Need opinion on wireless network

Hi all:

I have a 802.11b wireless network setup. I experienced the slowness
of the network when multiple computers access each other's resource
simultaneously. My question is: if I upgrade my 802.11b rounter to g
but keep using the old 802.11b PC cards, should I expect higher speed?

To put it simple, let me go by examples. I have four computers: A, B,
C and D. When A is copying files from B, C is copying files from D at
the same time. With my current setup, the total bandwidth I believe
is 11Mbps due to the limitation of 802.11b. If I ONLY upgrade my
router to 802.11g, but not the PC cards, can I bump the total
bandwidth to 22Mbps?

Any advices are highly appreciated.

Mickey

(E-Mail Removed) (Mickey Yang) wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed). com>...
> Hi all:
>
> I have a 802.11b wireless network setup. I experienced the slowness
> of the network when multiple computers access each other's resource
> simultaneously. My question is: if I upgrade my 802.11b rounter to g
> but keep using the old 802.11b PC cards, should I expect higher speed?
>
> To put it simple, let me go by examples. I have four computers: A, B,
> C and D. When A is copying files from B, C is copying files from D at
> the same time. With my current setup, the total bandwidth I believe
> is 11Mbps due to the limitation of 802.11b. If I ONLY upgrade my
> router to 802.11g, but not the PC cards, can I bump the total
> bandwidth to 22Mbps?
>
> Any advices are highly appreciated.
>
> Mickey


I don't think it will give you any increase because they will all be
using the same channel. They will still be contending with each other
at 11 Mbps (the router will still communicate with the workstations
using 802.11b).

Pete

No, your connection is as quick as your weakest link. Your cards won't be
able to connect to your router's 802.11g "side", but only to 802.11b "side".
If your cards support 22Mbps you will get that speed provided the router
also supports it, if not you will get the same 11Mbps. If you need to
connect simultaneously look for specials and get 802.11g router and cards,
preferably from same manufacturer. Look for so called "turbo" cards. I use
US Robotics and it works great. Currently in turbo mode it has 100Mbps, but
in March they sad that in June they will have a firmware upgrade that will
boost it to 125Mbps. Knowing US Robotics slowness with upgrade releases, we
might see this upgrade by December if we're lucky.

"Mickey Yang" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hi all:
>
> I have a 802.11b wireless network setup. I experienced the slowness
> of the network when multiple computers access each other's resource
> simultaneously. My question is: if I upgrade my 802.11b rounter to g
> but keep using the old 802.11b PC cards, should I expect higher speed?
>
> To put it simple, let me go by examples. I have four computers: A, B,
> C and D. When A is copying files from B, C is copying files from D at
> the same time. With my current setup, the total bandwidth I believe
> is 11Mbps due to the limitation of 802.11b. If I ONLY upgrade my
> router to 802.11g, but not the PC cards, can I bump the total
> bandwidth to 22Mbps?
>
> Any advices are highly appreciated.
>
> Mickey

Adam wrote:
> No, your connection is as quick as your weakest link. Your cards
> won't be able to connect to your router's 802.11g "side", but only to
> 802.11b "side". If your cards support 22Mbps you will get that speed
> provided the router also supports it, if not you will get the same
> 11Mbps. If you need to connect simultaneously look for specials and
> get 802.11g router and cards, preferably from same manufacturer. Look
> for so called "turbo" cards. I use US Robotics and it works great.
> Currently in turbo mode it has 100Mbps, but in March they sad that in
> June they will have a firmware upgrade that will boost it to 125Mbps.
> Knowing US Robotics slowness with upgrade releases, we might see this
> upgrade by December if we're lucky.
>

Also, be aware that if you mix 11b and 11g devices on the same network then
it will all run at 11b speeds. So if you do upgrade one thing be prepared to
upgrade the lot, or at least turn off the 11b devices to get 11g speeds with
the rest.

And, be aware that the 11Mbps/54Mbps bandwidth is shared between all devices
so if you are transferring files betwwen two machines, via a router then
each will only get ~half the bandwidth. Bearing in mind that overheads for
transport protocols, encryption keys and data collisions takes a big chunk
of bandwidth too and you will probably only see around 2Mbps transfer rates
of real data on an 11b network when copying/moving files between machines.

--
Email replies will not be read. Please reply to newsgroup.

