using multiple wireless points at once?

[kite]

is it possible to get multiple signals at once, kind of like a torrent of internet signals, or would that cause too much of a hiccup trying to download and piece together the information in a timely manner?

[Jon]

Unless you really understand routing, then it's basically impossible.

You're gonna want to read about channel bonding and realize that the "speedboost" proprietary technologies that most modern routers have do just that.

[mm3]

as in, connecting to multiple SSIDs at once with one wireless NIC? No. But it sure is possible with dual WLAN cards.

Although it really seems pointless to do that, you wouldn't accomplish much.

[Jon]

Originally Posted by mm3

as in, connecting to multiple SSIDs at once with one wireless NIC? No. But it sure is possible with dual WLAN cards.

Although it really seems pointless to do that, you wouldn't accomplish much.

They would still be two separate interfaces, so it would be a one or the other deal... It's not like slipping in a second card can double your even theoretical bandwidth. There's routing problems that would be very difficult to overcome to actually take advantage of a setup like that.

[kite]

with the advent of wireless points popping up everywhere someone should do some possible R&D into this aspect.
for some reason with the adaptation of torrenting files (albeit from pc's rather than nodes) you would think that this technology could be married to http traffic as well.
oh, and also, any books i can look into about http traffic, routing and such to understand the mode of travel that the internet does better?

[Darkfinn]

To put it simply... what you have in mind can't be done. You can't get signal from two wireless LANs at once and use them both simultaneously on the same program.

Now if you had multiple cards you could easily connect to two networks at once... but it's like having a dailup modem and a cable modem both connected... the computer won't use both of them for Internet Explorer b/c that would require two different IP addresses... you'll have to choose one or another.

[kevintje]

meet the BELKIN WIRELESS N1 CARD F5D80001

Belkin Wireless N1 Desktop Card F5d8001 - F5D8001 - - CPU Solutions

F5D8001
N1 Wireless Networking Based on the 802.11n draft, N1 Wireless enables multiple receivers and transmitters to send and receive data through the air, using Intelligent MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) spatial multiplexing techniques.

and I have seen other/better ones on the web before, but I couldn't find one easy


I have seen one on the net before that could link up to 8 wireless networks, and combine them. not that the speed would be better, but it WOULD help against hickups, if 1 drops, 7 other could remain)

[Darkfinn]

Wireless Draft N gear is just starting to hit the market... we got a few units here at work that will do it... but the thing is for the Draft N to work you have to have all Draft N wireless access points and a Draft N card as well. We've played with them here... so far the jury is still out.

[Anon E. Mouse]

I...seem to be able to be on several wireless networks at once at school. They have separate guest networks for each building, and I've managed to be on four at one point. Can I only connect to each of them because of some way that they've set it up?

[mm3]

Now if you had multiple cards you could easily connect to two networks at once... but it's like having a dailup modem and a cable modem both connected... the computer won't use both of them for Internet Explorer b/c that would require two different IP addresses... you'll have to choose one or another.

Although this is true, if you have NICs that support it, you can use both and use load balancing to equally distribute the network load on the two cards -- the problem with this theory though is that if you're on two WLANs, you have two different IPs. Yeah, you have two different local IPs, but you also have two different external IPs, meaning that things could get lost in the balancing. So not really sure if load balancing would fix that issue (besides, TCP resends stuff if need be, so if something is lost it might get resent again).