Am I really faster over wireless?

My Ethernet line says I'm connected at 100Mbps. My new router says it's connecting to my Intel card at 130Mbps via wireless. So am I really going to get a better connection via wireless? I thought that Ethernet was always better. I tested my download speeds; 19 Mbps on the wire and 19.4Mbps via wireless, so it seems I'm right. (I realise that the wired connection is probably more stable though). I have installed WPA2-AES encryption, which was recommended as giving the best wireless speed.

For a 19 mbps connection speed-wise it wont make a big difference on wireless N.

However the difference is the wired connection can achieve 100mbps whereas the 130 mbps wireless can only support about 40 - 50 mbps tops in reality. It's like wireless G connected at 54 mbps but around 15mbps was around the max.

For your connection the wifi is likely to be just as good, with a minimal increase in pings prob. The faster speedtest is likely just a coincidence, the two are probs performing pretty much identically

The 100/130 thing is just your computer reporting the maximum for that adaptor, not the actual speeds it will do. Wired is always going to beat wireless, end of.

Yes, the Ethernet connection always reports 100 Mbps but the wireless card does fluctuate between about 108 and even 150 on one occasion. I therefore think that the wireless connection does report actual throughput.

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Yes, the Ethernet connection always reports 100 Mbps but the wireless card does fluctuate between about 108 and even 150 on one occasion. I therefore think that the wireless connection does report actual throughput.

It *doesn't*, it reports the theoretical throughput it thinks it can obtain given the signal quality which, like ukhardy says, will not be anywhere near 100Mbps.

100Mbps ethernet is faster than wireless N. Arguably, you won't notice the difference in terms of internet browsing though (because this will only come down the line at a max of 8Mbps or whatever).