Weak wireless signal cause low kps?

Hi guys,

I'm curious, can a very weak wifi signal cause low kps during file downloads? The answer may seem obvious, but I ask because my desktop machine shows that it has a low-very low connection, but downloads at good speeds..200-400kps, however my laptop, which shows low/poor signal also, downloads much, much slower... in the 20-30kps range. Can the lack of signal cause this? I know my desktop wifi card has an external antenna, but it still shows low/very low signal. I guess I just always thought that if you could maintain a connection, although weak, you could get the same throughput as a stronger signal.. at least thats what my desktop machine led me to believe from it's behavior. Any clues? Only other difference is that my laptop has Vista on it and the desktop has XP. But when my laptop had XP on it, I couldn't get it to connect AT ALL to the weak signal I have at my house.

Thanks!

 

"I guess I just always thought that if you could maintain a connection, although weak, you could get the same throughput as a stronger signal.. at least thats what my desktop machine led me to believe from it's behavior."

That makes no sense.

Basically your signal "strength" is just a general indicator of its ability to send and receive packets of information correctly. Its not really accurate and almost certainly varies from one OS to another, if not from one card to another, depending on drivers etc.

So your wifi (802.11g i guess) is 54 mbps. Lets say your internet is 4 mbps. So even if you are only able to correctly send receive 10% of the information packets, you wont notice any slower internet speeds. Once the signal degrades below about 8%, your internet speed will start to degrade also. Your laptop and desktop just have different names for this. "low/very low" and "low/poor"

move your laptop closer to your wifi point and see if that increases the data transfer speeds to normal.

 

Thanks for the info. The reason I thought it could make sense is because with a digital signal for instance, as long as one is able to establish a basic connection (for instance satellite tv or newer cellphones) you get what appears to be a perfect signal. I know my sat-tv signal has to drop below 30 percent or so before I notice any artifacts in the display.

 

Also realize that the 54mbps isn't the "real" speed, it will really only get about 20mbps.