Hi, I'm currently setting up a home server and all is going well with it, everything works well, but transfer speeds are slow due to the way I have my main rig connected to the network, I am looking to increase the speed of the network by any means possible and was just wondering about whether I could combine a WiFi connection (which is currently the fastest method of connecting to the network) with a wired LAN connection.
I know that it is possible to combine multiple Ethernet cables across a NIC to get more speeds and was wondering whether i could do the same with my 300 Mbps WiFi connection and my 100 Mbps Ethernet connection to improve the overall performance to my home server.
The main reason for this is for the amount of data i need to access across my home server is just not transferring fast enough and i cannot run multiple cables to increase speed.
I know before asking this that it may be a long shot but anything that can increase my speeds is a bonus.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Are you sure wifi is the fastest method? I think a wired connection would be better if you have the option. Also, no, I don't think you can do what you want to do and even if you could It doesn't work that way anyway. Using linux you may be able to combine the connections, but still the speed between your server and other computer won't improve. Combining multiple network interfaces only improves speed if there are multiple clients, the speed between the sever and a single client will only ever be as fast as a single link.
I think you best option would be to upgrade to gigabit and use a wired connection, but even a 100mbps wired connection will probably be faster than a 300mbps wifi, especially if the client is using the same wifi network.
Damn, well, it was just wishful thinking, thanks for the advice anyway.
Upgrading to gigabit is a bit of a pain for me as the Ethernet cables are routed behind the walls and have ports in each room, and it's the cables that are the problem, I have a router that supports gigabit, my server is connected via gigabit and my PC is capable too, but my cables that are routed have been in for a long time and are old ones with only four wires inside instead of the 8 required for gigabit, so I can't even do POE + 100 Mbps.
I'll probably just stick with WiFi for now though as running some tests transferring files between the server and PC, the WiFi gets a solid 37.3 MB/s (5 GHz Wireless N with very little congestion) Where as wired only gets me a maximum of 11.9 MB/s
That sucks. Do the cables just run through the walls or are they fixed down? because you may be able to tie some new cable to the old ones and just pull it through.