Why is wireless Internet speed much less than wired
 

Hi,

I have a little wireless/wired Ethernet network in my home/office with three
PC's, an Xbox 360 and a wireless network printer. I like to use the Internet
speed test at www.whatismyip.com to benchmark my Internet speed. The server
in San Francisco records the best results, upto 25 mbps download and about
500 kbps upload. The San Francisco download Internet speed results appear to
be right at the top range of the theoretical signaling rate of my Internet
cable modem speed.

I noticed that the download speeds on wireless are only a fraction of the
wired Internet speeds. In both cases the highest speeds are only a fraction
of the theoretical speeds, 54 mbps for 11g wireless and 100 mbps for wired
Ethernet. Also the LAN wireless speed is slower than LAN wired Ethernet
speeds.

Why is this so? Is there a larger hardware/software overhead for wireless
networking?

What are the implications for Gigabit Ethernet or for 11n wireless?

Thanks for the enlightenment.

m.