What's the difference between signal strength and connection speed?

Ronan H

I have Eircom 3MB broadband with a Netopia wireless router, on Windows Vista...

I have a small widget on my screen that tells me information about the connection, such as those mentioned above. Today I noticed that the signal strength was excellent, but the connection speed was down at 5Mbps or less at some stages. It should be at 54Mbps, and usually is. This has never happened before as far as I can remember...

I was wondering what the difference between the two things is? I figured that if the signal strength was excellent then the connection speed would be also, but clearly that is not the case based on what I've seen today...

Also what would cause the connection speed to drop so low anyway? Is that a contention issue?

Thanks...

Head

Edit: I am also having trouble playing my iTunes music via Airport Express, presumably because of the low connection speed also, would this make sense?

Head

Voodoo2

Your signal strength is calculated using Signal to Noise (noise aka interference) ratio of your wireless card.. you could be sitting on top of the router but if the noise is fairly high your strength will decrease - All wireless card calculate the strength differently and some companies drivers don't report the correct signal strength. They get a piece of info from your router that says.. Im a 54G router and the card reports that at the start of a session and never drops down, 54mbps is only theory infact you are only getting 25Mbps on a good day - So what your seeing is your OS reporting your routers maximum speed if your getting 5Mbps your broad band is 3mbps so you are fine.

your signal will drop for many reasons and with out going in to details.. It depends on a lot of factors

- Your laptops antenna's on how efficient they
- Your laptops noise footprint
- Environment where you are - interference cordless phones/ baby monitors etc
- your router depends on how good it is
- distance from the router etc

There are soo many variables when it comes to wireless, if you have a connection that is good enough for what your are trying to achieve leave it alone but for 5mbps for web browsing its perfect!

Take no notice of signal strength as most Operating systems don't report it correctly - Its the Mbps you need to trust

Benedict XVI

Voodoo2 wrote: »

Your signal strength is calculated using Signal to Noise (noise aka interference) ratio of your wireless card.. you could be sitting on top of the router but if the noise is fairly high your strength will decrease - All wireless card calculate the strength differently and some companies drivers don't report the correct signal strength. They get a piece of info from your router that says.. Im a 54G router and the card reports that at the start of a session and never drops down, 54mbps is only theory infact you are only getting 25Mbps on a good day - So what your seeing is your OS reporting your routers maximum speed if your getting 5Mbps your broad band is 3mbps so you are fine.

your signal will drop for many reasons and with out going in to details.. It depends on a lot of factors

- Your laptops antenna's on how efficient they
- Your laptops noise footprint
- Environment where you are - interference cordless phones/ baby monitors etc
- your router depends on how good it is
- distance from the router etc

There are soo many variables when it comes to wireless, if you have a connection that is good enough for what your are trying to achieve leave it alone but for 5mbps for web browsing its perfect!

Take no notice of signal strength as most Operating systems don't report it correctly - Its the Mbps you need to trust

So is there any advantage to getting a G+ or N router over a G to improve your speed if your signal strength is good ?.

I have 1mb fixed wireless and have a G router, the speed through the router is less than if I connect the laptop directly into the internet connection from the wireless antenna.
If I get a N router, and a N compliant wireless card/dongle, will I get better speed on the laptop from the router?

Voodoo2

Benedict XVI wrote: »

So is there any advantage to getting a G+ or N router over a G to improve your speed if your signal strength is good ?.

I have 1mb fixed wireless and have a G router, the speed through the router is less than if I connect the laptop directly into the internet connection from the wireless antenna.
If I get a N router, and a N compliant wireless card/dongle, will I get better speed on the laptop from the router?

Depends on the distance away from the router - But if all your using your wireless is to surf you should be ok, But if your only on a 1mbps internet pipe.. a good signal should be good enough. But what happens if you try another laptop on wireless is it the same story slow on wireless?

What is the brand of your router? Some of the cheaper ones have a poor WAN to WLAN throughput