Will I get my full internet speed with a $35, 300Mbps router?

[WAZ]

My buddy and I couldn't get Share Play to work on PS4, and I found I was getting slow speeds stemming from my trusty old Linksys WRT54GL router. The old girl has held strong for like 10 years, never loses my connection, never has to be reset... but turns out she can't keep up with my fast cable internet speeds.

When I bypassed the router and hardwired my PC straight into the modem, I went from 21mbps download/2mbps upload, to 91mbps/12mbps on speedtest. PS4 went from 17/2 to 49/8 when connected straight to the modem. Now Share Play worked perfectly.

So, without having to invest in a $200 Super Router or anything, can I achieve these results (91mbps/12mbps) on a cheap router like this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I see plenty of others in the $40-50 range which have gigabit ethernet ports... but is that mainly all I need? Or am I missing something as far as these $150 to $200 ones go? Thanks!

 

[matricks]

You llinked to a TL-WDR3500. It has Fast Ethernet ports (100 Mbps). If you can push 91 Mbps on a browser speed test, you need Gigabit Ethernet ports to make the most of it. Step up to the WDR3600, and you'll be good on the wired side of things.

For wireless, your experience will depend on distance and walls between devices, interference, planetary alignment and all the other things that make it impossible to estimate wireless performance.

As for Internet speed, how fast the router can do address translation (NAT) is determined by CPU. I did some benchmarks with OpenWrt on the TL-WDR4300 (identical CPU to 3500/3600), and results were between 118 and 135 Mbps doing NAT. This is some time ago, so todays OpenWrt may differ. The stock firmware may also perform differently. The stock firmware also has hardware NAT acceleration that can be enabled, but it tends to make the router unstable.

 

[WAZ]

Thank you for the reply and info. Yeah, as soon as I posted that I found a comparison table and saw the 3600 had the gigabit ports, as well as the 4300 (side note, interesting that the 3600 seems to actually BEAT the 4300 in a lot of benchmarks, while also being cheaper). So you are right, the 3600 looks like a pretty good choice.

I'm also throwing the TL-WR1043ND and the Archer C5 AC1200 into the mix to compare to the 3600.

But since I don't need a bunch of bells & whistles and just need the gigabit ports to support my 91mbps/12mbps for wired, high-speed, high-bandwidth gaming (and whatever we get on wifi is fine; it's just our phones and laptop for web browsing, and anything should be a boost over the 54mbps Linksys) it's good to know I can get one for ~$50 or so that will do what I need it to do. Thanks!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I'm not saying you need a $200 super-router, but a $100 not-crappy router is a solid investment.

 

[JackMDS]

I'm not saying you need a $200 super-router, but a $100 not-crappy router is a solid investment.

Yeah, it is amusing to see the posters that indicates the Big Importance of the Internet/Wireless in their live. Then you notice that their "Life" is valued at $40 (or there about). ^_^ - :hmm: -:$.

Want to save go with the TP-LINK Archer C5 AC1200

Otherwise - http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC1750-Gigabit-Router/dp/B008ABOJKS

 

[WAZ]

I'm not saying you need a $200 super-router, but a $100 not-crappy router is a solid investment.

Yeah, after reading many more reviews (now that I know what to look for) I've pretty much narrowed it down to these, which all get pretty universal praise for bang-for-your-buck:

- TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 ($45 used)
- TP-LINK Archer C5 AC1200 ($70 used)
- TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 ($80 used)

From what I can tell, I SHOULD get pretty comparable performance out of all of them. The latter two are more future ready (802.11ac) for a few extra bucks; maybe better wifi performance but I'm not overly concerned about that at my house, given our limited wifi use where we've been content with the old 54mbps Linksys anyway. Not sure the Archers would net me much, if any, more performance for wired internet than that super affordable 3600...? It's soooo cheap!

When you say to invest in a $100 router, what other features am I looking for that make it worth the money over the Archers... or the 3600 for half the price?

 

[WAZ]

Yeah, it is amusing to see the posters that indicates the Big Importance of the Internet/Wireless in their live. Then you notice that their "Life" is valued at $40 (or there about). ^_^ - :hmm: -:$.

That is correct. All am I looking for is the absolute fastest connection humanly possible... without having to pay for it. No problem, right? :biggrin:

 

[Fardringle]

I've been very pleased with my Archer C7 router so far.

And it's only $93 NEW from Amazon so I wouldn't risk saving just a few dollars on a used one... http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Archer-C7-Wireless-1300Mbps/dp/B00BUSDVBQ

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, after reading many more reviews (now that I know what to look for) I've pretty much narrowed it down to these, which all get pretty universal praise for bang-for-your-buck:

- TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 ($45 used)
- TP-LINK Archer C5 AC1200 ($70 used)
- TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 ($80 used)

From what I can tell, I SHOULD get pretty comparable performance out of all of them. The latter two are more future ready (802.11ac) for a few extra bucks; maybe better wifi performance but I'm not overly concerned about that at my house, given our limited wifi use where we've been content with the old 54mbps Linksys anyway. Not sure the Archers would net me much, if any, more performance for wired internet than that super affordable 3600...? It's soooo cheap!

When you say to invest in a $100 router, what other features am I looking for that make it worth the money over the Archers... or the 3600 for half the price?

The C5 and C7 are very similar, excepting maximum 5GHz performance. Their used costs would put them both in the "$100 router" category new. The 3600 is a couple years older, and was in the same category. They're all decent routers.

