Which way is faster? Wireless router or via USB?

[isomaniac]

Which way is faster? Wireless router or via USB?

When I choose which way for my Pocket PC to connect to the Internet, which way provides faster transfer? Via wireless router or via USB cable (connected to desktop PC)?

[jeffmd]

since most pocket PCs are usb in name only and still use old serial protocals and speeds, even 802.11b would be faster for copying large data like programs mp3 or movies. However if its just text stuff like email, contacts, task then it won't be any faster.

[Jorgen]

I would have thought the Internet was slower than either.

Jorgen

[Menneisyys]

Which way is faster? Wireless router or via USB?

When I choose which way for my Pocket PC to connect to the Internet, which way provides faster transfer? Via wireless router or via USB cable (connected to desktop PC)?

First, what is the speed of your Internet connection? If you want to access the Net thru a 384 kbit/s ADSL modem, for example, the pure access speed of doing this will be the same thru both USB and Wi-Fi.

On the other hand, if you have a really fast Inet connection, Wi-Fi is the way to go if you want to do some serious FTP too. USB is only capable of 100-200 kbytes/s practical speed (depending on the actual modem), while Wi-Fi can go as high as 300 kbytes/s, in, for example, Wi-Fi. (It also depends on what FTP client are you using - vxFtp is by far the fastest, while Resco Explorer's built-in FTP client is intolerably slow when downloading to storage cards.)

There're other things to consider.

1. You can't run any server apps on your PDA while it's connecting via USB because it'll have the same IP as your desktop computer. This is why, for example, you will only be able to use FTP clients in passive mode.

2. USB is wired, Wi-Fi isn't

3. USB can charge your PDA, while Ei-Fi consumes a lot of power

So, the answer depends on several factors (do you want a wireless solution, your inet connection speed etc)

[Jorgen]

while Wi-Fi can go as high as 300 kbytes/s,

Can it do so on a PPC? Which card?

Jorgen

[Menneisyys]

while Wi-Fi can go as high as 300 kbytes/s,

Can it do so on a PPC? Which card?

Jorgen

Both built-in Wi-Fi modules (I've benchmarked that of the Pocket Loox 720) and add-on CF cards (benchmarked the Asus CF card) are able to achieve this, even on previous-generation machines like the iPAQ 2210. It's only SD-based Wi-Fi cards that are about an order of magnitude slower.

Of course, it is FTP-only. PIE and Netfront won't profit from high transfer speeds because they render pages sometimes an order of magnitude slower than the maximal Wi-Fi speed. Using an FTP client, however, the difference is big.

A topic with the words "Wi-Fi FTP benchmarks" in the title and "CEDEftp vxFTP Resco" in the body has been opened here on PPCT some 1.5 months ago; it's certainly worth checking out for more Wi-Fi benchmark results. I can't find the link now because I'm writing on a PDA over GPRS (= no adequate scripting & slowness).

EDIT: here's the link: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35119

[Jorgen]

Thanks, very interesting.

Jorgen