my router is slowing down the potential of my connection

Disclaimer:

All comments posted to this web site are opinions expressed by the poster and/or the owner of this web site. The owner is not responsible for comments or repairs to computers that others may do. I will warn you that you may be violating your computer manufacture's warrantee for certain things. Be sure to read it before opening your computer case!

I work hard to expand this free information.

You may express your gratitude by donating with your help supporting the server costs and help keeping the section alive.

my router is slowing down the potential of my connection

by Jesse
(Olyphant, Pa)

I have a network set up with an N range router that according to my service provider is not configured correctly to utilize the full 6 mbps speed even though their tech support did all they could do. I am assuming this is an issue with the two systems connected to it so I figured this would be the source to turn to. The whole connection is spliced to support digital cable on a single tv and the modem connected to the router. The one system (xp centrino laptop) is directly connected through its ethernet port while the other (vista dual core laptop) is feeding off through wireless. The speed is supposed to be at 6 mbps but both labtops have very inconsistent speeds of around 1-2 mbps on speedtests and a rare max of only 700 kb/s from torrent programs or any other related sites. I optimized both systems for performance and even tweaked the torrent programs but only noticed a small improvement. Is there maybe a vista and xp conflict? I have an older xp celeron pc with wifi I could use if thats the case. Tech support from both sources said something about how the performance of the systems was pretty important. I only have an average level of computer knowledge and am really in need of help. If I could get a response back with any possible insight on this issue I would be greatly appreciative. Thank you

Comments for
my router is slowing down the potential of my connection

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Mar 08, 2009
Rating

Network Speed
by: Support

Hello Jesse,

Sounds like you have done a fair amount of troubleshooting.

One thing that will slow down your network connection for a wired adapter is the link speed and the link duplex.

The router and the modem speed/duplex is set at factory at 100/full. You can not change them so that rules them out. How ever the router or the modem may be suspect but do the following first to check the network adapter for the wired computer. It is my experance that these are normally the bottleneck when it comes to network speed problems.

The router is set for 100/full that is 100 MegBitsPerSecond (MBPS) and Full Duplex (the Network Adapter Card) NIC of the router will transmit and recieve at the same time.

If the wired NIC in your computer is set for 10 or half duplex then this will cause the network connection to drop then reconnect. This dropping and reconnecting will cause a noticeable decrease in speed as you have decribed.

This in turn will effect the wireless side of the router because it is taking up all of the processing power of the router to keep the connection going.

You can set the Speed/Duplex on the wired NIC from the properies of the NIC, it will be under the Advanced tab.

To test before you make any changes disconnect the network cable from the computer or the router and see what the wireless NIC is getting with the router, is it at the max? My laptop will be at 5 or close to 6MBPS when it is the only computer operating on my home network and that is with a Linksys 2.4Ghz Speed booster and a 7MBPS DSL connection.

If the wired NIC has the Speed/Duplex set for 100/Full try the above test. If you get a good response from the wireless nic and then it drops off when the network cable is plugged in with the wired NIC I would say that the wired nic is having a problem. Try updating the drivers for the wired nic. If that fails to resolve the problme the NIC has failed.

If disconnecting the wired nic doesn't cause any change with the wireless and you update the drivers I would say that the router or ISP. If you can find/barrow/buy another router and run the same tests agian and with the new/different router then the ISP is having a problem with either their wiring or the modem.

Hope this help...

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Q and A

Return to top

From the Desert South West ~ Arizona, USA