New Router time ?
 

Hi, I've just upgraded from 50MB to 100MB. I'm currently using the SH1 in Modem Mode with a Netgear wnr1000 N150 router. This has been fine in my small house, with speeds of up to 55MB on my 50MB connection.

With the upgrade to 100MB i'm getting wired speed in the 90's, which again is fine, but wireless i'm getting about 50MB. I assume I need to upgrade the router unless there's some setting I can tweak ?

Was thinking about the next model up an N300. Any other suggestions for under £50 ? Something small and that can stand vertical would be good. Guess it might be wise to future proof if speeds increase again. Thanks.

Re: New Router time ?
 

If you are using 2.4GHz you will not get much more than 50MB on WiFi.

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So I need a dual band router for 100MB wireless ? Something like this ?

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General Maximus has recommended THIS one in the past.

Several of us trust his judgements regarding routers to use.

The link is for information only, you may find it cheaper elsewhere.

As always when thinking of purchasing equipment, shop around before jumping in.

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Before you purchase a new router, remember that the speed you can get depends on both ends - what are you using to test your wireless? If it's a PC/Laptop, investigate what kind of wireless card it has in it, it might not be capable of 5Ghz, it might be single stream (Which means you're not going to get much above what you're getting now).

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I can easily get over 100Mbps.

---------- Post added at 17:53 ---------- Previous post was at 17:52 ----------

This. You need to specify what you are connecting to the router with in order to be sure that is capable of using any increased speed.

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You may well be right.

All my households pc's are on a wired connection anyway and are getting about 94MB through the Netgear N150 router; close enough to 100MB for me. The only things I have wireless are a laptop (a lenovo s400 ideapad) and a Android Moto G phone, both of which are getting about 50MB wireless according to speed tests, bit of a coincidence. I suspect the Moto G wouldn't take any more anyway and I don't need anymore on it. The laptop will get the same 94MB if I wire it up and 50 MB wireless. The wireless network adapter on it is an IntelCentrino (R) Wireless - N2230, so not sure if thats capable of 5Ghz.

tbh I wasn't really looking for a speed upgrade anyway but 100 worked out cheaper than 50MB when renegotiating my package for some bizarre reason.

Will probably stick with the Netgear N150 router for now (what wireless speed should it be capable of in the real world ?)

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well done dude, I was scrolling through the thread and getting ready to make a link but you beat me to it :tu:


Why go for N300 when you can have N600 (simultaneous dual band as well). You said, future proofing.

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or 1750 with archer c5 with 3 aerials from PC World for £59.99 (upgradable to archer c7 with dd wrt)

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just remember the old adage of "you pay for what you get". I am tight on time atm so I won't type it all out and am going to copy bits from a post I made in another thread:

In fact I won't bother because I have realised that I would be copying most of it into this. Just read this (5th post down)

The morale of the story is don't be cheap (no offense Carlos)

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This is definitely not capable of 5Ghz, however it is a 2x2 stream device capable of 300Mbps. If you did invest in a new router, you would see some benefit to it but it's hard to argue it's worth as it's just this one device. If you're happy enough, you may as well hold off until you've got more devices with better wireless.

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It isn't, but it will still run at double your current speed with an 'N300' router.

---------- Post added at 13:09 ---------- Previous post was at 13:07 ----------

Ermm, quite the opposite, in your case, you don't get what you pay for. The router Carlos suggested outperforms everything you've listed at half the price.

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that may be so but I consider TP Link to be a cheapo naff brand which is why they are a higher spec price for price.

It is like getting a 20pk of McVities biscuits for £2 or a 50pk of Asda biscuits for the same price.

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Not quite... read this.

Clearly, the Tplink ain't your cup of tea for you to dunk your McVities biscuits.

Also, I was saying Archer 5 v1.6 (the one with the 3 Aerials) is the same hardware as Archer 7, read this

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they most definitely are not. I like to sit in front of my Linksys routers with my Nescafe coffee and McVities milk chocolate Hobnobs :p:

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Nobody else seems to have picked this up, so I'll throw in my 2p. Your router's wired ports are all only rated to 100Mbps. There are - generally, these days - two types of Network Interface Cards (NICs): 100Mbps and 1000Mbps/Gigabit. If one or all of the clients on the wired LAN, or the router itself, are running at 100Mbps then the whole network slows down to match.

Because of DHCP overheads and NAT etc, generally you'll never get more than 96Mbps out of a 100Mbps NIC or switch. When you upgrade your router you'll want one that has gigabit ports and to check your wired devices for gigabit compatibility. Once everything is gigabit you will see your speed rise to much closer to the full 100Mbps, or even slightly more (VM give the overheads on cable connections).

