Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

[Sweatbandman]

Heya,

these days im playing the Battlefield 2142 demo, but i always had this problem with Battlefield 2 as well, or any online game really, MMORPGs as well. Anywho, i was wondering whether having a Wireless connection is better than being plugged straight into the router.

Right, ive just had it all explained to me again. So bear with me. Our broadband runs at 2Mbps (poor i know) and comes into the Router/Modem. It then proceeds onto my computer. But (here's where i get confused) whether i have Wireless (mines 24mbps) or Cable (100Mbps) it will only go at 2Mbps because thats what it came into at the Router/Modem? Is that pretty much right?

If it is, then why when i play games like say Battlefield 2, on wireless the numbers on the far right of the leaderboard (i cant remember the name) is roughly 134 (average) but wired its 12 (average again). Am i getting it wrong and only seeing it when im laggy? or is there something else i dont get? Can someone explain it please, no leave any detail out. And can someone explain the difference between Latency, Ping and FPS please? ive read threads but i still dont get it. Sorry for the complete idiocy on my part, but for years ive never got it and i want to understand at last! :)

Thanks sooo much in advance! :)

[John Edmo]

Re: Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

FPS Frames Per Second
Ping The amount of time it takes for your computer to send info to the server and back again
Latency I thought was the same as ping. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[[C22] yrethguad]

Re: Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

Yeah, latency = ping.

My computer is plugged into the Router, and I also have a laptop running wireless. I have a 7M internet connection, and I never, NEVER get more than ~2M from my wireless connection, let alone the 54M max. I've gotten up to 20% (10.8M) transferring between computers. Using a USB wireless adapter, I get about 3M through the internet, but it's also a USB 1.1 port. Bottom line, it is likely just my wireless adapter, and likely the same for you.

As far as your ping being higher, one has to assume that you will have more latency over a wireless connection.

FPS is unrelated to networking.

[[H2H]Haggis]

Re: Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

Ok so the difference in the wired and wireless connections are gonna be from the time it takes info to get from your pc to your router so over cable you will get the info at 100mbps but over the wireless 24mbps so even though your line is 2meg the difference in ping is coming from the amount of time its taking the info to get to and from your router

[Sweatbandman]

Re: Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

Oh right! thats cleared it up a lot guys! Thanks! :) so basically wired and wireless is the same. Thanks so much :)

[CrimsonBrian]

Re: Wired or Wireless? I couldn't be more confused!

Well, thats not exactly true. Wired is almost always going to be faster, but if you have a slow internet connection, the difference might be minimal. When it comes to games, I would always pick wired because you not going to have interference issues which could have an effect on your ping. Wireless connections can be slowed down by anything from a microwave or a wireless phone (not a mobile but the actual wireless phone) to other wireless networks. Unless running a cable is going to be too difficult, that is always the superior option, in my opinion.