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Wired and Wi-Fi Internet speed

We generally tend to think that internet speed it is always going to be greater for cable than for Wi-Fi. We have the feeling that if we connect wirelessly we are going to have cuts, slowdowns and, ultimately, problems.

The truth is that as a general rule wired connection It will always be more stable, it will have better speed and we will have fewer problems. But of course, not everything is always like this. Depending on the circumstances, we can make our wireless network work as well as when we connect by cable and even better in some cases.

Therefore, as we will see below, the fact that use wired or wireless network it is not always going to be the main indication to achieve maximum speed. We can have problems in both cases or, looking at it another way, we can have the same speed either by Wi-Fi or by Ethernet.

What to do to achieve the same speed over Wi-Fi as over cable

If you have problems with Wi-Fi and you notice that speed is much slower that by cable, you can always take into account some recommendations. Having good adapters, a correct configuration and that the coverage is ideal, can perfectly make us have the same speed over cable as wirelessly.

Using a good wireless adapter

Something essential is to use a Wi-Fi network card make it good. This is something basic, since it is what will allow us to connect to the access point and have a higher or lower speed, as well as coverage. Sometimes a common problem is that we use an adapter that came with the laptop and it is not the right one.

To improve speed we can always use another Wi-Fi adapter that we can connect via USB, have a better antenna and thus achieve better performance. These devices are cheap and easy to configure, since generally it is enough to connect it to the port and automatically the computer detects it and we will be able to search for networks and connect.

The adapter is key as some have speed limitation of the Internet, beyond having better or worse coverage. If we see that by cable we have much more speed and despite being connected to the side of the router by Wi-Fi we get much less, this could be because of what we said, because we have a wireless card that cannot receive more speed.

Get optimal coverage

Logically it will also be necessary for the coverage be the best possible. For this, we can take into account some points such as placing the router well, using amplifiers or connecting near the access points and taking advantage of the signal more.

If Wi-Fi reaches less speed than cable, you have to see that the coverage is good. If we are connected too far from the router, we will never have as much speed as if we connect by Ethernet. To improve this we must place the router well. It has to be in a central area of ​​the house, from where it can distribute the signal well to other devices. Basically you have to put it where we are going to use it. It is useless to have it at one end of the house if we are going to connect on the opposite side.

But we can also use Wi-Fi repeaters. There are different types of devices that will help us improve coverage and thus connect to the Internet and have better speed. We can mention wireless amplifiers, Wi-Fi Mesh systems or even PLC devices.

• Wireless amplifiers: Wi-Fi amplifiers or repeaters what they do is boost the signal in a certain place. For example, we can put it in an intermediate area between the router and the room from where we connect. This way the signal will get better.
• Wi-Fi Mesh systems: in this case they are different devices. They are several and can be from two to many more. Unlike amplifiers, they do not connect directly to the router, but to each other. We can distribute them throughout the house and thus get better coverage in many more areas.
• PLC devices: PLC devices are generally two devices. One of them connects to the power line, to any power outlet, and to the router. The other we put in another socket in any other place in the house. The Internet signal goes from one device to another through electricity and we can connect via Wi-Fi and have better speed.

Choosing the right band

Are you using the correct Wi-Fi band? If you don’t know, modern devices have two options for connecting: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. Routers and access points can broadcast on both bands and the speed difference between connecting to one or the other can be quite significant.

If the Internet speed is very slow due to Wi-Fi and you think that everything is fine, that you have good coverage and we are using a good card, it is probably because you are using the 2.4 GHz band, which will not allow make the most of speed. It is a good option if we are going to connect away from the router, but do not expect to have great speed.

To have the Maximum speed you have to connect to the 5 GHz band. When we look for networks many times the two options will appear and we have to make sure we choose this one. Of course, we must bear in mind that if we connect away from the router, it will have worse coverage and there may be cuts.

Therefore, if we take into account all this that we have seen, we can achieve that the speed over Wi-Fi is the same as over cable in many cases. It could even happen that we have better speed in case the Ethernet card is not Gigabit or we use cables in bad condition.

We will not always have the same speed over Wi-Fi as cable

There are factors that can prevent us from having the same speed when we connect by cable or Wi-Fi. This can affect both one option and another and we will not always be able to solve it, since it may be due to hardware limitations.

If we compare the speed of a symmetric 300 Mbps fiber optic, for example, the normal thing is that if we have everything well configured and our devices have no problem, we achieve the same speed over cable and Wi-Fi. On the other hand, if we have contracted 1 Gbps symmetric fiber optic, things can change. By cable we should not have problems as long as we have one that is at least CAT 5E and that allows us to reach that speed. If we use an old cable we could not exceed 100 Mbps and we would be far from that figure.

Now, what about Wi-Fi? In this case, it is more normal that we have limitations. If we enter Configuration, we go to Network and Internet, we enter Adapter Options and click on the Wi-Fi card we are using, we will see the synchronization speed. That is the maximum speed at which our connection can go. It is very common that we have a card limited to 866 Mbps, so if we want to reach that Gbps we would not achieve it. We couldn’t have the same speed over cable as over Wi-Fi.

With Wi-Fi 6 and 160 MHz channel, in the 5 GHz band, we will be able to exceed 1 Gbps without problems. But of course, not all routers and not all network cards are compatible.

In short, although we can perfectly achieve that the Internet speed is as good by Wi-Fi as it is by cable, in certain circumstances they may not be comparable. This, as we have seen, can happen both on one side and on the other.

The first thing we are going to do is learn about the netsh command and how we can use it. Then we will explain some of its basic parameters of use together with some examples of use with their corresponding syntax so that you can see and change the configuration of an IPv4 network.

What is the netsh command and how to use it

The command netsh We could define it as a command line utility that will allow us to display or modify the network configuration of a running computer. Its main functions are related to the visualization, modification, administration and diagnosis of a network configuration. This tool is available on Microsoft Windows operating systems in different versions like 2000, XP, 7, 8, 10, Server 2012 and more.

Regarding its form of execution, we can do it in two different ways:

1. Windows PowerShell.
2. Symbol of the system.

Next, we are going to put an example with each one, although throughout the tutorial we will do the examples using a command prompt window.

We are going to start with PowerShell for which we are going to follow these steps:

1. We are going to windows start menu.
2. We wrote Windows PowerShell and click on enter.

So we write the netsh command like this:

Its way of working is different from what we use in a command prompt window. After the symbol «> » we would put the parameters, in this case it would be the «?»To view command options. As you can see, it offers these results:

On the other hand, then we would have the option of working with the netsh command in a command prompt window for which we would follow these steps.

1. We’re going to windows start menu.
2. We type CMD and click on enter.

Here the way of working is different, the entire command is written at once and executed by pressing enter. The options are separated by entering the operators / (bar) or – (simple dash). For example, like the previous case to see the options of the netsh command it would be the «?»And to enter it correctly it would be«/?«. Thus, the command that we should introduce is:

netsh /?

This is the answer we would get:

As can be seen, most of the options would be included in both, although it should be noted that the way of working would be different. In this tutorial we are going to work in the latter way, that is, with a command prompt window.

Netsh Syntax and Parameters

Each time a command is entered, a pattern must be followed, which is simply to follow the order established by its syntax. Then we have to go putting the parameters with their corresponding symbol, which is usually a bar «/ «Or a hyphen« – «.

This would be the syntax of the command:

netsh[ -a ArchivoDeAlias] [ -c Contexto ] [ -r EquipoRemoto] [ -u [ NombreDeDominio ] NombreDeUsuario ] [ -p Contraseña | *] [{ComandoNetsh | -f ArchivoDeScript}

We could use the netsh command with these parameters:

• -to returns to the netsh prompt after the execution of the AliasFile.
• AliasFile A that specifies the name of the text file that contains one or more netsh commands.
• -c you specify the context you want to use, for example, WLAN.
• -r you are indicating that you want the command to be executed on a remote computer.
• -or you state that you want to use the netsh command on a specific user account.
• -p to specify that we want to provide a password to the user account.
• -F after executing a script exits netsh.

One way that can help us to know how we can combine the operators that we can use is by knowing the context of the principal. Therefore, if we wanted to know the commands available for wlan we would use:

netsh -c wlan

And then putting the ? We could see the commands that we can use:

Save and restore network settings with the netsh command

Thanks to netsh we can also export the network configuration to a text file. Thus, in case of network problems we could restore to the values ​​we had before, thanks to that backup. The first thing we have to do before exporting that network configuration is to create a network folder to store our backup file. In this case we are going to create in our drive C: a folder called «networks». So, to save our configuration in a file called configuration.txt we will execute the netsh command like this:

netsh dump >> c:redesconfiguracion.txt

Then if we double click on the file we can see its content:

In the event that we need to restore our network configuration we would use this:

netsh -f c:redesconfiguracion.txt

Other netsh commands we can use

An important command is the one that shows us the names of the interfaces that we have on our computer, from here we will point the name of the interface that we are going to configure:

netsh interface show interface

For example, we could choose our IPv4 interface and establish a static IP for our computer like this:

netsh interface ipv4 set address "Wi-Fi" static 192.168.1.40 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 1

Now we go to the netsh command in relation to the wireless networks. For example, if I want to find out the Wi-Fi network profiles that I have saved on my computer

netsh wlan show profiles

And then we would see that we have these Wi-Fi networks saved:

If we want to prevent a Wi-Fi network from connecting automatically we would have to use:

netsh wlan set profileparameter name=Nombre de red connectionmode=manual

In network name we would replace it with the name of our Wi-Fi network. On the other hand, if we want our Wi-Fi to connect automatically:

netsh wlan set profileparameter name=Nombre de red connectionmode=auto

Also using the netsh command we can see the configuration of the Wi-Fi interface:

netsh interface ipv4 show address Wi-Fi
netsh interface ipv4 show dns Wi-Fi

Instead of the Wi-Fi interface, we could also do the same with the equipment connected by network cable

netsh interface ipv4 show address ethernet
netsh interface ipv4 show dns ethernet

Here’s an example:

With respect to firewall we could also use a series of commands. In the case of wanting to open port 80, we would execute the following:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name= «Open Port 80» dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=80

If we want to remove the rule from a port we would use this:

netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name= rule name protocol=udp localport=500

We could also restore the firewall defaults like this:

netsh advfirewall reset

Now it’s the turn to work with the DNS servers. So we could establish the first DNS server:

netsh interface ipv4 set dnsservers "Wi-Fi" static 8.8.8.8 validate=no

We would put the secondary server this way:

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver "Wi-Fi" 8.8.4.4 index=2 validate=no

Parameter index you are going to assign an order number to the server. In the first DNS server after the IP we could have put index = 1 but it is not necessary.

We can also establish that the network configuration of the Wi-Fi interface was dynamic through DHCP. For which we would have to execute the nestsh command twice like this:

netsh interface ipv4 set address "Wi-Fi" dhcp
netsh interface ipv4 set dnsservers "Wi-Fi" dhcp

As you can see, using the netsh command we can see and modify many aspects of our network connection.