Connection speed on networking

[pandaboy]

I'm using a wireless router for 3 computers at home...The question is, does the router divide the internet speed equally between all 3 computers? If not, is it possible to set the router to do so?

Eg, for a 1.8Mbps connection....does each computer get 0.6Mbps?

Thanks!

[luke]

I think wireless connection does not divide the speed using arithmetic rules or anything like that. As far as I know, from what I learned from reading websites, when a wireless router sends a packet to a particular machine under it, it does not do something like beaming electromagnetic wave towards the physical location of the machine, but instead, it broadcasts the packet to all machines under it and it is the responsibility of the machines to filter the packet (i.e a machine accepts the packet if it's meant for him, otherwise drop it). so, you can't really make the router divide the speed to each individual machine like 1/3,1/3,1/3 or something like that. however, there might be a way to prioritize a machine over other machines. for example, if some data come from outside sources are to be broadcasted over the network range and suppose the rate at which the data come exceed the bandwidth of the wireless connection, the router would send more data meant for a prioritized machine than the data meant for other machines. this way it appears that the prioritized machine gets more bandwidth than other machines do.

[pandaboy]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. How can I give priorities to the machines? Is there a software I can do it? Or do I need to buy another hardware?