NETGEAR WNDA3100 Overview of Home and Small Office Networking Technologies, Broadband Internet

NETGEAR RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N USB Adapter WNDA3100 User Manual

In the network shown in the previous figure, the two PCs with gigabit (1000 Mbps) Ethernet adapters have a gigabit connection through the router to the storage server. With a high-speed router this connection allows for extremely fast backups or quick access to large files on the server. The PC connected through a pair of Powerline HD adapters is limited to the 200 Mbps speed of the Powerline HD connection. Although any of the links in this example would be sufficient for high- traffic applications such as streaming HD video, the use of older devices such as 10 Mbps Ethernet or 802.11b wireless would create a significant bottleneck.

In planning your network, think about which tasks will have the heaviest traffic flow between them. Examples are:

•A media center in one room streaming high-definition video from a server in another room

•A storage device that is used for backing up your computers

Overview of Home and Small Office Networking Technologies

Common connection types and their speed and security considerations are:

•Broadband Internet

Your Internet connection speed is determined by your modem type, such as ADSL or cable modem, as well as the connection speed of the sites to which you connect, and general Internet traffic. ADSL and cable modem connections are asymmetrical, meaning they have a lower data rate to the Internet (upstream) than from the Internet (downstream). Keep in mind that when you connect to someone else who also has an asymmetrical connection, the data rate between your sites is limited by each side’s upstream data rate. A typical residential ADSL or cable modem connection provides a downstream throughput of about 1 to 3 megabits per second (Mbps). Newer technologies such as ADSL2+ and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) l increase the connection speed to tens of Mbps.

•Wireless

A high-speed wireless router can provide a wireless data throughput of up to 300 Mbps using technology called multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), in which multiple antennas transmit multiple streams of data. The use of multiple antennas also provides excellent range and coverage. With the introduction of the newer WPA and WPA2 encryption and authentication protocols, wireless security is extremely strong.

3-3

v1.0, December 2007