Question concerning network speed

[antyler]

Is it normal that my internet speed would take a hit from 14mbps to 7mbps download speed while using wireless vs direct connect? My upload speed stays consistent at about 3mbps

Also, would something about my hardware/integrated wireless card in my laptop would keep me from using WPA2?

My network/internet works flawlessly while using WPA encryption, but I cannot get any connection when i try to use WPA2 connection.

Using windows XP on an HP Pavilion zv6000 laptop.
Netgear WPN824v2 wireless router
Integrated wireless card is 802.11g/b

thanks,

Tyler

edit: content

 

[JackMDS]

Wireless Speed is much lower than Wire.

If you Internet Speed is faster than the Wireless, then the Wireless reduces the "Speed" of download.

"Speed" (Bandwidth) expectation of Ethernet Home Networks - http://www.ezlan.net/net_speed.html

WPA2 need Win XP SP3 and above. The Wireless card has to be WPA2 (AES) compatible (not all b/g cards are).

 

[antyler]

I was aware that the wireless speed would be slower than wireless, but would the 54mb cap actually cut it in half? I guess it would appear that way since the wire would be 100mb, but i didnt realize that it actually equated to literally half the speed.

Thanks for the tips on the WPA2.!!

 

[ecom]

The raw throughput on 802.11g is 54Mbps. Add overhead for wireless and encryption and realistically you're probably looking at about 25% to 33% of that speed.

Also consider that 802.11g is half duplex unlike your wired network. After transmissions to you, you have to send acks back to the server so that will reduce your down speed somewhat.

 

[antyler]

Solid answers, it makes sense to me!

 

[RebateMonger]

WPA2 need Win XP SP3 and above. The Wireless card has to be WPA2 (AES) compatible (not all b/g cards are).

Indeed. When I need to install wireless, I toss everything the client already owns and start over. It's very likely that anything they already own won't have drivers for recent OSes or won't be able to handle WPA/WPA2.

I can't count the hours I've wasted trying to get old consumer-level wifi equipment working securely.