Are Wireless Routers Faster Than Wired Counterparts

By: Joe R. Maldonado

Actually, The answer to this question in all honesty is “ It depends”. Wireless routers provide users with mobility, but are they in actuality any faster than wired modems. No, not really, this is debated far and wide yet the side by side comparisons shows that they are just about neck and neck.

This is true because your Internet speed is determined by what you are currently receiving from your ISP. If you have a service plan in the higher echelons of course you will experience greater speeds than your peers. Even then outside forces will have an effect on what speed you actually receive.

While the numbers nay say one thing it has no bearing on the reality of each individual situation. Speed is determined by the slowest link in the data transfer chain. Your router may actually have a higher bandwidth than that of your ISP connection. Your hard drive could also be the cause of your slower speed. The n there is poor signal strength coming straight from the tower. All of this affects the bottom line.

If all you do is browse on the Internet or play a few games it is possible you will notice the discrepancy, but only fleetingly so. If you are using your connection for major work and downloading big file loads then of course it will make a bigger difference. If your connection promises blazing speeds and you are experiencing only a trickle you have to consider if maybe your wireless router is the hold up.

Data networking professionals all agree that a wired network is faster in connectivity than a wireless router system. There are reasons why, that are not common knowledge. A wireless router connects several devices to the same signal. The signal is then spit between each device which by logic alone calls for it to be a little slower.

Wired networks mostly use the Ethernet protocols for data communication. They generally have bandwidth speeds that start at 10Mb per second all the way up to 1000. These are what you are bound to find in most offices. It sends and receives data simultaneously.

The ISP offers a maximum of broadband speed up to 1.5MB per second. This defines the rate at which data is uploaded and downloaded. The router just takes different packets of data and distributes it from the Internet to whichever device is requesting the data. If you have several devices on at the same time the speed will be reduced exponentially.

The more device the more the signal must split and this will cause a speed bottleneck within your network. With DSL and cable to include other devices they would each need their own line, which means separate signals, this alone makes it faster.

Answers are never as cut and dry or as simplistic as the questions they precipitate them. Finding out what works best is more about the uses you have for it. Speed after all, is relative.