Do wirless routers have a speed limit as well???

[blade85]

Hellooo

Just curious...but do wireless routers have a speed limit as well?

reason I ask is cause my connection was recently upgraded to 10 megs. When I have my modem connected directly to my pc I get the full 10 megs and files download at roughly 1.17meg/sec.

However, when i connect it to my wireless belkin gateway 802.11b router (model F5D6231-4) my max download speed falls to 500kb/sec. Its a very old router so could that cause the reduction is speed???

If so, could someone recommend a better router that I can use, cause iv got 2 other laptops and a ps3 connected to this router.

cheers

[Ignitionnet]

Hi blade,

Any wireless 802.11g router should give you your full 10Mbit. 802.11b is limited to about 4.5Mbit, or indeed the 450kB/s you are seeing.

[blade85]

ah ok..

hmmm..got any preferences?? cause there are litrally 100's of them :-/

also, should i just go for a 802.11g or should just bite the bullet and go for an N router? ( will that improve the reception in and around my house?)

also, if I have an N router but my receiver is say a g, will that mean I will only get the sort of reception the g routers are capable of?

[Graham M]

The problem could be to do with the WAN port on your router being 10meg/half duplex, do you have the model number of the router you are getting the low speed on handy?

[Ignitionnet]

Yes, you'll only see G speeds with a G receiver.

I'm sure someone will be able to provide specific brand advice.

---------- Post added at 14:15 ---------- Previous post was at 14:14 ----------

The problem could be to do with the WAN port on your router being 10meg/half duplex, do you have the model number of the router you are getting the low speed on handy?

It's an 802.11b router, OP is seeing full speed on wired connections which eliminates a WAN side issue and ~4Mbit is about right for 802.11b wireless.

OP also mentions the specific model number, I think someone speed read :p:

[Kymmy]

Also wireless tends to throttle itself dependant on the signal strength, if it was a low signal then it could connect as low as 1/2/4Mbps

[blade85]

which router would you use for gaming???

[Axegrinder]

I use a Linksys WRT54G, works fine for me.

[popper]

seeing as you have old 11b now , id go directly for all 11N kit and bypass the old 11g as you can then be reasonably sure the 11n will manage the up and comeing VM 50Mbit down/1.5Mbit up connections better.

remember 11g gives you a real top throughput of 22Mbit at BEST, averaging 15Mbit/s or even less with all the security turned on that many internal routers CPUs cant handle at the advertised full speeds.

all the 11n can manage better data throughput even when in 11g mode due to them having a better internal CPUs/SOC that can better handle the software settings you might turn on.


keep in mind those belkin were in a class action in the US for many models having to give back a 100% refund due to this lower spec CPU not giving the advertised speeds and other related side effects.

SmallNetBuilder (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30568/100/). is a good place to read up on it all when your Belkin starts playing up later :(

[blade85]

Unfortunately I didnt read your post before going out and buying a router :p

I got a belkin G+ MIMO thingi..lol

connected everything up, took litrally a few seconds to add security and what not and all the internet enabled systems in my house picked it straight away.

Speed test shows an average speed of 10071 kbps and upload of 495 kbps on my desktop (which is directly connected to the router) and 9942 kpbs and 490 kbps on my laptops (wireless).

So far so good :-)

Thanks for the input :)