Why electrical engineers should stick to what they do best...

... and not give IT advice.

This little gem came across on one of the mailing lists I participate in.

QUOTE:

Now, a former electrical engineer is claiming that if we improve the wired network so that the signal comes across better, then computer2 won't drop the wireless connection so frequently. (He says that the signal emitted by the wireless router will be improved by feeding it a better source signal.)

I hate to be arrogant and condescending, but this is one of the many reasons why people need to understand what they are talking about before opening their big mouths. Just because you are an electrical engineer, does not mean you know anything about how IT, ethernet, wifi, or computers in general work.

Wifi is not just an antenna bolted on to the end of an ethernet cable - there is hardware and software involved in the conversion of one transmission medium to another. It doesn't matter if the source signal is degraded - packets will get retransmitted, latency will increase, but the signal that comes from the WiFi will be however good of output the radio and antenna can manage.