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I have 2 laptops connected on my home network,which is connected to a wireless router, router has an ADSL modem, which connects to my 8mbps phone DSL connection.

One of my laptops is really in cable range of the router, but both laptops at the moment are connected via wireless.

Do you think it makes sense to connect up the laptop that is in cable range, to the router using a LAN cable? Is the latency between having a cable connection going to be much better and noticable, than if I connect via wireless?

What are your thoughts? Thanks

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  • I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I've never seen a difference. I'm sure on higher internet speeds, however, there could be.
    – Phoshi
    Oct 14, 2009 at 14:49
  • @Phoshi, this is the thing, sure transferring from 1 computer to the next makes sense to 1 on LAN, but for average every day surfing, the difference might be so small, that it doesn't make any noticable difference.
    – JL.
    Oct 14, 2009 at 16:31

3 Answers 3

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I would guess that it depends on what you are doing. If you are just surfing the web, then I don't see why there would be a huge difference. If you are trying to upload a hundred photos, I'd probably connect with the wire.

The difference is probably negligible. I run my xbox360 off the wireless connection and I don't have any lag or anything. The wireless signal is very strong nowadays.

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Do it. Wireless has a much higher chance for interference that could cause issues with file transfers and more frequent disconnects for other network applications. Wireless packets can be sniffed out of the air by anyone with a wireless card and a good antenna. Wireless is certainly more convenient than wired, but I'd use wired when available, and only unplug when I needed to move the laptop somewhere else.

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Another advantage of wiring up laptop A, is that even laptop B's network performance will improve a bit, since wireless interference with laptop A is now not present. Best thing to do is, if u have a cable handy, is to try it out.

edit: Here is a NCIX Tech Tips video comparing Wifi and ethernet and adding powerline to the mix.. might be useful to you - Powerline vs Wireless vs Ethernet Networking

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