leisa11 - I always thought you were acessing the same data stream but in a different way, so I never thought it would be faster, but:

http://www.answers.com/topic/wifi
The popular term for a high-frequency wireless local area network. The consumer-friendly name for the 802.11b engineering standard. It lets home and office users create wireless local networks, which connect two or more computers to each other and a faster Internet line. This way there is no more poking holes in walls or tripping over bulky Ethernet cables. The Wi-Fi technology is rapidly gaining acceptance as an alternative to a wired local area network (LAN).



How Does WiFi Work?
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4693928_wifi-work.html


WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. A WiFi connection makes use of radio signals, much like the ones used by cell phones and other similar devices. A computer's wireless adapter card translates the data into radio signals, which the antenna transmits. These binary code signals are then received and decoded by the router, which send the information to the Internet using a wired Ethernet or LAN (Local Area Network). A wired Ethernet service can be a DSL or cable network connection.

A WiFi connection is bi-directional, meaning the process just mentioned also works in reverse. Think of it as a two-way radio communication that sends and receives radio signals in a form of radio waves. In the reverse process, the wired Ethernet supplying the Internet connectivity sends the information to a router. The router then translates the signals and transmits them to the computer's wireless adapter card.