Broadband speed restrictions

Alrite Chief

Can someone maybe put me straight about something. I have done a lot of googling and can't get the right answer.

Is your device only capable or receiving a maximum download speed depending on the network card? For example if I do a speedtest (wired) on an old laptop on a 240MB line is it possible I only receive a portion of the speed on the results?

Does the same apply to wifi? I only get 60MBPS right next to my router on my mac which is only a couple years old.

jimgoose

The throughput is limited by the network interface, yes. The old Ethernet setup is probably 100Mbs, and 60Mbps sounds alright for 802.11n WiFi in a real application.

whizbang

Network connections used to be so much faster than Internet, so there never used to be an issue; its only showing its head more recently.

Wired Ethernet can be 10, 100, 1000 Mbps (1Gbs).
- 10 is pretty old, not seen much anymore.
- 100 is pretty common. most routers are still this.
- 1000 is standard in newer laptops and desktops, but routers still are not so common.

Wireless b,g,n,ac are can be UP to 11, 54, 108, 150, 300, 1000Mbps. these numbers are absolute maximum possible.
54 is getting a bit old
300 is the common standard,
1000 is still pie in the sky.

individual links work at their own speed, but the overall will only work at the lowest speed of any link in the chain.

There are other issues with networking, mainly its not simultaneously up and down, so data sent back up is counted in the total speed. If you have lots of apps using data, all talking back to the servers, this reduces your download speed.

Alrite Chief

Thanks guys