Does bridging make anything go faster?

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Saint Grimm

Saint Grimm

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I'm in a networking class, but haven't gone over bridges much yet. But from my current understanding with the very little information we've learned is this:

If we have 2 netgear routers that have 400mbps + 1300mbps and we bridge them together wirelessly using bridge mode, I can put 1 router by the internet connection, the 2nd router at my PC and wire my PC to the 2nd router and use net speeds that are equal to our net speed instead of the 150mbps that my wireless adapter currently picks up?


EDIT: To be more precise, we have a 300mb/s download speed. So if I connected 1 router into the internet line (phone jack/whatever you want to call it) and the other into my computer, could I get 300mbs download speed on my PC instead of 150mbps that my wireless adapter allows?
 
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USAFRet
outside world->ISP->router 1->-------bridge->----------router 2->device

If a device in that chain is 150Mbps, that is the absolute max you would get.
Not that you would actually see that, because WiFi, but that would be the absolute theoretical max. 150Mbps.

You will never see that speed over WiFi.

You would see gigabit to that closest router, then 150Mbps from that to the other router, then 150Mbps out from that.

Now...if you were wired allt he way through, you would see gigabit performance all the way to the actual modem. Then 300mbps after that to the ISP and the outside world.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Basic concept of networking:
Overall performance depends on the speed of the slowest device in the chain.

That should have been mentioned by your instructor on day 1.


And 'bridge mode' is not what you're thinking.
Rather, it is talking in two directions at once, bridging between Device A and Device C. The 'bridge' being Device B.
 
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Saint Grimm

Saint Grimm

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Yes, we went over that. lol. My new MOBO that isn't actually here yet has a 1gb ethernet speed, obviously it won't go that fast, even if we used the 1300mb/s channel on the router, because we only have 300mb/s speed.

However I'm not fully understanding your answer.

Are you saying with all devices being higher speed than my internet, a bridge would indeed give me my full net speed on my pc by wiring an ethernet cable between router2 and my pc? Or is what I'm thinking so far off that I'm completely reading your answer wrong? lol

The thing I'm trying to bypass is my 150mb/s wireless adapter. I'd really like to go higher than that.
 
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USAFRet

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outside world->ISP->router 1->-------bridge->----------router 2->device

If a device in that chain is 150Mbps, that is the absolute max you would get.
Not that you would actually see that, because WiFi, but that would be the absolute theoretical max. 150Mbps.

You will never see that speed over WiFi.

You would see gigabit to that closest router, then 150Mbps from that to the other router, then 150Mbps out from that.

Now...if you were wired allt he way through, you would see gigabit performance all the way to the actual modem. Then 300mbps after that to the ISP and the outside world.
 
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Saint Grimm

Saint Grimm

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Okay... Just to be clear, I want to plug in the different way to be 100% sure I'm understanding it correctly.

If I by-passed my wifi adapter (150mbp/s) by using an ethernet from router 2 to my PC (1gb ethernet card) I'd be getting my 300mb/s but it'd just show as 1gb because it was plugged into a 1gb port?

The main thing I'm looking for, is does bridging 2 routers in the same home lose speed? For my example, with 300mb/s speed through our internet provider, speed test says it's around 285 mb/s, but for example sake, let's say it's an absolute 300mb/s on PC1 that is currently wired directly into router 1.

Pc1 currently has 300mb/s wired into router 1
router 1 is wired to the phone jack

If I go out and buy another $200 router and set up a bridge so that the above remains true, but adds

Router1 ->-----bridge->----router2
and PC2 is wired directly to router2

What would PC2's speed be? 300mb, or would it lose some speed in the bridge? If it's just loosing a small amount, I'm not very worried about it.

So far, all we've gone over in class is wired connections and different types of cables... And while I do work with wireless, the actual build of wireless things seems to be a lot more complicated than I would expect lol

Our instructor just very vaguely mentioned bridges, and said we'd be going over them more when we talk about wireless connections, but I'm pretty impatient and if it would give me faster speed on this PC, I'll probably attempt a bridge b4 we learn about it.

Edit: not sure if this would make my explaining of what I'm trying to do better or worse (never have been good at explaining things) but here's speeds to go with the above thing lol.

speeds - Router's lowest listed speed is 400mb/s
PC's lowest speeds listed is 1gb/s
online speed tests say 300mb/s on pc1
so would PC 2 also be 300mb/s?
 
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USAFRet

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A PC wired to a gigabit port to the Router 2 would show as a gigabit connection That's what it sees.
From that router 2 to router 1, now we have to depend on the wireless performance.
Which WILL be much slower.


outsideworld/ISP(300mbps)->----router 1(1300mbps)--->---bridge--->---router2 (150mbps)---->---PC

All that PC will see is 150mbps, absolute max
Now...because of the way that whole wireless bridge works, you'd be lucky to see 40% of that 150mbps. It has to talk in two directions at once.

To get your full 300mbps that you pay for, you just need to be creative with Cat5e wiring...;)
 
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Saint Grimm

Saint Grimm

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Okay, got it :D Thanks - However, router 2's speed is also 1300mbps (gonna buy the exact same router as router 1)

So I'd be lucky to see 40% of 1300 right? (which would be 520 and well over the amount I need lol)
 
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USAFRet

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WiFi performance is very dependent on environmental conditions.
Actual numbers depend on the specific environment.

In my house, upstairs directly vertical (12 feet) from the router, I get 100% WiFi speed.
Walking 15 feet down the hall, it drops off by 30%.
 
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Twistfaria

Twistfaria

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I think that if you are wired into the second router you should be able to get all the speed available. Any non-wired device connected to the 2nd router would already only be getting around 150mbps because the bandwidth is cut in half due to the rebroadcast of the signal meaning even if you had a better rated wireless adapter your speed wouldn't be any better.
 
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Saint Grimm

Saint Grimm

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Okay, thank you both :) The wireless is 100%, however, due to a stair way between the bedroom and my PC, it'd be very difficult to run wiring without doing it inside of the walls, which just isn't worth it to me, far too time consuming lol. But, I'm now confident enough to attempt the bridge - Can always return the router within 1 week if it doesn't work - Main thing here was getting insight to see if it was even worth the time to go buy a router, attempt it, and etc. So, with the info I've gotten, I'll put in the time to try it out :)
 
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Twistfaria

Twistfaria

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USAFRet In your example I don't see why the second router would be losing that much speed. If the first router is sending out 300Mbps (what it gets from the wired ISP) and we assume that the 2nd one is getting 100% then shouldn't the second router be receiving all 300Mbps? Why would there be a downgrade of half in the first link of the chain? I can see how it might go down some depending on just how good the connection is to the first router but I don't think we can say it would be half. If you WIRE directly into the second router then you would be getting all of the speed that it is receiving.

Of course that is in a completely ideal setting which wifi rarely is anyway.
 
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