Gigabit vs Wifi

[shocka6969]

I have done some searches but am still a bit confused about gigabit LAN. I currently have a Dell desktop connected to the internet via dsl, and have a wireless router & home network. I have a Sony laptop which connects to the internet and network via wifi. My soon to be built htpc's motherboard has Gigabit LAN built in, which it seems is better than wifi(?). Thus my questions are:

1. Will the htpc connect to my existing network via its gigabit lan?

2. Do the high speeds referred to in gigabit lan refer to wired connections only?

3. Will I have to modify the desktop and laptop if I want to use the benefits of gigabit lan?

Many thanks in advance for any help

[DDH]

1. Yes. Although you will need to have your switch capable of gigabit, otherwise it will autonegotiate back to 100Mb most likely (almost all switches you get now work at 100/10Mbps)

2. Yes. Wireless 802.11g runs at a maximum 54Mbps shared between all connections.

3. Normally no. So long as your switch handles up to 1Gbps then you will get fast throughput between your laptop and desktop. Of course all Internet access will be only at the maximum of the DSL service you have, ie 512Kbps

The above is a bit rough, but should give you a good guide.

[colpeady]

Hi Shocka,

A wired connection is always going to be better than WiFi.

Your gigabit LAN can potentially talk to other gigabit LAN devices at 1 Gbps - your switch will also need to support gigabit. Otherwise, they will negotiate at the fastest speed available, which would probably be 100Mbps full duplex.

WiFi comes in many flavours - 802.11g is now the most common, which works at speeds of either 54Mbps or 108Mbps. This is still much slower than a 100Mpbs wired connection, because WiFi bandwidth is shared amongst all devices on the network, whereas wired is dedicated speed between devices (assuming you are using a switch and not a hub).

To answer your questions:

1. Yes - your htpc will connect to your existing network via its gigabit NIC, although 100 Mbps is the likely max speed.

2. Yes

3. No real point.

[shocka6969]

OK, so the way I see it is that I just use my existing wireless network and connect my htpc up to it via its gigabit lan. I don't have the option of a wired connection between the desktop and htpc.

Do I need to buy any extra hardware for this, or is what's already on the motherboard enough (Gigabyte P35T DQ6). Thus I shouldn't need a Wifi device on the HTPC?

Thanks again

[DDH]

Originally Posted by shocka6969

OK, so the way I see it is that I just use my existing wireless network and connect my htpc up to it via its gigabit lan. I don't have the option of a wired connection between the desktop and htpc.

Do I need to buy any extra hardware for this, or is what's already on the motherboard enough (Gigabyte P35T DQ6). Thus I shouldn't need a Wifi device on the HTPC?

Thanks again

I am a little confused by what you've written. You appear to be suggesting at first that you will connect your MCE desktop via WiFi, then suggesting you will do it via a LAN cable.

To try and answer, your MoBo will allow you to connect via cable to a switch (ie RJ45 to RJ45).

[ExtremePC]

Originally Posted by shocka6969

OK, so the way I see it is that I just use my existing wireless network and connect my htpc up to it via its gigabit lan. I don't have the option of a wired connection between the desktop and htpc.

Do I need to buy any extra hardware for this, or is what's already on the motherboard enough (Gigabyte P35T DQ6). Thus I shouldn't need a Wifi device on the HTPC?

Thanks again

This is a little confusing,

I'm going to make a few assumptions so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

You have a Wireless/modem/router with 4-5 network ports on it. You're Dell machine connects via a cable to one of the network ports of the Wireless/modem/router and you're laptop connects via wifi.

The network ports of the wireless/modem/router will be 100Mbit and so anyting you connect to it with an actual cable will only run at 100Mbits max. The wireless side of the wireless/modem/router will probably run at 54Mbit max.

So far so good?

Your new HTPC has an onboard Gigabit network card that can run at any speed between 10MBit/100MBit/1GBit, which speed it runs at depends on the speed capabilities of the gear at other end of the cable plugged into the HTPC. So in your case if you plug the HTPC into the Wireless/modem/router with a network cable your network speed will be at 100MBit because thats as fast as your Wireless/modem/router network ports can go.

This does not really matter to you because all your using it for at the moment is to connect to the internet which is already much much slower that the 100MBit wired connection. Also the 100MBit would be much faster than a 54MBit wireless connection you're laptop has. Since you do not have a third machine (ie. a WHS box, or a Media server etc) there is no point in going any faster.

If you were to get a third machine and use a wired connection then it would be a benefit to also get a Gigabit switch so that all the machines on the wired network can transfer files to each other at 1GBit speeds, this however does not benefit the speed you get when browsing or downloading from the internet on any machine.

[shocka6969]

Thanks DDH and Extreme. You are right that I am very confused about gigabit LAN. I assume from your answers that it can only be used for a WIRED connection.

I have no option if running a cable from my new htpc to my current desktop's wireless router. Thus to surf the internet and connect to the other pc's, I need Wifi for the htpc?

On board Wifi would have been more useful than gigabit LAN? What are the options? (wireless only unfortunately, not good with a drill). Do I just buy a usb wireless dongle and be done with it?

Thanks again

[mythguy]

I have no option if running a cable from my new htpc to my current desktop's wireless router. Thus to surf the internet and connect to the other pc's, I need Wifi for the htpc?

yes

Do I just buy a usb wireless dongle and be done with it?

yes

Gigabit can only be used wired there is no such thing as gigabit wifi.

cheers

mythguy

[dgaust]

As a word of warning, Vista seems to have issues with restarting a Wi-Fi USB dongle when resuming from S3 sleep.

I could never get it working properly, despite trying a couple of different dongles, so I bit the bullet hard wired it.

[woohoo]

Guys

This has cleared up a lot of my questions, but I'm still a bit confused. Any help with the following would be very appreciated...

First, my setup. I have two machines, one htpc and one in my study, and they both have wired connections to a Linksys 10/100 router, which connects to the internet. Both machines have gigabit motherboards. I'm going to replace my router because I'm going to hook up to ADSL2+.

(1) is there a gigabit ADSL2+ router anyone would recommend, which will allow my two machines to connect via wired gigabit LAN? I understand that won't speed up my internet speeds.

(2) if there's no ADSL2+ router, would I get gigabit LAN by wiring my two machines directly?

(3) if I go down the path in (2), would I lose anything if I did the following... internet to ADSL2+ router, router wired to htpc only, study wired to htpc direct. I guess the main question here is - would this slow down my internet access from the study machine?

(4) I'm a bit confused about gigabit switches - would a switch help with anything I'm trying to do?

Thanks to anyone taking the time with this.

Mike

[pistnbroke]

At the moment there are no Gigabit Routers. So you would buy an ADSL2 router ie :Netcomm NB6PLUS4W, stable and good speeds. You will also need a Gigabit switch.

Connect Modem\Router to internet, then Router to Gigabit switch, run your hardwired computers from the Gigabit switch to enable your Gigabit network and use the Wireless in the router if you need it. Remember you also need Network cable capable of Gigabit and the NIC's set for it as well....

[woohoo]

Just what I needed pistnbroke. Thanks