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Wireless broadband question

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9 replies

by jardinier

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I have wireless broadband on four computers -- two quite new ones and two relatively old ones. Download speeds on the new computers is more than twice that on the older computers.

Could the reason be the difference between USB 2 and USB 1.1 ?

9 replies

by oh smeg

The limiting factor here is the USB Ports which are the slowest parts of the WiFi Broadband connection. The Actual WiFi Adapter is capable of faster Transfer speeds between the WiFi Network and the actual device than the speed between the Device and the computer through the USB Port.

USB 2 being roughly twice as fast as USB 1 accounts here for the difference in Transfer Rates between the computer and the WiFi Device.

Col

by jardinier

I am not talking about wireless connection between computers in my home, but to pick up the signal from a wireless broadband provider, in this case Optus and the software comes inside the modem.

by jardinier

Hi Col, yes that is the precise difference in download speeds that I am experiencing. Patrick can supply me with USB 2 cards for $30.

by oh smeg

But even then you may not achieve the same Transfer Speeds on the older hardware owing to restrictions in the PCI Bus.

Though it will improve the transfer speed on the USB 1 Equipped computers but they may not be as fast as the USB 2 Systems.

This is related to the way that the M'Boards are designed and assembled Jules.

Col

by larryd4

USB 2.0 PCI/PCIe cards will communicate faster between the USB 2.0 Bus Controller and the USB device. With PCI/PCIe cards you'll hit the issue of bus speed between the PCI controller and the PCI device.
Then add on the fact that its an older PC which uses much slower bus speeds on the back end. So then you'll hit a slow down on the board bus itself, communicating between the PCI controller and the south bridge, or was that the north bridge. So your 2.0 upgrade just became useless.

Well the only plus is you won't get the annoying pop up, telling you that it would perform better with a USB 2.0 port.

by jardinier

If I don't get twice the speed there is probably no point in going to the trouble of pulling all the plugs out of my computers (the backs are not readily accessible) to replace the USB cards.

While I have your attention, I will tell you that the Celeron 633 which was upgraded to 1 GB Pentium III which you supplied, and memory upgraded from 128 to 320, does not run any faster at all. Perhaps this is something to do with the motherboard. Do you have any suggestions as to why there is no improvement in operating speed despite the upgrade?

Patrick -- that is to say one of his staff -- spent a lot of time on it but failed to achieve any improvement.

by jardinier

You have just saved me the dreaded nightmare of climbing behind furnitue to access the two computers in question.

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