The main thing you give up appears to be the CPU - the C5/C7 use a ~720Mhz chip, the 3600 uses a ~560MHz chip. Since both have 128MB of RAM, you'll probably be fine either way, but in some rare cases you might see a performance difference. (For comparison's sake, the $200 super-routers are using ~1GHz dual core CPUs.)

As far as features go, they all support third party firmware (openwrt or dd-wrt) so, at least theoretically, all of them have "all" of the features.

BitTorrent is notorious for "breaking" cheap routers because of the number of simultaneous connections. You can still find ones with <32MB of RAM and ~200MHz CPUs in the bargain bin. That's really what I'd caution you against.

 

[JeffMD]

Your wifi stability and speeds will also be impacted by the internal performance of the router. Dave is look at the right stuff. All the crap you see at target and best buy are running crap SoC's with 32mb ram. And if you target $35 you will be lucky if you get that.

Also keep in mind that getting a router with 300mbps and 450mbps speeds, 1) the ps4 does not do 5ghz, and 2) if you have anything hitting the network with 802.11g like a phone, you can kiss all that sweet sweet n/c bandwidth goodbye.

 

[WAZ]

Thanks for all the help and info guys. I was leaning towards the TP-LINK 3600 for $50, but decided to spend the extra money and get the Archer C7. I figured it was worth the cost for the slightly faster CPU and to be a little newer and more future ready.

The PS4 and my gaming PC are hard-wired so I'm good with the gigabit ports, and we only have a web-browsing laptop and a couple phones using wifi at all. I'm hoping/assuming they'll get a nice little boost from this upgrade either way (we've survived this long on the 54mbps router after all ). And the C7 sounds like it will provide me everything I need to run my full 91mbps/12mbps speeds, and faster moving forward, without being TOO expensive.

Thanks guys!

 

[smitbret]

Thanks for all the help and info guys. I was leaning towards the TP-LINK 3600 for $50, but decided to spend the extra money and get the Archer C7. I figured it was worth the cost for the slightly faster CPU and to be a little newer and more future ready.

The PS4 and my gaming PC are hard-wired so I'm good with the gigabit ports, and we only have a web-browsing laptop and a couple phones using wifi at all. I'm hoping/assuming they'll get a nice little boost from this upgrade either way (we've survived this long on the 54mbps router after all ). And the C7 sounds like it will provide me everything I need to run my full 91mbps/12mbps speeds, and faster moving forward, without being TOO expensive.

Thanks guys!

I used the C7 for about 3 years and I think you've made the right choice.

 

[WAZ]

I'm happy to report that the C7 is indeed allowing my full 91mbps/12mbps speeds... a nice bump up from the 20/3 I was throttled down to on my old router. It was a shame to see my trusty old WRT54GL be relegated to my computer part graveyard (bin in my closet), but it's clear now it had officially become obsolete. Thanks for all the advice and information everyone.

On a side note, my wired speeds are golden (91/12), but my laptop is only getting 13/12 over wifi. When browsing the web I suppose I don't really need those crazy high speeds, but is this normal? 13mbps seems really low over wifi for download speeds on a new 300mbps router, especially since my upload speeds over wifi match my wired speeds. It's an older laptop so it's on 2.4Ghz... but we moved all our phones over to the 5Ghz band to help free it up.

 

[Fardringle]

If the laptop has a G only wireless adapter, the speeds you reported are correct. G wireless pretty much maxes out at 15mbps under perfect conditions. 12/13mpbs is about right for a normal situation.

 

[VirtualLarry]

13mbps seems really low over wifi for download speeds on a new 300mbps router

The router may be 300Mbit/sec (theoretical max), but is the wireless client? If it's a cheap laptop, it's probably 75Mbit/sec max on the card, and actual throughput is less than half of that. Even less if you have interference.

 

[JackMDS]

Replacing a Wireless card in a main stream Laptop is usually $10 or less.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/181743105473?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82

Working with a Dual Band Wireless Router some AGN cards might boost the Bandwidth to 300MB/sec. even with an Old laptop.

 

[WAZ]

Yeah, I don't have the specs offhand but the laptop is from about 2009 and it's just using the built-in Realtek adapter or whatever came with it. So as long as those speeds are "normal" for what I have, we should be okay for now for basic web browsing.

But good to know I can swap out the card, or perhaps even just get something like this -- http://www.amazon.com/Panda-300Mbps-Wireless-USB-Adapter/dp/B00EQT0YK2 -- if we want to get our wifi speeds up to more capable levels for the new router.

I'm mostly just relieved it's nothing else wrong or that I'll have to troubleshoot. Thanks guys!

 

[WAZ]

So I thought I'd check back in to say I did buy the TP-LINK Archer C7... and unfortunately have had constant problems.

Would there be any reason for my WIRED speeds to be slow when going through the router?

When I bypass the router and hard wire straight to the modem, I still get about 90mbps download, 12mbps upload. When I go through the router I get anywhere from 6mbps (!) download to 40. Upload seems pretty consistent.

Here's the thing -- it worked fine for about 2 weeks. Then I started getting random dropped connections. Then I couldn't connect to the 192.168.0.1 admin interface with a wired PC but COULD with a wifi laptop. TP-LINK tech support helped me troubleshoot, then decided to send me a new one. The new one gives me the exact same problems... slow wired and unstable connections. PS4 Share Play worked great through the router for the first 2 weeks; now PS4 says my connection is too slow so it won't even let me use Share Play. Something is clearly up, especially since it's happened with TWO consecutive Archer C7's.

Has anyone had these kinds of issues? Tons of googling and searching has left me with updating the firmware (done) and disabling hardware NAT (done), but no fixes for my problem... Any help or advice would be great. Thanks!