100 Mbit connection + router?

Daviss

Baseband Member
Messages
47
Ok, so I have a 100/20 Mbit connection. The original setup included a Netgear modem and a Linksys Phone adapter. Since I needed wireless as well, I added a Linksys WRT54G router. The router should support speeds up to 54 Mbps (it says that on the router itself). However, when I perform a speed test on http://www.speedtest.net/ it shows that my speeds are only about 30/2 Mbps. So my question is, how can I get the maximum speed using the router? I checked the router configuration, didnt see any speed limitations there. Any help is appreciated.
 
The speed test you're looking at tests the speed of your internet connection, which will be the lowest link in the chain so to speak, it's not measuring the speed across your network. 54 Mbps would be your maximum wireless speed, and the 100Mbit would be your maximum ethernet (cabled) speed.

Also bear in mind that the quoted speeds are the theoretical maximum. Speeds will drop (and there's nothing you can do about it) as signal degrades with wireless, and as packet collisions occur when there's lots of traffic on the network. It's perfectly normal for this to happen.
 
Ok, thanks for the clarification. One more thing - is my PC, that connects to the router via cable still getting the 100 Mbit maximum or does the router downgrade the cable speed aswell?
 
You should get that speed over your network between cabled machines (well, somewhere near it, but it'll always be less due to unavoidable practical limitations.) So if you've got 2 cabled machines on your network and you're transferring stuff between them, you'll probably get near that speed (as long as your PCs can handle providing and storing the data that quickly.) If you're transferring from a PC in your network to a laptop that's on wireless or vice versa, then you'll get 54Mbit maximum. When you access the internet, you'll only get it at the speed your ISP will provide it at.

So all in all, you're limited by the weakest link in the chain - the highest speed that everything supports (so that's the router, switch, cables, interfaces and PCs) will be the speed that the transfer will take place at. So even if I've got a 1000000000000Gbit connection to the router, if a laptop's only connecting at 54Mbit and you're transferring data to that, 54Mbit is as fast as it'll get.
 
Ok, so I have a 100/20 Mbit connection. The original setup included a Netgear modem and a Linksys Phone adapter. Since I needed wireless as well, I added a Linksys WRT54G router. The router should support speeds up to 54 Mbps (it says that on the router itself). However, when I perform a speed test on http://www.speedtest.net/ it shows that my speeds are only about 30/2 Mbps. So my question is, how can I get the maximum speed using the router? I checked the router configuration, didnt see any speed limitations there. Any help is appreciated.

I need you to clarify a couple of things. Do you know for sure (from your provider) that you max or package cap is 100/20. Is this a business connection?

Next, the router you have selected will probably max out somewhere around 30mbps wan to lan. While it may be sold as capable of handling higher, in operation I've never seen one actually do it.

The speedtest site you used would not have been my first selection for this type of test for too many reasons to list here. Try this Broaband Speed Test and let's see what results you get (paste all the detailed data in your reply). To get to the test I want you to run click on Broadband Tools (at the left of the page) then TCP Quality test. I'm asking you to go here because I know for a fact they can easily handle 100mb connections because we use them at work.

Run the test with the router connected and then run the same test again without the router connected. Also who is your provider? You might also run the Route Quality test there and post the results.
 
Back
Top Bottom