Do wifi connections slow down an ethernet connection to the same router?

Question

I'm involved in installing cable internet service and a video projection system in a building. Wifi connections would also be available for people in attendance. The computer used for streaming the video would be via an ethernet connection. Could the streaming be affected by multiple users connecting to the wifi?

Answer 1

Hi Mark,



If there is enough Wi-Fi traffic then you can definitely see that affecting wired users. Each Ethernet connection will have a certain bandwidth that it can move in one direction per second (ex. 100Mbps or 1Gbps), so if your Wi-Fi users want 80Mbps and your wired users want 40Mbps on a 100Mbps link, traffic is going to start needing to be queued and you're going to see problems. It's like a highway, if there's not enough space on the road things start coming to a halt.



Now if you're on a Gigabit LAN (1Gbps) you're not likely to be facing a problem like this unless you have a lot of users. So this may be the route to take depending on your existing infrastructure, load, budget etc.



Implementing Gigabit connections shouldn't be very costly either so I would look into that as a solution right now (assuming you're not already using Gigabit).





Now with this being said, you should be able to stream compressed video (NOT very large / bandwidth intensive), but UNCOMPRESSED video takes a LOT of bandwidth. If it's uncompressed video we're talking about I would try compressing it in real-time first, and if that's not an option I would look into 10 Gigabit SFP+ (which is REALLY expensive).



Hope this helps,

Cheers

Answer 2

If the video is being streamed from another ethernet connected PC, then it's unlikely wifi traffic would have an impact, unless said traffic is very heavy such that the networking hardware itself cannot cope.



If the video is being streamed over the internet, then yes, wifi users might also be using the internet bandwidth and could cause problems with the stream. Look into Quality of Service, or into options to limit the amount of bandwidth wifi users can collectively use.

Answer 3

yes wifi is slower and it will slow down if for everybody if too many online at the same time unless is some very fast internet connection .

Answer 4

Problem is that your seeding creates a lot of connections to other down-loaders, therefore PING increases a lot. If you have to play FPS games, 50-100 ms can hurt much.



Try configuring QoS in your router, limit torrent upload speed and connection count limit.

Answer 5

Depends on a lot of factors including how good the router's on-board memory and chipset is. Then there's QoS scheduling you can do to throttle wifi clients.

Answer 6

It would be affected because of radio interference,and it would affect wifi speed.You can try to built another wifi hotspot with laptop to decrease interference.You just need to free download My WIFI Router software,it would turn your laptop into a hotspot just with a click.