Personal computing discussed

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Rousterfar
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Sat Feb 02, 2002 2:40 am

Me and my roomates are thingking about setting up a wireless network in the house we live in. My main worry with this is that it may increase lag and make for horrid ping times for internet gaming. Should I be worried about this? If anyone knows anything about this it would be great.
 
combo
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Sat Feb 02, 2002 1:26 pm

It shouldn't affect your latency since it should be around 11Mbps or 1.1 MB/Sec. That's much higher than any internet connection you may have. Although with distance the wireless network degrades.

Here's some specs on a netgear card
http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp ... =30&zrp=90

1 Mbps - 500 ft (152 m)
2 Mbps - 400 ft (122 m)
5.5 Mbps - 270 ft (82 m)
11 Mbps - 175 ft (53 m)
 
Rousterfar
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Sat Feb 02, 2002 1:42 pm

That is what I was thinking. I have just heard that anything wireless causes increased ping times. It really shouldn't be a huge deal, but it is always safe to ask.
 
Steel
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Sun Feb 03, 2002 12:29 am

On 2002-02-02 12:26, combo wrote:
It shouldn't affect your latency since it should be around 11Mbps or 1.1 MB/Sec. That's much higher than any internet connection you may have. Although with distance the wireless network degrades.

Here's some specs on a netgear card
http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp ... =30&zrp=90

1 Mbps - 500 ft (152 m)
2 Mbps - 400 ft (122 m)
5.5 Mbps - 270 ft (82 m)
11 Mbps - 175 ft (53 m)

Those speeds are nice in theory but it works a bit different in the real world. At work with some Toshiba laptops w/built in 802.11b the speed tops out at around 550KB/s and thats with a 11Mb/s link. With WEP enabled it drops to about 450KB/s. As far as ping times go, it depends on a variety of things, like what equipment you're using and if you have WEP enabled. I'm sorry I don't have any numbers to share, if you're still interested I can run some tests when I get back to work. (I seem to remember pings in the 30-50ms range but I can't be sure.)
 
Rousterfar
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Sun Feb 03, 2002 1:13 am

Ya anything you know of would be great. Generally anything lower then a 100 to 150 ping will alow for good gaming. I think my computer will be jacked directly into the wireless unit while my roomate, and soon roomates, will be on the wireless network. I may be getting a laptop at some point too and will run it on the network. I think at tops for a while we will have 2 to 3 computers running on it. We will also be sharing a cable modem's bandwith using it.
 
ANApex
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Mon Feb 04, 2002 11:08 am

Remember placement is key also, My wireless wouldn't even get a signal when I was one floor up with my base in the basement. Well within 50ft, so take into account what kind of walls etc and other interference (ie 2.4GHz phones) that might come into play.

Oh yeah http://www.practicallynetworked.com has some great reviews of wireless gear. They also show top speed for most wireless cards regardless of interference to be about 4.5Mbps.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ANApex on 2002-02-04 10:10 ]</font>
 
Steel
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Mon Feb 04, 2002 12:13 pm

Well, running in peer to peer mode ping times are nearly nonexistant:

Pinging 192.168.1.2 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.2:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  10ms, Average =  2ms
I'm not sure how much an access point would affect ping times, I don't have one to test with right now.

I also ran some speed tests with NetCPS:
NetCPS 1.0 - Entering server mode. Press ^C to quit
Waiting for new connection...
Client connected from 192.168.1.2
---> CPS    525285.44  KPS:   512.97  MPS: 0.50
Avrg CPS    523455.72  KPS:   511.19  MPS: 0.50
Peek CPS    533994.00  KPS:   521.48  MPS: 0.51
Client disconnected. 104857600 Kb transferred in 200.33 seconds.
This was with a 11Mb link. For contrast I also ran NetCPS over a 100Mb ethernet link:
NetCPS 1.0 - Entering client mode. Press ^C to quit
Connecting to 10.1.112.148 port 4455... Connected!
---> CPS   9453331.00  KPS:  9231.77  MPS: 9.02
Avrg CPS   9433033.00  KPS:  9211.95  MPS: 9.00
Peek CPS   9455377.00  KPS:  9233.77  MPS: 9.02
Done. 104857600 Kb transferred in 11.12 seconds.
 
Rousterfar
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Mon Feb 04, 2002 12:29 pm

Well the main two computers that will be on the network will be about 65 feet appart, with two doors between them. We are also on the same floor.

Honestly we are renting the house and can't have an internal (i.e. in the walls) ethernet built in. We are not keen on running ethernet wires along the floor, across the place and under the doors, either. If someone knows a better solution I am up for it, otherwise I think we will just do the wireless thing.

Thanks for everyone's help!

BTW. What about that new networking standard "a"? The only ones I have found of it cost about double that of the older one. SInce we would mainly be sharing a cable modem it just does not seem worth the cost to me.
 
Steel
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Mon Feb 04, 2002 12:41 pm

Just fired up our Apple Airport base station and did some pings and the times were the same as peer to peer. My guess is you won't have any trouble sharing the internet connection with a wireless setup.
 
Rousterfar
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Mon Feb 04, 2002 12:55 pm

Thanks Steel.

I did some more research and that is what I have come up with too. All this has been a big help man.

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