New Router

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:53 am

Ok, so here's the thing. We have 3 laptops on our home network. 2 of them regularly downloading stuff. We currently have a basic Netgear ADSL wireless router. It's a couple of years old and if I'm honest, I think it's struggling to cope with the high internet usage in our household. Our internet is supposedly 5Mbps... but speedtest says 0.5Mbps on my computer. I'm starting to think it could be the router being a failure! Laughing

I was thinking about upgrading, but I'm a bit lost. What are B,G and N? How can I find out if my computer will accept N? What is a good one that doesn't cost too much, my budget is around £75-£100.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Was initially thinking this one, but I don't really know what I'm looking for.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178309#reviews

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:06 am

I would say first thing to do would be to make sure problem is the router, before forking out for new one.

Make sure nothing else connected to router, then plug one of machines directly into router via ethernet cable. THen run a speedtest. See if its the same. Problem could be with your wirless setup or signal etc. Plug directly into it.

Depending on the setup, not sure if you can plug machine directly into the cable that goes into ethernet port on router? THen you could test by bypassing the router completely and test speed?

Just a thought anyway. You may be set on getting new router anyways. I wouldnt be much good with whats the best make and model of routers though sorry. But that one looks more than capable of handling what you need.

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:09 am

B, G and N routers have different specs, all explained here:

http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2008/10/23/whats-the-difference-between-wireless-a-b-g-and-n/

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:12 am

Oh sorry yes and to check compatibilty with each wirless spec, you need to check your wireless card. So one laptop may be compatible, another may not. Depends how old/new the wireless card in them is i think.

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 3:28 am

get an N router.they are all backwards compatible and it won't hurt to have a better one as you may get a pc later that will be able to handle N,if yours doesn't.but the router will still work with B or G,etc.

you also want to be sure it's UPnP,that way you don't have to mess with portforwarding.most new routers have that and you just plug the router into the modem and it finds your pc/laptop (sometimes you'll need to restart the pc for it to connect/change settings) and you're set to go.

the one i use is a few years old but i've had as many as seven pc/laptoops on it at the same time.

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/UK/en/products/WRT310N

likely a newer version but haven't looked into that as this still works great.

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 7:19 am

Cheers for the help so far guys. I tried hooking my laptop up to the Ethernet port on the router and there was no difference in speed.

I ran the M-Lab Network diagnostic test to see if it's some issue with the router/ setup.

Here is what I got... it is complete jibberish to me, but one of you guys will surely know what it means and if I need to change anything.

Code:

UPLOAD: 0.33Mb/s
DOWNLOAD: 0.10Mb/s
NETWORK LATENCY: 2.7e+2 msec round trip time
JITTER: 2.3e+2 msec

Your system: Windows 7 version 6.1
Java version: 1.6.0_24 (x86)

TCP receive window: 66792 current, 66792 maximum
0.096153846 packets lost during test
Round trip time: 171 msec (minimum), 404 msec (maximum), 269.55 msec (average)
Jitter: 233 msec
0 seconds spend waiting following a timeout
TCP time-out counter: 584
30 selective acknowledgement packets received

No duplex mismatch condition was detected.
The test did not detect a cable fault.
Network congestion may be limiting the connection.
No network addess translation appliance was detected.

0.9689% of the time was not spent in a receiver limited or sender limited state.
0.0% of the time the connection is limited by the client machine's receive buffer.
Optimal receive buffer: 68395008 bytes
Bottleneck link: Cable/DSL modem
0 duplicate ACKs set

WEB100 Kernel Variables:
Client: localhost/127.0.0.1
CurMSS: 1452
X_Rcvbuf: 87380
X_Sndbuf: 16384
AckPktsIn: 64
AckPktsOut: 0
BytesRetrans: 14520
CongAvoid: 18
CongestionOverCount: 0
CongestionSignals: 10
CountRTT: 31
CurCwnd: 2904
CurRTO: 584
CurRwinRcvd: 66792
CurRwinSent: 5888
CurSsthresh: 2904
DSACKDups: 0
DataBytesIn: 0
DataBytesOut: 152548
DataPktsIn: 0
DataPktsOut: 104
DupAcksIn: 24
ECNEnabled: 0
FastRetran: 7
MaxCwnd: 5808
MaxMSS: 1452
MaxRTO: 963
MaxRTT: 404
MaxRwinRcvd: 66792
MaxRwinSent: 5888
MaxSsthresh: 2904
MinMSS: 1452
MinRTO: 469
MinRTT: 171
MinRwinRcvd: 66792
MinRwinSent: 5840
NagleEnabled: 1
OtherReductions: 0
PktsIn: 64
PktsOut: 104
PktsRetrans: 10
RcvWinScale: 7
SACKEnabled: 3
SACKsRcvd: 30
SendStall: 0
SlowStart: 12
SampleRTT: 404
SmoothedRTT: 278
SndWinScale: 2
SndLimTimeRwin: 0
SndLimTimeCwnd: 10324486
SndLimTimeSender: 331770
SndLimTransRwin: 0
SndLimTransCwnd: 4
SndLimTransSender: 4
SndLimBytesRwin: 0
SndLimBytesCwnd: 142784
SndLimBytesSender: 9764
SubsequentTimeouts: 0
SumRTT: 8356
Timeouts: 3
TimestampsEnabled: 0
WinScaleRcvd: 2
WinScaleSent: 7
DupAcksOut: 0
StartTimeUsec: 694278
Duration: 10660931
c2sData: 2
c2sAck: 2
s2cData: 8
s2cAck: 2
half_duplex: 0
link: 100
congestion: 1
bad_cable: 0
mismatch: 0
spd: 0.11
bw: 0.13
loss: 0.096153846
avgrtt: 269.55
waitsec: 1.75
timesec: 10.00
order: 0.3750
rwintime: 0.0000
sendtime: 0.0311
cwndtime: 0.9689
rwin: 0.5096
swin: 0.1250
cwin: 0.0443
rttsec: 0.269548
Sndbuf: 16384
aspd: 0.00000
CWND-Limited: 82.60
minCWNDpeak: 1452
maxCWNDpeak: 5808
CWNDpeaks: 7

