The purpose of this experiment is to better understand the scientific Methodology ,, and application of the steps to test the hypothesis and arrive at a plausible conclusion for my project. In the experiment, a router was put through various tests at various distances : (5,10,15,20, 25, & 30 feet) to determine the signal quality, strength as well as data transfer speed. The first test performed on the router was the "ping test" which measured the time it took for a packet of data to be sent to the router and back. The second test garnered a simple qualitative description of the signal quality through the use of the basic Micro soft Networks program that comes with the O.S. The third test used the program WlNc to garner the actual percent strength of the signal emanating from the router. The fourth test utilized the program Net Stumbler to find out the exact decibel strength of the signal. The fifth test used net stumbler and WlNc to ensure the background interference noise was at a constsnt-100 decibels. The sixth and final tezt tested the Data transfer speeds by attempting to download a 175Kb file from a web site and measuring the down load time. (the web site's name is http://www.Beelinebandwidth tset.org). These six tests would be completed at the various distances and recorded in their respective data tables.
The next step was converting the raw data into rank points. This involved comparing the brands to one another at a certain distance with certain obstacles and assigning a point rank (1-3, the lower the better). Once the rank points are calculated, the average of the point ranks for a particular router's test at the various distances is taken and recorded on the final table. Finally, the averages of all the point ranks, per router respectively, are added up and the total average rank points for every router are formed. To reduce experimental error and to provide a universal equalizer, only the rank points are used in the end comparison. In the end, one could conclude that the hypothesis was incorrect since one brand (D-link) was superior to the others both quantitatively and qualitatively, however minute the difference was.