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What are the Limits of Wireless Broadband?
One of the great things about Wi-Fi is that loads of people can connect at once using the same internet connection. You can get up to around 250 connections at one time. But make sure you protect your broadband with encryption keys and passwords, everyone on your street will happily be able to use your broadband (read our Broadband Security Guide.
There are a number of factors that will affect your internet speed and how much degradation you experience. The speed of your connection will first depend on what your top speed is, for example you might have an “up to 8Mb” connection. Then on your contention rate – how many other people you’re sharing your connection with on your street, usually around 50. How many people are connected to the network in your house also affects your speed, and finally, speeds will vary depending on what each of those people are doing, for example downloading a large file or just checking their emails.
Internet speeds are also affected by how far your PC is from the router. If the signal has to go through walls and doors to reach your computer then it will be weaker than if you were right next to the router, of plugged in with an ethernet cable.
While this does seem like a significant disadvantage, any degradation is usually so slight that the majority of Wi-Fi users barely notice it.
If you do have problems however, rather than taking the trouble of moving your router, or quite pointlessly moving your PC closer to the router, you could just replace the aerial. Standard router aerials are usually 2dBi (indicating how long it is), and logically, the longer the aerial, the better the signal and the further its reach. For around £10 you can buy an aerial of 9dBi, which can increase signal strength by 30-50 per cent.
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