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My question is that if you setup an access point somewhere in your house and you connect an Ethernet cable from it to your desktop computer, will it have the same speeds as if the computer was connected directly into the router or will it just be a stronger Wi-Fi signal?

Dale Crow
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It is conceivable that you will get the same speeds, but HIGHLY unlikely, for a number of reasons -

The WIFI bands are open to all, which means they must accept interference from other sources [ including the Microwave ! ]. When other things are transmitting this will take away from the available bandwidth and slow things down.

Also, while its possible to get WIFI connections which are greater then 1000mbit, they do this with a lot of tricks, and often require special receivers and non-real world environments. A decent network cable will give you the full 1000mbit connection (assuming router is 1000mbit)

davidgo
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  • So, will there be similar speeds but not the same nor greater? – Dale Crow Apr 02 '17 at 02:24
  • There could be similar speeds through WIFI, but probably slower. definately not greater (unless your ethernet cable is damaged) – davidgo Apr 02 '17 at 02:26
  • So let's say that the router can put out 70 mbits/s if directly connected to comp, the access point could give slightly slower speeds? – Dale Crow Apr 02 '17 at 02:31
  • Correct. The ethernet cable will give you 70mbits/s - The AP could not produce speeds higher then 70mbits/s - if there is no interference it could output 70mbits/s. That said, WIFI is half duplex (can send or receive, not both), and has significant overheads for managing WIFI, which translates to an increased latency - how much so depends on the environment - in practice, downloads and web browsing should be fairly unaffected, but it could be noticeable in fps games. – davidgo Apr 02 '17 at 03:18