Summary. A common question that people ask is whether or not they should use a wired or wireless network/Internet connection. This document provides some information to answer that question.
While it’s generally true that wireless networks are slower than wired networks, for most users the difference won’t be perceptible or relevant. The comparison below (courtesy of SpeedTest.net) shows that a wireless network is slower than a wired network, yet a fast wireless connection is capable of about 70Mbps which is about 10 times faster than the average residential Internet speed.
So, a wireless network will generally not be a bottleneck (limiting factor) for connectivity. For most people, the Internet service will be slower than what wireless is capable of. For most computing (email and multimedia websites), even 3Mbps would be adequate.
Given these facts, if a wireless connection is more convenient, it’s best to choose that. It’s important to point out that the newer wireless technologies are faster than the older ones. Also, a low or degraded wireless signal can result in a slow connection.
