than having
> > their 11 mps throughput or bandwidth being divided by 3. True ?
> > Any other reason why my internet connection is so slow ?
> > Thanks for any help.
> >
> > Bob

Thanks to all for helping. A little confused still since response
indicated throughput is not a function of number of computers on net
per se but only the "active" ones (which I presume means transmitting
stuff as opposed to on but sitting idle). But elsewhere it was noted
that presence of even one "B" radio will degrade throughput (and from
this I presume it means if you have an "active" B and an "active" G
this will degrade performance of the G, but if the Bs on the net are
idle, the G will still perform like a G). Correct ?
In any event, since two desktops and a laptop are all experiencing
the same very slow internet (with a pcmcia, a USB, and a PC network
card of differing brands, e.g. DLink and Linksys), I thought it
unlikely they would all have the same hardware issue or issues with
worm, virus, spyware, lousy signal, etc. Actually I sat the laptop
right next to the transmitter and it shows a 100% QoS and signal
strenght and STILL was slow.
So I thought the next step is to run a machine directly off the
Roadrunner cable modem Ethernet port and see if performance is normal
in which case I can eliminate Roadrunner as the culprit. We got
digital phone from Time Warner not long ago and it seems that's when
speed started decreasing but may be my imagination. Anyway, I thought
it best to confirm its not Roadrunner causing the slow speed before
proceeding to debug the wireless router setups.
So... If its not Roadrunner (I'll know this week), then I'll be
back asking where to go from there re worms, virus, spyware, firewall,
wrong "RWIN" (whatever that is...), etc. "G" routers and network
cards of all flavors (pcmcia, USB, pc) are so cheap now because of
Christmas sales that a mixed G and B is no longer an issue (so I guess
the question above is rendered moot)and I'll replace all B with G
(even though as I understand it the limiting factor is probably the
ISP anyway).
Again, thanks for the help all. I may be back and would sure
appreciate running into you guys again if RR isn't the problem.
Thanks.

Bob