WiFi tether range question

[poooookah78]

i'd say just place the droid somewhere and walk away with your laptop and see how far you can go until the signal drops. i know my laptop has an indicator of signal strength right on the task panel thingy. it's got 5 bars, the more bars the higher the signal strength (obviously). just walk around and watch the signal strength. i doubt you'll see a difference in speedtest.net results until right around the point that the laptop completely loses the signal. it's only a max of about 2mbps so i doubt you'll see signal strength affect that until the very end.

Do you recommend a huge file download while walking around to see the Kbps drop off and tell from there?

i just recommend watching the signal strength from your laptop. eventually you'll see it weaken and eventually drop the connection. you won't see a difference in speed until your about to drop it. the phone has a G band chip in it which is good up to 54kbps and with 3G being only up to about maybe 2.5mbps max you won't see a difference in speed until you are getting very weak reception.

Does changing channels increase speed? Also, if you're saying the G Band chip sets the speed, would you be better off using a usb tether? In other words is PDAnet better than Wifi Tether for overall speed?

[jasonb]

Do you recommend a huge file download while walking around to see the Kbps drop off and tell from there?

i just recommend watching the signal strength from your laptop. eventually you'll see it weaken and eventually drop the connection. you won't see a difference in speed until your about to drop it. the phone has a G band chip in it which is good up to 54kbps and with 3G being only up to about maybe 2.5mbps max you won't see a difference in speed until you are getting very weak reception.

Does changing channels increase speed? Also, if you're saying the G Band chip sets the speed, would you be better off using a usb tether? In other words is PDAnet better than Wifi Tether for overall speed?

no because our speed is being limited by the 3G network. the highest speed i have seen over 3G on my phone is just over 2.15mbps. so if the wifi chip can send and receive up to 54mbps then the weakest link is still verizon/3G.

it's the same way with regular wireless routers. an N band router can send and receive up to 300mbps but nobody's internet is that fast. even the fastest internet out there is only 101mbps (optimum lightpath).

we might see a big change when 4G is mainstream. once 4G gets up and running there may not be a need for cable/fios/dsl anymore.