Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 9, 2016 9:36 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523)
In reply to: Making WiFi fast by Felix.Braun
Parent article: Making WiFi fast

Rapid 5GHz signal fading is a GOOD thing. You won't get a lot of noise from neighbors. So just install a couple of WiFi repeaters in rooms with bad reception.

to post comments

Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 9, 2016 12:26 UTC (Wed) by Sesse (subscriber, #53779) [Link] (5 responses)

5 GHz actually fades pretty similarly to 2.4 GHz for most materials (red brick being a notable counterexample). But in many jurisdictions, it starts out with a small (3 dB) penalty in allowed transmission strength.

Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 9, 2016 19:18 UTC (Wed) by jonth (guest, #4008) [Link] (4 responses)

A small nitpick: fading!=attenuation.

One other observation I'd like to share: 20 years of experience in cellular comms has taught me is that you can't beat a wire.

Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 10, 2016 1:39 UTC (Thu) by samroberts (subscriber, #46749) [Link] (3 responses)

Unless your goal is to decrease wiring!

Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 11, 2016 0:13 UTC (Fri) by cesarb (subscriber, #6266) [Link]

Or your wire is broken. Wireless is much harder to cut.

(A coworker just found out that the Ethernet wire to one of the WiFi APs at work was broken, which explains network issues they were having.)

Making WiFi fast

Posted Nov 14, 2016 6:13 UTC (Mon) by eduard.munteanu (guest, #66641) [Link] (1 responses)

In practice, though, WiFi is often added on to the premises as an afterthought. Whoever set up the space didn't plan properly for networking, so WiFi gets used as a stop-gap measure. As with all last resort measures, it kinda sucks, not necessarily because there's something inherently wrong with WiFi.

Making WiFi fast

Posted Mar 9, 2019 1:29 UTC (Sat) by gdt (subscriber, #6284) [Link]

A reminder that wired connections also have downsides, mostly its inconvenience and cost.

A good RJ-45 jack is rated for 2,500 cycles. So wireless is a much better fit for high-traffic areas such as cafes and libraries. Patch leads are a small but ongoing expense, and staff and students don't like "BYO patch lead".

A wired port costs around $200 per wallport to cable. But this can blow out when a custom solution is required. Wiring a cafe table will cost more than than table.

Wireless networks work without any further action by the user. Once set up (which is far too hard) Eduroam connects your laptop or phone to the campus network the moment you go to use the device. No searching for a jack and patch lead. Wireless is so convenient that it's common to see a person sitting next to a wall port but using wireless.

Wired from modern devices is difficult. Using wired ethernet from a phone or tablet requires special cabling (a OTG cable) to the ethernet dongle. The dongle itself is a optional purchase. Cheaper dongles meant for laptops might not have driver support in a phone. Using wired ethernet from a recent laptop requires a USB-C/ethernet dongle, which means the laptop can't be powered whilst using the wired network. To have both power and wired networking requires a bulky and expensive "docking station".

We should be telling people who need network performance to use wired. But that may not end up being the bulk of the connections on a campus network.