edgar wrote:
Question for the Tech-heads: I am presently "on-line" by way of a wireless connection by the name of NETGEAR. Sometimes I get a message about a Residential Gateway. The baud rate varies from 1Mbps to what seems like an unbelievable 15Mbps, but it really does whizz through downloads at an amazing rate. - Problem is: I don't know whose Internet link I'm on, so I can't ascertain why it's so fast. I've only had the Acer for a fortnight and switched on the wireless lan to see what it looked like, and here I am. I'm familiar with landline broadband but this is ridiculously fast (at first I thought I must be dreaming) and what's more it's free.
What is the range for a wireless 80211.b/g lan?
edgar
More than likely one of your neighbours has set up their own wireless LAN, minus any security measures, with a high speed DSL or cable connection and since they have left it wide open, you are able to connect to it with zero effort. With 802.11b, I have been able to set up wireless bridges up to 100m apart, with a few custom mods of course, and the general range of 802.11g can be anywhere from 30 - 50 metres, depending of the environment. The reason your connection may be fluctuating between 1 - 15Mbps is because you are probably on the outer limits of the access points range and thus any environmental changes would have a dramatic impact on your connection speed.
BTW...welcome to A.org :-)
