Using 2 wireless cards in the same computer.

jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
edited March 2005 in Science & Tech
My boss asked me a rather interesting question this afternoon, and I'm looking for answers on it.

If you have 2 identical wireless cards in one computer, will it pull a large amount of data (like 3 gigs or so) down twice as fast?

My brain wants to say No, because wireless cards dont put data back together that way. However knowing that there are many encryption tools that fragment data and restructure it...it makes me onder if this is actually possiable.

So...is it?

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Unless you can find some application to synch and loadbalance the cards, probably a *NIX app in the grey void of the internet, the answer is no.
  • jradminjradmin North Kackalaki
    edited March 2005
    Thats pretty much what I was thinking also.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited March 2005
    Explain it to him like this: each card makes it's own unique connection to the source files, and each downloads the same data from the start of the file to the finish of the file.

    Think of it in terms of having two cars and wanting to drive to the next city, get a package, and drive back home. If you have two cars, can you drive there and back any faster by using both cars? No, because each one would be making the same trip. And, by having a second car travelling in the same direction, one is always going to be slowed down by the other, it will be behind the other at intersections, maybe miss a traffic light, they may compete for the one empty parking space in front of the destination building etc. Two ethernet connections are not a lot in the grand scale of the internet, unless the server is slow or the path is getting overloaded. Then you could actually be slowing down the transfer slightly by having an unnecessary connection.

    Dexter...
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited March 2005
    one car could draft off the other car...

    :D sorry, i've been playing WAAAAY too much GT4
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Using a Linux machine with multicast routing and network load balancing enabled in the kernel, yes. The same principle applies when you have two wired NICs connected to the same network. You'll need to use a download manager so that it splits the download into multiple segments (multiple connections) though since you only start to see benefit on multiple connections. However, unless you work for a large company it's more likely that your speed is limited more by your internet connection than your LAN connection.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited March 2005
    Dexter wrote:
    Explain it to him like this: each card makes it's own unique connection to the source files, and each downloads the same data from the start of the file to the finish of the file.

    Think of it in terms of having two cars and wanting to drive to the next city, get a package, and drive back home. If you have two cars, can you drive there and back any faster by using both cars? No, because each one would be making the same trip. And, by having a second car travelling in the same direction, one is always going to be slowed down by the other, it will be behind the other at intersections, maybe miss a traffic light, they may compete for the one empty parking space in front of the destination building etc. Two ethernet connections are not a lot in the grand scale of the internet, unless the server is slow or the path is getting overloaded. Then you could actually be slowing down the transfer slightly by having an unnecessary connection.

    Dexter...

    His boss sounds like a typical noob. Wouldnt it much simpler to just say "no". To go faster tell him to get a non wireless Nic. They are really twice as fast.

    Tex
Sign In or Register to comment.