Broadband queries

[Catman]

We have just had Broadband connected and have connected our two computers using an Ethernet card to the Modem and a USB connection to the modem. The speed of the connection on the Computer with the card is 100 mbps. The USB connection is only 10 mbps.

My query was that I can remember being told that the USB port was far quicker than the Ethernet card. Is this right and my settings are incorrect or is the Ethernet connection always 10 times quicker than the USB connection?

Thanks

 

[nonchalance]

High speed USB products have a design data rate of 480 Mb/s. Full speed USB devices signal at 12Mb/s, while low speed devices use a 1.5Mb/s subchannel.

Either your motherboard, modem or cable is not USB 2.0 compliant.
note: USB 2.0 = 'High speed', USB 1.1 = 'full speed' and USB 1.0 = 'low speed'.

 

[Desredandwhite]

Either speed will be just fine. To put this into perspective...

Typical speed ADSL is about 0.5mbps
Quite high speed ADSL is about 1.5mbps
Even cable tops out at about 2mbps (or thereabouts)

So it won't matter if you have your modem connected via

USB (11mbps)
TBase10 Ethernet (10mbps)
TBase100 Ethernett (100mbps)
802.11b Wireless (11mbps)
802.11g Wireless (54mbps)

As you can see, they're ALL going to be faster than your internet connection.

As far as I'm concerned, the only time you'd want to use the USB connection to the modem is for slightly easier setup with ONE computer. Any more than one and you'd want to use ethernet, so that it's easier to hook up a router/hub to share the connection.

Out of curiousity, how have you got everything set up?

 

[Catman]

Originally posted by Desredandwhite
Out of curiousity, how have you got everything set up?

I have the Modem/Router linked to my computer via the USB port and the other computer linked to the Modem via an Ethernet card I installed into it. We have the NetComm NB1300 modem/router which provides simultaneous use of the one connection.
We have a 10m Crossover cable running up our hallway to the room housing the other computer so there are cables everywhere at the moment!

 

[Desredandwhite]

Well, I didn't know there were any that allowed simultaneous use of both the USB and Ethernet connection!!! Though I guess there's no real reason why not.

First up, you don't need to worry about the speeds. As I explained before, there's no way the ADSL speeds are going to get anywhere near your connection speeds anyway.

Also, if you are planning on connecting MORE computers, you may want to buy a cheap 4-port hub and connecting all computers up to it. That way, you can transfer files easily between them if you have to.

 

[Fred]

I used to have the same sort of setup. A single port speed touch home modem to a netgear router and 1 comp using USB connection via an SMC ethetnet adapter and the other a NIC card.
It worked very well.

 

[Catman]

Originally posted by Desredandwhite
Also, if you are planning on connecting MORE computers, you may want to buy a cheap 4-port hub and connecting all computers up to it. That way, you can transfer files easily between them if you have to.

There are no more computers to link up thankfully!

 

[Desredandwhite]

Originally posted by Catman
There are no more computers to link up thankfully!

Lucky you!

In my nerdish household, there are 2 desktops (wired) and 4 laptops (wireless) to deal with!

 

[Seb]

Which provider, Joel?

 

[jim boy]

My dad got one of those modems that allow both USB and ethernet at the same time (speedtouch 520 I think). The telstra bloke who installed it (my dad had way too complex an internal phone system for me to do it) said that you weren't allowed to use two computers on it at the same time, but they had no way of checking it.

Not that it mattered, some diode or something burnt out on his laptop within an hour of the Telstra bloke leaving, rendering it into a doorstop.

Personally I'm keen to go wireless myself.

 

[Catman]

Originally posted by Shaitan
Which provider, Joel?

Netspace, Seb.

$49.95/mth. 4GB download limit, which is way more than we use, but it is nice to know there's no chance of being shaped back to 56k modem speed.

 

[Catman]

Originally posted by Jim Boy
My dad got one of those modems that allow both USB and ethernet at the same time (speedtouch 520 I think). The telstra bloke who installed it (my dad had way too complex an internal phone system for me to do it) said that you weren't allowed to use two computers on it at the same time, but they had no way of checking it.

That's strange. We got a NetComm modem through our provider and the simultaneous use was one of the features that they promoted on the back of the box.

 

[Ripper]

It is Bigpond that wont allow you more than one PC although most other ISP's do not object.

 

[Zeke]

What Bigpond doesn't know, won't hurt Bigpond.

Basically - they can not enforce the rule. You pay for a certain amount of bandwidth, of which you are free to use in whatever way you want. The only thing you aren't allowed to do with commercially bought bandwidth is onsell it.

 

[Desredandwhite]

As long as you are using the one ADSL/cable modem, logging just once into the account, then it doesn't matter how many computers are sharing the connection. As far as they are concerned, the modem is requesting all sorts of data, nd that's what gets send.