Some Wireless Questions

[Byatt]

Questions on Wireless networking, rather than questions asked without the use of wires...

Right, I'm basically in an area at uni surrounded by people with centrino based laptops, without in-house ethernet...so I'm tempted to set up some sort of wireless setup for gaming.

So I suppose my question is this: how many wireless "clients" can one access point have before the connection they share becomes unworkable for gaming?

(I'm aware some of the language I'm using might not be accurate (bit of a general networking newb) , but I can't stand "" all over the place)

[Howard]

If it's at 54mbps I'd say you could have a good 15-16 odd clients playing in a game before it gets unbearably laggy.

[Byatt]

w00t - that's more than good enough, thanks howard.

[wasabi]

It won't be at 54 mbit though as most centrinos are still 11b

I'd say 8 people really max - and in reality most wireless networking sucks if it has to go through more than 1 wall. through made-of-paper uni halls you might get through a couple of walls.m The specs given by wireless manufacturers are generally hopelessly optimistic at best.

[Howard]

My mate's laptop and wireless card stay at 50-54Mbps pretty much all the time when we walk right round his house, etc.

Depends on distance. If you have decent hardware then you should have at least 10 people.

[Zathras]

I thought all centrinos were 11b, it's part of the specification for the Centrino branding? Some Centrino laptops may have additional 54g cards.

[XiXora]

centrino 54g cards should be around by q1 04 i hear if not q2