Help..Router Question

[vikingblade]

Hi.. I have Brighthouse Road Runner Cable.. supposedly 20mbps. I recently added a second pc, but didnt want or need a wireless connection. Wired is easily done. So, i bought a cheap Belkin wireless G Router.

My question is... if im going wired..no wireless, does it matter what router i use? Am i potentially losing internet speed with a low end router? Also, what is the best way to find out my speed..if im getting what my cable company is selling? THANKS

 

[larciel]

difference in internet speed, if any, will be realistically unnoticeable for casual use.

 

[boomerang]

Google Speed Test. There are a number of sites out there.

You really cannot rely too heavily on the results though. Try different sites (and locations within sites) at different times and different days to try to get an idea of an average.

 

[drebo]

Well, a lot of SOHO routers only have 10 mbit ports for their WAN connection. So, if you've got a 20 mbit WAN connection and choose a cheap router, there's a big possibility that you'll only see 10 of it.

 

[NickOlsen8390]

Unless your area is different, Bright House Networks is 15/2 max in Central Florida. Assuming that your in Bright house's Central Florida area (there biggest market)

Just make sure that you have a good router with at least 100mbs ports all around.

 

[Slowlearner]

While there are many speed test sites, there are very few that diagnose the connection. For that the NDT servers are the best:
http://e2epi.internet2.edu/ndt/ndt-server-list.html. In my case the one at UC SC http://nitro.ucsc.edu/ always gives consistent results. Repeat the tests many times.

Once you run the test, Click on the Statistics and More Details buttons on screen to check your nic and TCP/IP settings - these may need to be tweaked. dslreports.com has full set of tools to test speed and do any tweaks - use their DrTCP tool.

Even if you are using a wireless router as a wired one, you still need to take the usual precautions, change the admin password, enable WPA and use a tough key, or maybe even shut the wireless off.

Till very recently, all residential broadband in the US was less than 10 Mb/s, so the wan port was fine, but with much higher speeds now available, you do need to make sure that your router can handle it.

 

[JackMDS]

If you have 20Mb/sec. and you want to keep performance at top under more than casual use, get this Router,

Zyxel 550 -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...181218&Tpk=zyxel%2b550

For wire casual use any router thta the WAN supports 20Mb/sec. would do.

 

[Slowlearner]

As usual, Jack picks a winner:

http://www.defensenews.com/sto...?i=3618598&c=ASI&s=TOP

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Make sure you disable the wireless if you are not going to be using it.

 

[vikingblade]

thanks guys... im in the tampa bay area of florida. they recently offered a 20mbps connection. so, i jumped on it. dont think im getting it tho. couple dumb questions..

how do i know the speed available for wired connection on my router. it seems to only list the wireless speed. router box says.. "belkin wireless G router. wireless G, or 802.11g, refers to the wireless networking standard that transfers data at up to 54Mbps using the 2.4Ghz band ." it doesnt list port or WAN speeds.

how do i disable the wireless option..

lastly, my connection seems to drop very briefly, but often. mainly notice it when downloading or streaming, or when eyeball chat and yahoo messenger suddenly log out. Could this be a router issue... Thanks again

 

[NickOlsen8390]

If you give us the model number of the router we can most likely tell you. Also, make sure you have a modem with a 100Mb/s port.
BHN hands out a few, if you just got yours its either a Scientific Atlanta Webstar or a Motorola Surfboard. Both are great modems. I'm on the east coast of Florida (Brevard County) I had a webstar till i upgraded to business, and it was a great little modem. If you have a older Toshiba modem make them replace it, they are crap. Also, when you lose internet for a second is anything rebooting? cable light on modem out?
I'm pretty sure you have a 100mb/s wan port on that router.
Also, For Bright House Networks here in florida a good speed test to use is www.speakeasy.net/speedtest testing to the Atlanta server. I show about 18Mb/s Download and 1.9Mb/s Upload here. Other speed tests are going to be worse because they are messing with routes and screwing stuff up. setting static routes to push data out another line instead of the better path. I've been raising hell with the business support, Only to get to a "specialist" that has no idea what I'm talking about.