Wireless internet or cord?

[computernewb]

which one is faster on a laptop? wireless internet or plugging in the cord?

thanks!

 

[yoji]

Unless you have crap "cord" and fantastic wireless...."cord" will win every time.

Cheers

 

[jgutz2006]

well wireless brings up potential issues with packet loss, interference more than your typical cable would get ya but both are capable of more speed than your internet speed offers you so in theory, for internet browsing it would be just as fast either way.

 

[computernewb]

say for gaming, is it significantly faster or faster but barely noticeable?

 

[stickmansam]

cord all the way cat5e FTW

 

[jaguarskx]

Cord is always faster.... unless your "cord" is a 56k dial-up modem.

 

[jaguarskx]

So are you asking about wired vs. wireless ISP? Or are you asking about connecting to a home network via cord / wireless?

 

[Traciatim]

say for gaming, is it significantly faster or faster but barely noticeable?

For gaming it's not really about speed . . . most games won't be transferring more than 10KB/s - 20KB/s. What is the main issue with wireless is constancy.

For instance, my wired desktop I can ping my router with 1024 byte packets and get 150 pings, average ping time is 0ms, max is 1ms . . . pretty much every single one is exactly the same.

I do the exact same test on my laptop and I get average of 1ms, but the max is 43ms, and there are regular spikes all over the place.

If you have the choice, cord is ALWAYS better. The only advantage is wireless isn't connected so you can move around. SO you can use the wire when your doing any gaming and then unplug and use your wireless when you just want to lounge around on youtube.

 

[rdc85]

I think Traciatim get it all,...

In gaming consistency is important....

go with cord.... wireless is prone with interference ....

 

[ipwn3r456]

If you can, wired internet (or plug in cord if you want to say) is always the best choice not just playing games, even when just doing simple things like web browsing, facebook, etc. Wireless is designed for mobility, mostly if you want to browse the web with your smartphone or tablet... if you want to play games wireless, lets say you have a two floor house, and modem is upper floor, and you want to play games with your laptop on the lower floor, that's when wireless is useful. But though, as others said, wireless is prone with interference, as wireless signals can be blocked with physical things such as walls, metals, even glass. So your best bet, wire gaming (or plug in cord).