? How much does WEP slow down your connection?

[L.Rentz]

I would like to emplement 128 bit encription, however I am a little concerned that it will slow my connection to snail mode. Does WEP encript every single transmission or just the first access to the router?

Thanks,

Lee

[Jorgen]

Probably somewhere between 20-50% as far as I remember, so it is still reasonably fast, especially if you are measuring access to the even slower Internet; if you want to copy a DVD, it will be slow. Other things will also slow your transmission down: walls, distance, microwave ovens ....

Jorgen

[Jason Dunn]

Interesting - when I starting using WEP on my Microsoft MN-500, I didn't notice it being any slower than my previous non-WEP D-Link access point...

[Jorgen]

This is probably because you can feel a speed difference of times two. The speed difference between 200 and 400 MHz is noticable, while the difference between 200 and 300 probably not.

I did a very quick search:

The first claims no speed difference:
http://www.packetnexus.com/docs/packetnexus/Wireless%20LAN%20security.pdf

The second says 20-50% (proabbly where I got the note from): http://www.homenethelp.com/802.11b/index.asp

The last one says it depends on the hardware: http://pcworld.shopping.yahoo.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,107849,pg,15,00.asp

So take your pick! :)

Jorgen

[that_kid]

I know my dlink AP has a processor just for wep so there's very little speed decrease. Like Jorgen said, it all depends on the hardware.

[Jorgen]

I assume that none of the CF cards have builtin processors and so the PPC end will slow down things somewhat in any case.

Jorgen