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wireless internet questions

bodtchboybodtchboy
edited April 2008 in Technology
So I've been trying to determine whether I should get a pci wireless connector card or a usb wireless connector. Does anyone know which one is faster? I was looking on wikipedia and found that USB 2.0 transfers at 60 Mb/s. My router will allow up to 108 Mb/s with their usb wireless connector. How can this be if USB only transfers at 60Mb/s?

Also, will 108 Mb/s (with an 802.11g) be fast enough to utilize a wireless connection in order to record hi def cable programming on my computer, or do I need a 802.11N?

And lastly, does anyone know if it is possible to boost internet connections? I have cable internet which allows up to 6 mb/s download speeds, but whenever I download stuff, it is generally between 250-800kb/s.

Comments

  • TyashkiTyashki
    You're mixing up megabits and megabytes. USB 2.0 is faster than 802.11N.

    802.11N transfers at 74 Mbit/s (9.2Mbyte/s) compared to USB 2.0's 480 Mbit/s (60 Mbyte/s).

    Plus your cable internet is likely 6 Megabits, which is about 750kilobytes.
  • UsagimaruUsagimaru
    So I've been trying to determine whether I should get a pci wireless connector card or a usb wireless connector. Does anyone know which one is faster?
    Go with a PCI card if you have the slot open. I've only had problems with the USB adapters I've had.
    And lastly, does anyone know if it is possible to boost internet connections?
    Yell at your neighbors who are using bit torrent, because that's making your connection worse.
  • AprecheApreche
    And lastly, does anyone know if it is possible to boost internet connections? I have cable internet which allows up to 6 mb/s download speeds, but whenever I download stuff, it is generally between 250-800kb/s.
    Pay more money to get faster Internet.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    Having a 6Mbit internet connection is like having an M5 in America, sure it can do 200 mph but the speed limit is 65.
  • AprecheApreche
    Remember, you can only transfer data as fast as the other guy. If I have an OC3 and I'm trying to download a file from someone with dial-up, it will go at dial-up speeds.
  • bodtchboybodtchboy
    Great info, thanks everyone. I guess I'd better go learn the difference between megabytes and megabits. Are the abbreviations for them different?

    So pretty much any wireless g connection is more than you need for broadband Internet? Which would also indicate that the super G boosts to 104 Mb is overkill?
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited April 2008
    mb = Megabit (small b)
    mB = Megabyte (big B) = 8mb
    So pretty much any wireless g connection is more than you need for broadband Internet? Which would also indicate that the super G boosts to 104 Mb is overkill?
    Anything above a few mB is plenty for internet, unless you live somewhere with crazy fast internet.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • ......
    Are the abbreviations for them different?
    Generally you'll see Mbps for Megabits per second, and MB/s for Megabytes per second. The Wikipedia article for Byte has a segment talking about the standards that are used. I generally use a capital B for bytes and a lowercase b for bits. As do most people afaik.
  • AprecheApreche
    Yeah, the MB vs. Mb thing confuses a lot of people. They get a 2 Mbps Internet connection and they expect to download a 700MB file in 350 seconds. The reality is that it will probably take an hour.
  • ......
    Yeah, the MB vs. Mb thing confuses a lot of people. They get a 2 Mbps Internet connection and they expect to download a 700MB file in 350 seconds. The reality is that it will probably take an hour.
    Not to mention the binary equivalents. It's all a lot of marketing bullshit. 100 Megabyte HD? Sure, but Windows shows it as 95 Megabyte.
  • AprecheApreche
    Not to mention the binary equivalents. It's all a lot of marketing bullshit. 100 Megabyte HD? Sure, but Windows shows it as 95 Megabyte.
    That's a matter of confusing between Megabytes and Mibibytes. Also, there is space on the hard drive that is used for overhead, but that space is not available for you to put files on. It depends on your operating system and file system exactly how much space on the hard drive will be there for you to actually use.
  • UsagimaruUsagimaru
    Not to mention the binary equivalents. It's all a lot of marketing bullshit. 100 Megabyte HD? Sure, but Windows shows it as 95 Megabyte.
    That will happen with any OS you want to use. Hard drive manufacturers decided to make 1000 MB = 1 GB instead of 1024 MB. When windows partitions the drive it makes it 1024, so it shows up as less than what the hard drive actually says.
    On a related note, does anyone know if they are still doing this on solid state drives?
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