WiFi or Ethernet direct?

[Jon Clarke]

I am interested to know if anyone uses their wifi connection for simming. I ask as I have always been directly connected to the internet via ethernet.

The other day I happened to run a speed test on my new mobile phone and got a 56Mbps reading. This compares with a speed of 530Mbps on my desktop via ethernet. My wife's laptop, non ethernet connected, also has a similar download speed as my mobile.

The difference in speed is vast and when using a sim like MSFS the internet connection speed is a vital aspect considering that imagery is being downloaded while flying ( I do not use any cached scenery)

 

[John Heaton]

don't know whether this answers your question or not John - because I use 2 set ups

 

My PC is hard wired /ethernet - and in the same room I have another set up for my X Box and that is only served by my wi-fi box

all on one room on the upper floor with the main supply downstairs in the lounge with the TV on ethernet

My ethernet runs at 100Mbs / 11megs per sec - on the TV and PC - and strangely enough - my x box gets the wi-fi down at the same rate 

downloading games from Games pass at 11megs/sec - the same as the Ethernet

 

[boetie]

Hi Jon, I've always used wifi with rarely seen issues. Before my upgrade to full fibre my speed tests were around 60mbs and everything was fine.

Cheers

Graeme 

[wain71]

My router is down by the front door, we live in a town house so 2nd floor is where I do my simming, gaming and office work, I have no ethernet option as it's to far away for cable... I got around 150mbs on PC, Xbox and smart phone.. I have checked the phone on all 3 levels and it's the same...more than enough for what we do in our house, kids have all moved out so only the 2 of us, unless the cat's up to something....my current ISP deal is around 150mbs so all good... not sure why you have such a difference unless your WiFi is weak...

[Dusterman]

I built three new PCs this year with built in 2.4 and 5.0 GHZ WiFi for flight simming. The motherboard WiFi is rated at 2.4 GB per second. All three have X-Plane 11 and 12 on them. I use X-Plane to burn in the PCs and saw no difference in performance when using WiFi or direct Ethernet cable connection. My house has 1 GB fiber and the modem is about 50 ft from the PCs. MSFS is on one of the PCs, but it was using a wired connection, so can't verify WIFi performance for that simulator. PC with MSFS was Intel Gen 9, is now Gen 13. That seemed to have the biggest effect on MSFS due to faster processing within the PC.

[Ken Q]

My main computers, one only for flight simming, and the other as a network client for the sim, as well as the general word processing, bill paying, general purpose computer are hard wired (Ethernet).  I feel that this is both safer and more reliable, and for the sim, faster.  I don't know what the specs are.

 

I have the second computer linked to a printer via Wi-Fi.

 

I also have a number of devices that run through Wi-Fi, including several tablets (including one that is only used for the sim).  We also have a laptop connected to the network via Wi-Fi.  We also have three internet radio receivers that play our favorite radio stations through the Wi-Fi.

 

So the answer is we use both, but the flight simulator runs only through a wired network.

Ken

[renault]

Hi John

I have used both over time, and now have  hardwired connection, which I prefer.

 

Before I come to any conclusions on wifi, I would try to rerun the test as close as possible to your wifi signal source.'

Although your wife's laptop gets a similar throughput , both are being  influenced by the topography of your home environment.

It seems to be the nature of the beast with wifi.  

 

As an example, with wifi6 on my phone, walking around the house with the little speed meter I have on it,  i get anything from around 40-75 mb/sec to close to 

900 mb/sec when I am physically right beside one of the wifi access points. So from my observations in my home, my best answer is that it will vary a lot, depending

on where you are and how near/far you are from the signal source and what is between you and the source.

 

Hence my comment to getting an observation point as close to the signal source as possible to establish a reference point.

 

Streaming to MS2020, seems to be fine with anything between 35 - 50 mb/sec as a minimum , so from my experience wifi is workable.

The ethernet direct connection to my machine is 1.9 GB/sec and the only time that I honestly see the benefit  is dowloading very large files ( updates 

are a breeze) or when streaming videos.  Just anecdotal information ,  but whenever I have watched streaming download speeds form the Azure side when running MS2020, it peaks at around 200 mb/sec and is normally  around 100 mb/sec. 

 

This gives a rock solid performance with MS2020, and fingers crossed, but I don't see any artifacts with data streaming for MS2020 that are normally

discussed on other websites.

 

With wifi , I did see some latency in scenery loading when I had a 60 mb/sec max download wifi speed.  With a hardwired connection  that so far is now past history.

This is the one reason I prefer a hardwired connection.

 

The other issue with wifi, and this may be influencing your speeds is how close you are to your neighbours and which channels they are broadcasting on. Where we live this is an issue even with 5GHZ.  In your case, if you can change the channels on your router, with a little bit of detective work with one of the wifi apps on your phone, you may be able to find  a channel or channels that are less busy , and that could help your speeds significantly.

 

Bottom line though for my situation, we have so much interference on wifi, that a wired connection is a much preferred option

Cheers

Pete

[Jon Clarke]

HI @renault

Many thanks for your usual detailed and comprehensive response.

 

[pilot100]

As it happens I am using WiFi V6 and having no issues but seems a lot depends on the signal strength and also the standard and frequency being used and of course the amount of competing WiFi around you. For preference I think direct connection is best if you have that available. I did not have a convenient hard wire ethernet point so went with WiFi , that was the only reason. So if you were getting 56Mbps via WiFi as against 530 on ethernet sounds like there is an issue with the wifi . 

 

Generation	IEEE standard	First Approved	Maximum link rate (Mbit/s)	Radio frequency (GHz)
Wi-Fi 7	802.11be	2019-03-21	721 to 46120	2.4	5	6
Wi-Fi 6/6E[3]	802.11ax	2014-03-27	600 to 9608	2.4	5	6
Wi-Fi 5	802.11ac	2008-09-26	433 to 6933	↓[4]	5

[flyingfish55]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:08 AM, wain71 said:

My router is down by the front door, we live in a town house so 2nd floor is where I do my simming, gaming and office work, I have no ethernet option as it's to far away for cable... I got around 150mbs on PC, Xbox and smart phone.. I have checked the phone on all 3 levels and it's the same...more than enough for what we do in our house, kids have all moved out so only the 2 of us, unless the cat's up to something....my current ISP deal is around 150mbs so all good... not sure why you have such a difference unless your WiFi is weak...

Wain, to get around the problem of distance within the house I use cables from Develo. An ethernet cable runs from the router to the nearest electrical socket and  a second ethernet cable runs from any electrical socket to your chosen electrical item - in my case I use it for my Sonos speaker located on another floor from my router.