can a router affect your connection speeds?

[ozziegn]

okay, whats up w/ this?

last week I hooked up a router (Siemens 2604) to my 'puter and I noticed that my average download speed(s) went down to like 1200K when they were normally like 1600K.

okay fine, I didnt think too much of it. but then I started to notice that my home page had a slight delay in loading when I opened up IE.

so I then decided to unhook the router and did some testing. come to find out that my download speeds came back to the 1600K area just like before and my home page in IE loads instantly.

what gives? why did the router slow things down like it did? and furthermore, is this normal from all routers?

 

[cmetz]

Routers will always slow down performance (thanks to the added latency and its effect on TCP). You want that slowdown to be as nominal as possible. Most SOHO routers should be able to handle several megabits per second aggregate, so high-end DSL/cable speeds may hit their limits. You haven't explained what your performance claims mean, so I can only answer generally, but the percentage drop you're seeing is bad and if that's what you're seeing then this router isn't enough for your setup.

Also try turning off filtering features, sometimes that helps.

 

[ozziegn]

I mainly bought the router for the firewall feature because other than that, I really have no need for a router using only one machine.

oh well, I took it off the machine and my speeds are back to normal now w/ no latency of page(s) loading.

 

[JackMDS]

Does not matter for regular surfing.

However, most Routers will slow down heavy File Download.

Some times playing a little with MTU value can compensate.

How do I play around with MTU?

Download DrTCP: <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.dslre
ports.com/front/DRTCP021.exe">http://www.dslreports.com/front/DRTCP021.exe</a>

Run the proggie, it will show the current settings of TCP/IP parameters. Write them down.

You can change any variable that you want, click Apply, and reboot the computer, if no good; you can always change to your original values.

 

[PCMarine]

I like my Asante Router...Blazing fast

 

[Zipp]

I just got the same router that you have Ozziegn and I'm experincing the same symptons. I've played around with it for a while now and still have those problems. I've heard routers may slow you down a little but these delays are little to much for me. Unhooked it and I'm back to normal surfing.