You can pick up gigabit NICs for literally a couple of quid these days, though generally speaking proper Intel pci(e) cards (eg Intel Pro 1000 GT or MT) are best. You can get Intel cards new for about £25 each or find them used (ex-business use) cheap on eBay. That way you future proof yourself for if/when you get 152Mbps or higher as VM upgrades roll out.

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wrong. Each port on the switch will auto negotiate it's link speed with the client. You can quite happily have a legacy device running at 100mbits on one wired connection to the switch whilst two other devices with gigabit nics each have gigabit link speeds to each port on the switch and communicate to one another >100mbits

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Not always in my experience. I have had issues with LAN transfers (PC > PC) running at ~11MB/sec and couldn't get them to bump for anything. Then I realised the TV was plugged into the router (100Mbps NIC), so I unplugged it and voila - full transfer speeds between the PCs again.

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Not really, since they use the same internal components built in the same factory.

It's like getting a 20pk of McVities biscuits for £2 or a 20 pk of McVities biscuits for 50p but calling the latter "naff" because it's cheaper.

I'm sure you'll also consider PCs "cheapo naff" because they contain the same hardware as Macs at a lower price.

I consider anyone who pays more for exactly the same thing with a different logo on it to be either stupid or ignorant.

---------- Post added at 03:17 ---------- Previous post was at 03:12 ----------

I've told him to read this several times but he prefers drinking his own kool-aid and believing a product is inherently better if it has his favourite company logo on it.

---------- Post added at 03:21 ---------- Previous post was at 03:17 ----------

Ermm there's no such thing as DHCP overheads and NAT doesn't exist on a NIC or a switch, are you sure you're not just picking random networking-related terms out of thin air?

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That's the way it was explained to me, I didn't question it because I don't know any better. I have 152/12 (nearer to 160/12.5 throughput), and when one of the PCs started running at 10/100 I was maxing out at 96Mbps consistently. I was told on OcUK you never get the full 100Mbps throughput on a 100Mbps NIC for the reasons I stated earlier. So instead of just being patronising why not explain the reasons in your reply? I'm all ears.

EDIT: Re-reading my earlier post perhaps I should have been (rather) clearer. I meant connecting through a gigabit router with a NIC set at 100Mbps. I obviously realise NAT doesn't exist on a NIC or switch, but rather that a NIC connected at 100Mbps to a gigabit router with a high speed WAN (i.e. >100Mbps) would not pull the full 100Mbps. If you'd care to explain where the 'missing' ~5Mbps goes to give a maximum throughput of ~95Mbps I'd love to hear it. There's no need to be rude.

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Overheads, just not the overheads you mentioned. Qas can probably explain it in better detail than I can, but the data being transferred has to be wrapped into packets (At the TCP/IP level) and frames (at the Ethernet level). Think about it like sending a letter through the post - you can't just shove it in a letter box, you have pop it in an enveloper which will add a small amount of weight to the thing. You also need to write the address on it and when it comes to communication, the address of the receiving machine also takes up precious bytes. That all adds up.

You're right about 96Mbps being a reasonable real world maximum when using a 100Mbit router, but OP said himself that he's happy with the current performance he has:


And indeed, it's not worth spending any amount of money for the sake of 3-4Mbit. In all likelihood, OP's PC's are gigabit anyway, so if/when he upgrades his router he'll probably see his PC's sync at 1Gbit regardless.

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Then it was explained wrong. Horrendously wrong. My apologies to you, however whoever explained it to you needs to be bashed over the head. Or perhaps has already been bashed over the head a few times too many.

TCP/IP and Ethernet overheads.

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 ----------

I think he understands overheads, he just used random words that were unrelated to fact. It's like saying "A 2 hour flight takes longer than 2 hours because tickets and waking up in the morning" when he really means "A 2 hour flight takes longer than 2 hours because of airport security and passport control."

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 ----------

/me bashes General Maximus over the head with his Cisco certification papers.

Re: New Router time ?
 

Thanks for the advice. For info I went for the Netgear N600 Dual Band. Decided I might aswell as it looks like my 100MB connection will go to 200MB soon plus Netgear has always been fine for me in the past.

It's increased my wired speed to 109MB on my main pc and wireless to 93MB on my laptop. Haven't got anything above 50MB on my Moto G phone so suspect thats its limit. Turns out I do have one 5g device after all - my work laptop - not that I was ever bothered about speed on that !

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I was thinking exactly the same thing as I was leaving work and read his post on my phone

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Dont forget the protocol overheads as well (http for example). On average, by the time you add them all up, its about 4 to 5 %, so as per above, about 95Mbps to 96Mbps is the best you are ever going to get (and thats in ideal conditions).

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Cis-what?

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/08/4.jpg

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I knew you loved them really. I bet you save the boxes and use them as wallpaper in your house :P

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Nah those boxes are full of old/broken kit going back to the supplier as trade-in