Yes this is true. PC Magazine rated US Robotics as top performer because it
had speed around 27Mbps internet and LAN. This is far from advertised
100Mbps. Others had much worst. You will never get full advertised speed on
wireless, that is why if you want to share files you want to get the best
product possible. You can not look at companies advertised speed but you
have to look at independent reviews, and only buy the product in the store
where you can return it.

"Tiny Tim" <_(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Also, be aware that if you mix 11b and 11g devices on the same network
then
> it will all run at 11b speeds. So if you do upgrade one thing be prepared
to
> upgrade the lot, or at least turn off the 11b devices to get 11g speeds
with
> the rest.
>
> And, be aware that the 11Mbps/54Mbps bandwidth is shared between all
devices
> so if you are transferring files betwwen two machines, via a router then
> each will only get ~half the bandwidth. Bearing in mind that overheads for
> transport protocols, encryption keys and data collisions takes a big chunk
> of bandwidth too and you will probably only see around 2Mbps transfer
rates
> of real data on an 11b network when copying/moving files between machines.
>
> --
> Email replies will not be read. Please reply to newsgroup.
>
>

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 15:28:04 +0100, "Tiny Tim" <_(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

~ Also, be aware that if you mix 11b and 11g devices on the same network then
~ it will all run at 11b speeds. So if you do upgrade one thing be prepared to
~ upgrade the lot, or at least turn off the 11b devices to get 11g speeds with
~ the rest.

This is not quite so. With 11b and 11g clients in the same cell,
transmissions to/from the 11g clients will be at 11g rates and
to/from the the 11b clients will be at 11b rates.

What is true is that, with 11b clients heard in the cell,
the RTS/CTS protection mechanism will kick in, substantially
reducing your throughput. So if you want to maximize your
11g throughput, you do want to turn off the 11b clients.

Aaron

---

~ And, be aware that the 11Mbps/54Mbps bandwidth is shared between all devices
~ so if you are transferring files betwwen two machines, via a router then
~ each will only get ~half the bandwidth. Bearing in mind that overheads for
~ transport protocols, encryption keys and data collisions takes a big chunk
~ of bandwidth too and you will probably only see around 2Mbps transfer rates
~ of real data on an 11b network when copying/moving files between machines.

"Aaron Leonard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 15:28:04 +0100, "Tiny Tim" <_(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>
> ~ Also, be aware that if you mix 11b and 11g devices on the same network
then
> ~ it will all run at 11b speeds. So if you do upgrade one thing be
prepared to
> ~ upgrade the lot, or at least turn off the 11b devices to get 11g speeds
with
> ~ the rest.
>
> This is not quite so. With 11b and 11g clients in the same cell,
> transmissions to/from the 11g clients will be at 11g rates and
> to/from the the 11b clients will be at 11b rates.
>
> What is true is that, with 11b clients heard in the cell,
> the RTS/CTS protection mechanism will kick in, substantially
> reducing your throughput. So if you want to maximize your
> 11g throughput, you do want to turn off the 11b clients.

If there are enough 802.11b clients, or just a few very active ones,
performance can be sufficiently degraded to cause all of the 802.11g clients
to renegotiate down to 12 Mbps. Effectively, the net has been dragged down
to 802.11b rates.

>
> Aaron
>
> ---
>
> ~ And, be aware that the 11Mbps/54Mbps bandwidth is shared between all
devices
> ~ so if you are transferring files betwwen two machines, via a router then
> ~ each will only get ~half the bandwidth. Bearing in mind that overheads
for
> ~ transport protocols, encryption keys and data collisions takes a big
chunk
> ~ of bandwidth too and you will probably only see around 2Mbps transfer
rates
> ~ of real data on an 11b network when copying/moving files between
machines.
>

Thank Pete, Adam and Tiny for sharing their knowledge. Now that I
couldn't mix any 802.11b devices with 11g devices in the same wireless
network in order to get 54Mbps speed, I'm thinking if it's feasible to
do the following because I couldn't afford 4 11g cards at one time.

Suppose I connect my new 11g router to cable modem and use a different
WEP key than my existing network. And then reuse my old 11b rounter
and connect it to the 11g router as normal computer. So new 11g
device will talk to the 11g network while old 11b devices continue to
communicate through my old router via the new router. If this plan
works, I can enjoy higher bandwidth for the new devices before I
completely move onto 11g.

Does it sound feasible?

Thanks,

Mickey