Optimizing Your Network Bandwidth - NETGEAR WN121T User Manual

NETGEAR Next 300 Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter WN121T User Manual

Optimizing Your Network Bandwidth

The speed of network connections depends on the type of equipment that you use. Try to use high-
speed technologies for network connections with the heaviest traffic to avoid lower-speed
bottlenecks in the path. The following figure shows a home network that includes many different
connection speeds.
Figure 3-1
In the network shown in
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
Figure 3-1, the two PCs with gigabit (1000 Mbps) Ethernet adapters have
v2.0, February 2007
3-3