Internet driving me crazy..

[chouchou]

Forgive me, I'm not a networking guru --> I'm more the build crazy rigs, test the *** out of them, cable management freak kind of guy but networking is a whole new dimension to me.
The only exposure I've had to somewhat networking and router configuration is flashing my Asus WL520-gU with Tomato firmware... And to now I still have no idea how QoS works etc, but with time I'll try and figure it out - being a full time student I dont have much time.

At home, I have set-up a connection with ADSL (Telus...) which has been driving me crazy with slow speeds lately. I'll explain the setup, circumstance, and questions:

I have the line from the phone jack setup to the Modem from Telus (a Thompson Speedtouch... forgot the model) connected via WAN cable to my Asus WL520gU. Connected on the home network is ONE computer via Lan and on average maybe 3-4 on wireless.

Recently I have been noticing my speedtest numbers to be quite low compared to before. I am getting ~8Mbps on the LAN and ~3-4 on the wireless computers.

If i take the Router out of the equation, I can get upwards of 14-15Mbps on LAN. I'm actually signed up to be getting the Turbo Extreme service which states speeds of 20-25 Mbps... Not getting anywhere near that, but I want to make sure it's not an error on my side of the things first.

Can a router that is unable to boost a wireless signal well affect the net speeds on a wireless computer? I understand that it is a general understanding computers connected wirelessly are slower than by LAN, but by how much?

Is this an indication that the router is a source of decreased net speed? Is an upgrade to a more modern router necessary? I've been looking at the E4200V2 and Netgear N900 recently, does anyone have insight on a comparison between the two?

Thanks in advance for any advice given, and if any tips are available please feel free to let me know! I'll try my best to follow along.

[Shadowmeph]

I am by far no Network manager but I can tell you a couple of things that I do know and that is that there are a couple of factors like distance from router and what type of wireless is your router and also the wireless card of your PC because wireless b,g,n those have different speeds the best bet if you want to go wireless is wireless N

[JD]

A newer router will likely help.

54Mbps (802.11g) should be adequate for your internet connection, but it is pushing the upper limits assuming you use some form of encryption. In the most ideal situations, I'd guess 54g is only capable of about 2MB/s. Upgrading to a router with 802.11n will obviously alleviate this, but you need your clients to have 802.11n capabilities as well which may or may not be the case depending on how old the devices are that you have.

As for the poor wired speeds, it's likely due to the router too, not being able to support such WAN throughput. The Linksys WRT54GL suffers a similar fate.

Not that the E4200 or N900 are bad routers, but I don't think you really need to buy a $200 home-router, especially if you aren't going to upgrade all your wireless clients to support 450Mbps 802.11n. I'd look at cheaper things such as the Netgear WNDR3700 or Cisco E3200.

You should be able to get the same speed as connecting directly to your modem through your router, assuming everything is working properly. Since you're only getting 15Mbps yet paying for 25Mbps, it may be worth calling Telus as well and asking them to take a look. Could be that you have a weak line or poor wiring inside the house.

[jtktam]

what kind of traffic do you do more often?

you can setup QOS to give www more bandwidth for example

-joe

[chouchou]

Thanks for the input!

I have a friend working at BB who can score me the 4200v2 or n900 for around $110, which I didn't feel was too steep of a price to pay for noticeable increases in speed.
The computers in the house are basically just my macbook pro (which has N), and my mom's desktop which.. i have a couple of N capable adapters that I could throw her way.

jtktam: Mom mostly uses it to stream, she constantly complains about slow youtube speeds and stuff like that.
for me personally i use it to download (sometimes large) pdf's and ppt's from school, as well as streaming hockey games/youtube/downloading podcasts occasionaly.

I think what i'm going to do is purchase the new router, see how that works out and perhaps call telus if something still isn't right.
Is the ASUS WL520-GU considered outdated now?

[JD]

Oh, $110 isn't bad then. I'd go for either in that case.

And yeah, your router is from 2008...that's 4 years old now

[jtktam]

I got a new Asus N16 router, flashed it to Tomato (tried DDWRT but didn't like the complex interface) and it works really well

-joe

[stoanee]

Originally Posted by JD

Since you're only getting 15Mbps yet paying for 25Mbps, it may be worth calling Telus as well and asking them to take a look. Could be that you have a weak line or poor wiring inside the house.

That is why I got rid of Telus. I had similar problems including lots of disconnects so I called them up. (new house) They stated "We will check the wiring outside of the house for free but if we have to come inside the house it will be $85/hr to troubleshoot" I made like Trump and said "Your fired!"

[chouchou]

^If they give me that run around when i call them i'm just going to cut them off too. I've spent much too much time, money and energy trying to figure them out and quite frankly i'm tired of it haha.

Can't decide between an E4200V2 or the Netgear. Are there any noticeable advantages/disadvantages to either of them?

[JD]

If I recall, the E4200v2 is a lesser equivalent to the original E4200 performance wise.

Here's 2 reviews to help you decide:
NETGEAR WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder
Cisco Linksys E4200V2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N N900 Router Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder