Need to understand how an ADSL router prioritze a wi-fi connection and a wired connection

Question

I have an ADSL router/modem/AP in my home which is used by my laptop for wireless internet and my desktop for wired internet.

If i initiate a file download on both the laptop and desktop at the same, which of these two computers will get the priority to use the maximum bandwidth.

Assumptions :

• Both the computers run the same OS.
• Both are trying to download files from the same FTP server.

Please help me understand this.

Thanks in advance.

Raghav

Answer 1

Neither will get priority, but I would expect the wired connection to complete first, all else being equal.

The way a typical ADSL router works is by bridging the ethernet ports together and then "natting" them across the ADSL connection, thus because the WIFI and ethernet are a bridge they get the same parameters applied to them.

Of-course, the characteristics of WIFI and a fixed lan are different. A Wifi [typically] has less bandwidth available to it - a theoretical maximum of 300 megabit, but practically less then 50 megabit for "an average performing" connection. An ethernet connection typically has 100 megabit or more connectivity.

Additionally the latency (ie time a ping takes between the router and computer) is a lot lower on a wired connection compared to a wireless connection, thus it will get a performance edge, particularly during the setup process of the connection. This will make a (small) difference to the start speed of an FTP connection, but probably not noticeable on a large file download.

Answer 2

There's no priority at all. Both computers will send as fast as they can. Using TCP/IP (which is typically used by downloads), both computers will notice the internet is congested (that's "your router drowning") so they'll ease off, being true gentlemen and sharing the network evenly by transmitting slower.

Of course you can set up some greedier programs (like torrents) and collapse the network for everyone else in the house.

And back to the priority, some routers allow you to adjust the maximum bandwidth each computer gets, but that isn't enabled by default. type 192.168.1.1 in your browser, that might get you to your router which tends to have admin admin as username and password or 1234 1234. Take a peek, maybe you see something!