The theoretical network limit is 0.13 Mbps
The NDT server has a 8.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 0.46 Mbps
Your PC/Workstation has a 65.0 KByte buffer which limits the throughput to 1.89 Mbps
The network based flow control limits the throughput to 0.16 Mbps

Client Data reports link is 'T1', Client Acks report link is 'T1'
Server Data reports link is 'OC-48', Server Acks report link is 'T1'

Any ideas? Thanks again guys!

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:54 am

wow that's all jargon to me too buddy, hope you get it sorted,
I wouldn't have a clue what to surmise from that lot,
hope you get it sorted bro. Smile

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:50 am

Hmm those tests do indicate a bottleneck or perhaps restrictions on that router if im reading that correctly. "The network based flow control limits the throughput to 0.16 Mbps "

Can you run those tests on another machine and see if same results? Preferrably on a different OS to last machine you ran it on. And make sure there is nothing else connected on your network, or running on the machine, while the tests are running. THis could affect the results. And also try running them when connected directly to rtouer to rule out wirless issues affecting resutls.

Though to be fair i would think it will be the same results you see, and that its the router causing issues.

What make and model router is it? It could well be that there is a setting/hack for it, that will stop it limiting the throuput, if that is indeed the case. Im no expert on hardware and routers though, but with make and model we can maybe find out.

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:53 am

I thought that line was a bit odd too, I've checked on my brothers laptop (Vista) and similar results, including that bottleneck issue. Connecting through ethernet makes no difference.

It's a Netgear DGN1000... quite an old, basic model. Just wondering if it's struggling to cope with three laptops and countless wireless gadgets attached to it? I tried assigning IP addresses, it makes webpages load much faster but download speeds are still abysmal!

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:14 am

What download speeds are you paying for ? Have you run the speednet test and compared your results with people in the same area ?

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:16 am

What the frick?? I really don't get this now, between now (1:15pm) and first thing this morning (9am) my internet speeds have changed dramatically. This morning we were getting a miserable 0.2Mb/s download (similar to what I have posted on the speedtest thread before). Just ran another one now, we're over 1.48Mb/s... I have changed nothing! Surely normally it would be the other way round?

Is this an inconsistent ISP? ISP throttling? (Glastnost says no) Temperamental router? Sun spots??? What the hell?? Confused

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:35 pm

Did you made sure only one PC was connected and not doing any network activity when you ran the first test? Are you using WPA encryption on your wireless? if not, you may be supplying your neighbours with Internet as well.

Next time you experience slow speeds plug directly into your modem and test.

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:19 am

Yeh, my PC was the only one online and was doing nothing. As for wireless security, I use 128bit WEP. I tried setting up WPA but got confused (Sleep deprived!). I've got trusted access only on the network with reserved IP addresses to make sure no one else is on the network.

I tried connecting to the Ethernet ports and there was no difference in speed. Both when wireless is slow and quick.

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:22 am

jxy wrote:

Yeh, my PC was the only one online and was doing nothing. As for wireless security, I use 128bit WEP. I tried setting up WPA but got confused (Sleep deprived!). I've got trusted access only on the network with reserved IP addresses to make sure no one else is on the network.

I tried connecting to the Ethernet ports and there was no difference in speed. Both when wireless is slow and quick.

If your WEP its possible your supplying the neighbors too, all 128-bit means is it can take 30 mins to crack instead of 5. So you cant say your the only one online when its possible another 200 people are using the connection Wink

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:40 am

do you know what type of network your ISP has you hooked into?
if its a node broadcast type then, your speed will change dependent on howmany other subscribers are on that node.

if its a DSL type then its the distance between you and the server, and the quality of the cableing from your house to the switching station that holds the server that will alter your speed.

also old netgear router... perhaps hardware is not up to speed with the ISP connection.

connect a laptop directly to the modem, bypassing the router entirely,
(you may have to set up the network connection for the laptop while plugged to the modem) see what speed you get.

wireless security is ok at wep for now, but if u want to be paranoid then re-key your router and laptops every so often really WEP is more for data integrity than security so switch to WPA a soon as you finish your experiments and have controll over it

BTW the B, and G routers are substandard the "up to date" standard is N wireless, and it has two subtypes N150 and N300(faster).
Then you need the wirelessN adapters to take advantage of the speed.
unless you want to do things with blackberry and iphone then dont bother with dual-band routers (as a price point)