WEP or WPA

Former Member

Which of the two would you recommend for wireless encription in terms of speed? i had a quick google on the subject and all i found out is that WEP is flawed and easily hackable.

But which one slows down a network more? i just got a 3Com 54mbps router and have stuck WPA on it, but its much slower than my old Linksys 11mbps access point with WEP. i mean its currently running at something like 5mbps, is this a problem with my router or just the way WPA is?

Former Member

Are we talking actual download throughput (5mpbs) or the speed at which your computer is handshaking with the router (i.e. the bit in the current wireless connections property)?

I used WPA in preference to WEP. It performs good for me but maybe my router has built in co-processor to handle the extra computation of WPA encryption (I don't know).

If your computer and router are handshaking at some poor speed then consider the aerial and signal strength. Maybe you could get a high gain aerial or maybe move the aerial(s) into a different configuration?

Former Member

thanks for the reply :thumb:,

i got 2 computers connected to the router wirelessley. The router is 54Mbps but the computers handshake at 24mbps, even though one of the computers is 2ft away from the router.

And if i transfer a file from one one computer to another, looking at the network tab on Task Manager, it can only make 5% utilisation! Do you think i have a dud router? as its looking that way to me!:banghead: