Wireless router: strong vs. weak signal

Does a strong vs. weak signal from my wireless router have any practical impact on my PC or laptop?

So long as I can connect to my wireless router, regardless of the signal strength, will my download speeds be unaffected?

In other words, is 5 bars of signal strength just as good as 2 bars, from a practical perspective?

If the answer is yes, then why do people strive to get 5 bars signal strength?

Thanks.

 

more signal = less batt strain
more signal = less drop packets

 

As the bars go down, so does signal quality, so does throughput.

You may be only getting 2megs when you get low on bars. However, 2megs is still faster than most internet connections.

 

I just tested my ping speeds using the ping command and www.google.com in cmd.exe.

If my average response time was 22 ms and 0% loss of packets with 2 bars of reception strength, is it worth my time to install DD-WRT on my router and boost the signal strength so that I get 5 bars reception?

Thanks.

 

How fast is your internet connection?
Do you use 802.11g or 802.11n?
Would you mind using practical terms like mbps instead of "bars"- it's hard to answer your question without any data.

To make myself clear- assuming you have 802.11n which would run at 300mbps with 5 bars and 20mbps connection from your ISP you don't have to worry even when with 2 bars your Wi-Fi card connects only at say 65mbps.
However if you have the same 20mbps connection from your ISP and 802.11g router that would connect at 54mbps with full signal (5 bars) but in fact connects with only two bars resulting in say 5mbps Wi-Fi connection you lose a lot.
As leslieann wrote- lower signal equals lower throughput- it should concern you only if it limits your connection speed provided by your ISP or if you transfer files locally over LAN- for the same reason.

P.S. I hope I was clear- it's past 3 a.m. here :/

 

You're very clear (and quite impressive considering how early in the morning it is for you over there).

I'm using a 802.11g speeds (Linksys wireless router) whose max is 54 mbps, I believe.
I'm getting 6 mbps download speeds (0.5 mbps upload) with my ISP. I believe that is the maximum speed that my ISP plan allows.
I ran speedtest.org and am getting 6 mbps download speeds and 0.5 mbps upload speeds.

Based on this, does it appear that 2 bars strength is not limiting me?

 

Wireless speed of 802.11g is in practical terms about 50% of what's advertised. So 54mbps in reality is 20-23mbps when it comes to real-life transfers.
You need at least 12-15mbps wireless connection to accommodate for bandwidth provided by your ISP- so in your case everything is all right (it may not be so if you decide to upgrade connection to a faster one or start transferring files over the WLAN but that's another case)
You are fine at least for now.

P.S. 3 a.m. is late in the night- not early in the morning by my standards