Will using multiple computers on my Roadrunner wireless make the service slower?

[Chris D]

Will using multiple computers on my Roadrunner wireless make the service slower? I am having my Time Warner digital cable and roadrunner turned on June 1st and will have 3 computers running on a wireless network. Will having 3 computers as opposed to 1 make the service slower? I am also worried that the people in the apartment below us will have access to our wireless...Thanks

[Yes I am here!!]

First, to prevent the people in the apartment below you from accessing your network you need to turn on WEP security in the wireless router. Then on each pc you would manually input the wep key into the connection for it to work. You could/should also turn off broadcasting in the wireless router. This will prevent the wireless connection from even showing up on someone's computer as a possible connection.Having 3 computers on the same connection will make the connection slower if all 3 of you are accessing something at the same time. Especially if you are downloading music, movies, etc. Normaly surfing of going from a web site to another and email or IM shouldn't be that big of a problem.

[Would you trust the Devil]

your service itself will not become slower but the computers down the line on your network will be slower to respond than the # 1 computer.This has to do with the latency of the signal to the last computer when the other 2 are working.As far as your neighbor stealing your wireless you will have a firewall on your roadrunner router and they have to get past it + the windows firewall to get to your wireless router.

[Joe K]

Yes it will make the service slower with 3 pc's vs. just 1. But it should still be pretty quick. As far as worrying about others accessing your wireless network. All you have to do is secure it with either WPA or WEP. Your Wireless router will have instructions on how to do this. Good Luck HTH.

[ny49erfan]

For the most part you shouldn't see any performance degradation when all 3 PCs are online. If all 3 are downloading very large files at the same time, then maybe. But thru normal use, not at all. As far as the wireless goes, make sure you have the RR tech secures your wireless network. Or is your are setting up the wireless your self, secure the connection. This involves encrypting the wireless signal itself, and the only way to access the wireless is if you have the "password", which you create when securing the connection.

[Herbert M]

No, it will not be noticeably slower. I run six PCs over my connection.There is the possibility of long downloads making the connection slower for everyone else, but this is rare. Consider how often you currently run a huge download. How long does it last? That's how long things will seem slightly slower to other users if they are using the connection at that time. Remember that typical web browsing and E-mail don't use your Roadrunner connection for most of the time. 99% of the time spent on those activities involves the user reading or typing a screen already downloaded. For every second of real Roadrunner use for E-mail or browsing, there are a couple minutes of inactivity as far as your router and cable modem are concerned.Make sure you login to the wireless router as the administrator and turn on the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) feature. "How" differs by brand - check the manual or open a browser window to address http://192.168.1.1/ which works for many popular brands. After making up a WEP key, you'll need to enter the WEP key on each PC connecting wirelessly. This means no one can connect from adjacent apartments unless you tell them the WEP key you made up. Ditto for visitors.There are other security features available in your wireless router that will prevent unauthorized use. If you don't like the WEP key approach, you can use MAC address filtering. This requires you to tell your router the MAC address of every PC allowed to connect wirelessly, and it loses the added security of encrypting the bits as they fly through the air. If you don't know how to find the MAC address of each PC, you probably shouldn't use this feature - or just ask another question in Yahoo! Answers. BTW: It has nothing to do with MacIntosh cumputers.Good luck!