Wireless at wired speeds (09/19/2006)

Do you feel tied down?

We’re not referring to your job or your home.  We’re talking about your network connection.

Nowadays, most folks use the Internet every day at home and in the office.  And today’s wireless networking works great for doing Web browsing and email. But when it comes to moving photo albums or video files around, you might find yourself hunting up some Ethernet cables so you can get the job done before your patience runs out. The difference between a 100 megabit per second wired connection and an 11 megabit per second Wi-Fi connection (yes, many laptops still only have first generation Wi-Fi cards) is big enough to put up with being tied down. Life is too short for slow networks, and who wants to spend the next 10 years waiting for file copies.

But as was noted by PC Magazine, the latest Wi-Fi routers and cards make this concern history. The review said it nicely:

Real-world TCP throughput for both the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX400 and the Netgear RangeMax 240 hit over 103 Mbps(!) with a 10-foot separation between the access point and the PCs (laptops, in this case).

Suddenly your 100-Mbps wired Fast Ethernet network has become the bottleneck for local traffic.

These types of better-than-wired bandwidths will become particularly important as consumers start looking to distribute music and video throughout their homes without running wires. And better yet, this 103 Mbps wireless throughput isn't the future limit for wireless bandwidth.

Perhaps you should save those old Ethernet cables and sell them as antiques on eBay in 2016; it doesn't sound like I'll be using them much longer.