I'm trying to understand the reason for a difference in speed on my Wifi network vs using an ethernet cable. Hooking a laptop directly into the cable modem shows speeds 28 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up (Speedtest.net results). If I hook it up via ethernet to the router it maintains that speed. So the router itself doesn't cause a slowdown. But if I switch to wifi my download speed drops 8-10Mbps.
This is when the laptop is right next to the wireless router so it's not due to distance. I have also tried switching to the different channels and have received similar results. I realize the 54Mbps advertised by the wireless router is somewhat of the theoretical speed and it might be below that. But it should be able to handle the 28Mbps I would think without a problem. The link speed showing on my computer is 54Mbps so the computer thinks it has a good connection. What else am I missing?