Internet speed differences pc gateway vs router

micken · 24-06-2006, 22:54

Hi, I've recently upgraded my broadband connection to 10MB on NTL cable modem and installed a router with both ethernet and wireless connections. I've cloned the gateway pc to the router and notice the following performance differences.
1. With the gateway pc connected to the modem and with no router and other pc's connected the download and upload speeds are as I would expect, using a variety of measures.
2. With the router (acting as gateway) connected to the modem and with the single (previously gateway) pc connected to it but with no other pc's connected and using the same tests as in 1. above I get download speeds of around 25% of 1. above but upload speeds are only slightly less than 1. above.

Does anyone have any ideas or links for information on this. I've been searching around but I'm not coming up with any answers.

The router is a Linksys wrt54gs, it was a doddle to set up and in all other respects I'm perfectly happy with it.

Regards

Mick

Chris W · 25-06-2006, 00:40

are you using a wired or wireless connection to the router?

micken · 25-06-2006, 07:58

Hi Chris and thanks for your response, ethernet cable from modem to internet port on router.

Mr J · 25-06-2006, 13:38

I think he means what connection from your pc to your router, wired or wireless?!?

And what do you mean exactly when you say you have cloned the gateway pc to the router?!? What setup do you have exactly? Domain controller?

Have a bit mess around with the QOS settings on your router, could solve your problem.

MovedGoalPosts · 25-06-2006, 14:21

I'd go back to basics here.

Power off the modem. Do a factory reset on the router, to put it back to it's default settings. Power off the router. Power up the modem, let settle, then power up the router.

There is no need to clone any settings from your old PC into the router (I'm presuming you are meaning mac address). The ntl modem by powering off and back on again will detect the router just fine.

If any speeds are slow, check the ethernet cables. Are they all straight through types? Presumably all PCs are now connected direct or wireless to the router, not via the gateway PC as that is now standalone to the router?

micken · 25-06-2006, 23:14

Thanks for responses.

Mr J, pc to router is cat5. As far as I was aware ntl modem originally sets up connection to one pc (which could act as gateway), mac address from this is then cloned to router which is then recognised by modem and can act as gateway so that networked pc's can access internet independently of each other. This is certainly working ok but the broadband breadth seems to be divided amongst the four wired ports and the wifi connection on the router on a fixed basis. I would have expected the router to be transparent when only one pc is switched on and connected, i.e. it should approach the download and upload speeds that a single pc should achieve when directly connected to the modem.

It's almost as though the router has decided that it's got 5 connections on the network working full time and that it has divided the bandwidth between them.

Hi Rob C, and thanks for your response with respect to cloning the mac address I've outlined my rationale above and it's according to how I understand routers to work when directly connected to a cable modem. Cables are all fine, the house has been hard wired for six years, or so with pc's having been used and moved around several rooms with no problems. Apart from the wifi laptops I've built all the other stuff myself, and I'm confident that it works ok.

As a bit of a test I installed Network Magic for playtime today and I've had it sharing video files around the house.

The internet connection still has me challenged.

Mr J · 26-06-2006, 11:32

I'm sorry, I just didn't understand what you meant by cloned the gateway to the router. there really is no need for mac address cloning these days as ntl and telewest do not require you to register your mac address with them before sticking your machine on to their network.

Anyway, what router are you using? Does it have any kind of load balancing options with it where by this is what is splitting the connection coming in to the leases that it sees through DHCP. Try reducing the DHCP lease time if this is the case.

Do you have a domain controller? Or are you just using DHCP from the router to configure your ip scope? Have you set all of your machines to obtain an ip automatically and not manually configured them?

Graham M · 26-06-2006, 11:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr J

I'm sorry, I just didn't understand what you meant by cloned the gateway to the router. there really is no need for mac address cloning these days as ntl and telewest do not require you to register your mac address with them before sticking your machine on to their network.

They do if you get your Internet via the Set Top Box

Mr J · 26-06-2006, 12:50

Ok, didn't know that, been on both telewest and ntl, never had it come through a stb, always had a modem.

We live and learn.

micken · 26-06-2006, 13:28

Mr J Thanks for the update, I had a set top box before and just assumed that the connection was set up in the same way. The router is a Linksys WRT54GS and it has a quality of service (QoS) option that I've just been reading about. I'm at work now so I'll have to look into this later.

No domain controller, IP's configured automatically via DHCP from router. Interestingly, when I configured them manually I lost internet access on each pc I tried.

As I say I've been researching this a bit further today and I've found the following useful.

http://www.linksysinfo.org
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/0...ter/index.html

Regards

Mick