Wireless connectivity

[Grandor]

I have a question regarding wireless connectivity on a Windows computer.

Is it true that by adding more computers and (game consoles) to a wireless network it slows down the download speed of the internet connection or put strain on it?

Because I am planning on setting up a wireless network with my Linux computer, my bro's XP, a mac laptop which I'm planning to buy, my bro's 360 and my 80gig Ps3. By adding all of these things (which at one point might be connected at the same time to see if it will work) will this strain the connection?

The answer is probably obvious but whatever. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[___]

It is a question of your internet connection speed and how much of it you use, much less of your wireless network's capabilities.  Typically you will have somewhere between 11mbps and 50ish mbps connection speed over your wireless network and somewhere between 1mbps and 7mbps connection from your home network to the internet, so you will run out of internet bandwidth long before your network performance becomes a problem, if that makes sense to you.

There's some more esoteric concerns with wireless networks concerning how your devices are arranged, how far they are from the router, what other devices in your house interfere with the 2.4ghz band, for instance cordless phones and things like microwave ovens which can fuck with your signal, etc.  These things can result in packet loss, which is where some of the info getting sent to or from your device gets lost in transmission and has to be resent.  You'll experience these as occasional lag spikes or disconnects though, not usually overall reduction in speed.

Bottom line the best possible way to connect to your network is still over a wire due to radio interference but having lots of stuff on your wireless network is not likely to impact your internet connection in a way different from the usual problem of too many people and not enough bandwidth, which has nothing to do with being wireless.

 

[Grandor]

Thanks for the help. It all makes a little more sense now.