does wireless encryption slow you down

without taking into account advantages of extra security, privacy etc. does adding encryption to a wireless connection slow download or upload speed

 

Lets clarify. By your post I assume you mean using a VPN or TOR, which passes encrypted traffic through a "tunnel" of sorts. That can slow your traffic internet speeds down, and I mean alot. Why? The decryption by the algo used has to be processed so that it can be turned into plain text in order to be read. We talk alot about this here and on VPN forums around the net. If you use a higher end processor the changes are only slightly down from unencrypted. I run on a >100 meg internet line and by using speedy processors my speeds are only slightly slower than they would be if I didn't use encrypted VPN traffic. This of course uses the example of a nearby VPN server with little latency and Gigabit connections on their end.

If I misunderstood your original post then I'll go the other way. If your drive is encrypted and you have mounted it and are connected wirelessly, then you will see no difference on any modern computer. Running an encrypted OS and then using wireless shows no noticeable speed change. In this case you are not passing encryption through the internet, and are decrypting on the fly and that happens locally on the computer.

Did this help any?

 

i meant in gaming, does encryption such as WEP etc give u a slower ping

 

Any time you use any encryption traveling through the "air" it must first be encrypted outbound and then decrypted inbound. With mathematical certainty you can demonstrate that such a process consumes resources, which invariably manifests as overhead. Will you notice the overhead? Depends upon the processor but usually the answer is no. Wireless itself has many other physical limitations that show up on low budget routers. Modern routers with >1.7 mghz processors do a great job with homeowner wireless. Homeowner wireless is defined (by me) as encrypted WPA2 signal, but NOT VPN usage.

Example. Connect an Ethernet line directly to your computer and do a speed test. Now do the same thing via wireless on the same router and same computer and unless you are using AC (5 ghz) you'll see a difference. Even then you will notice.

ps - I know you cited WEP as an example but that is a very poor one. WEP is beyond useless as anyone can join your router in seconds. If you are using WEP please dump it for your sake.

 

Someone piggybacking your Internet would slow you down far more... Not to mention they could steal non-HTTPS passwords, impersonate you while doing illegal activities, etc.