does WPA / WEP security affect wireless speeds? (WXP-Home)

[skylive]

Howdy everyone, I was just wondering, does WPA / WEP security affect wireless speeds? Also, will the channel a wireless signal is broad casted on affect the signal stability? I would like to know this, as I have set up a home network, in a 2 storey house, and the default for my 2wire built in wireless modem, is channel 6, and when I boost it up to Channel 7, my wireless has trouble connecting at times, but its not often. Now, I am going to switch from WEP to WPA, will if affect wireless stability and speed?

Thank you very much!

[jdharm]

Howdy everyone, I was just wondering, does WPA / WEP security affect wireless speeds?

Depends on your machine. The wireless transmission speeds will not change, but the work load of en-/decrypting data may be heavy for your machine and slow down the speed at which the data gets handled. The higher the encryption level the worse it would be. But having said that, in my experience it takes a pretty slow machine for the speed difference to be discernible; slow enough that wireless speeds would probably be your last concern.

Also, will the channel a wireless signal is broad casted on affect the signal stability?

Depends on your environment. If there is something else close by on the same or adjacent channel or a harmonic frequency then there may be stability issues. Also, the different channel numbers correspond to different frequencies. Different frequencies propagate through a given material slightly differently. In theory one channel may go through walls or obstructions better than another; in practice the channels aren't that far apart on the spectrum (within a wifi type, i.e. a, b, or g) and don't perform very differently through obstructions, but it's possible and is a hit-and-miss thing.

Now, I am going to switch from WEP to WPA, will if affect wireless stability and speed?

The discernible difference between these two will be somewhere between non-existent and negligible.

Caveat: Wireless is one of the least predictable things I have ever come across in the world of tech, so everything I just said may be complete rubbish in your situation despite my belief that it isn't.

Josh

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[skylive]

It all makes sense. thank you very much!