Wi-Fi question?

Question

Would just having multiple devices connected to the same Wi-Fi slow down the connection even if only one of those devices are using the internet? Is it better to disconnect all devices that aren't using the Wi-Fi at the moment if I want faster quality in one device?

Answer 1

No reason to disconnect at all. As long as all the devices aren't actively using the network, you won't even know they are there.

Answer 2

There will be a very small amount of traffic from other devices while they do occasional checks for updates and to make sure they still have Internet access.



However, remember that WiFi is not just for Internet access. There may also be local traffic such as a tablet PC streaming a movie from a local, private media server. This would not use the Internet but still be using WiFi bandwidth.



Finally, if there is a device that is connected to WiFi and is using a slow connection mode, then this will slow down other devices on the WiFi network. Most routers now have options to disable connection using the slowest modes.

Answer 3

On my home network, I typically have 15-20 devices on simultaneously (Wi-Fi and Ethernet), with only a few actively using the network most of the time. I don't see any network performance loss. Chances are that you won't really see any difference in your speeds with all of your devices on your network. It can't hurt to turn them off, but I would just leave them as is.