New Wireless router?

[Hmoobphajej]

Hello Everybody,

I've ran into a problem and need some guidance from the great people of the networking forums. At the moment I'm paying for 25mb/s from Comcast. I think my wireless router is throttling me. Instead of getting anywhere close to 28mb/s down and 5mb/s up I get 15mb/s down and 0.25mb/s up from Wi-Fi, and I'm not kidding about the upload. I currently have a Netgear N600, WNDR3400v2, and think changing my router will increase my download and upload speed. As well as the connection speed for some reason I can't run dual band anymore, I'm not sure why though. What do you guys recommend I should do to get as much usage out of my current internet plan and router as possible. If need be I can get another router if it is a better investment. Any additional feature to a router would be nice but my main concerns at the moment is just wireless speed, dual band if possible, and price. I'm willing to invest some money into a good quality router that will last me some time, $100 or less would be my projected budget range; I can go higher if it results in a much better investment. Also my current modem is a Motorolla SB6141 if that changes anything.

Straight Connection to Modem:



Wireless from Router ( Right next to it ):



Wireless from Router ( 20 - 25ft away ):



Wired from Router:

 

[Elixer]

What channel and band you using ? Have you tried a different one ?
How about signal strength, what does it show ?

 

[ch33zw1z]

I'd be concerned about the wired speeds through the router testing that low. Make sure you're at the latest firmware, and try testing in off-peak hours with only one device on the network.

I had an N600 for about a year, I was less than impressed. Occasionally (once a month or so) it needed a reset to start giving out DHCP addresses again.

I moved on to a Linksys E3000, running Tomato-USB. Has been solid so far.

 

[ImDonly1]

Sounds like you have qos on or set incorrectly.

On the router page go to setup and qos. Uncheck the boxes for turn internet access qos on, and turn bandwith control on. Then try the speedtest again via wired connection.

Picture here
http://screenshots.portforward.com/Netgear/WNDR3400v2/QoS_Setup.htm

As for the wireless, do you get the same speeds on 2.4ghz and 5ghz?

 

[Hmoobphajej]

Sorry about the late replies guys, had a long day after I posted my first post.

@Elixir I'm using 2.4 GHz band that is b/g/n enabled on channel 11. I tried different channels and some changes occurred. On channel 4 I can get roughly 10Mb/s download, and channel 6 I get about 3Mb/s download. Signal strength itself shows that it is 4/5 bars and excellent from where I'm currently at at the moment. (~20 feet from the router.

@ch33w1z My next tests results will be at a much different time.

@ImDonly1 Thanks, the qos definitely was affecting my upload speed. I'll be posting the results I get with all the set up changes. At the moment it's suppose to be dual band but for some reason I can't get 5GHz to show up at all.

Wireless From Router (~20 feet, channel 01):



Wireless From Router (Next to Router, channel 01):



Wireless From Router (~20 feet, channel 04):



Wireless From Router (Next to Router, channel 04):



Wireless From Router (~20 feet, channel 07):



Wireless From Router (Next to Router, channel 07):



Wireless From Router (~20 feet, channel 11):



Wireless From Router (Next to Router channel 11):



Wired from Router:



So here are all the new results from a 5AM speed test in my neighborhood. Thanks for all the trouble shooting help too. It seems the speeds have increased but wireless still seems a little weak to me especially since my normal usage is in my room 20 feet away and not right next to my router. Is it normal to have such a dramatic difference?

 

[taq8ojh]

How comes you can't get 5GHz to work? Which router is it anyway?

 

[ImDonly1]

Try disabling b/g support and running a/n only on wireless. Unless you need g support.
Those wireless speeds do seem kinda crappy

Does your wireless adapter support 5ghz?

 

[Hmoobphajej]

It's a Netgear WNDR3400 N600.

Link

I'm not exactly sure myself why my router isn't broadcasting 5GHz when it does support it. My laptop that I have has a 80.2.11n Broadcom Adapter. For my router I don't have a option to turn on g support, so it runs on b/g/n on 2.4GHz.

 

[nsafreak]

Well insofar as the 5Ghz band goes goes the router does broadcast it, it's just typically setup under a different SSID by default. Did you change the default settings for the router at all or leave them as is? The default SSID for the 5GHz band for this router is NETGEAR-5G. Also what is the wireless mode set to specifically?

 

[ImDonly1]

Even though your adapter supports 802.11n doesn't mean it supports 5ghz...

Might want to double check the exact models specifications. And if it doesn't then 5ghz could have been broadcasting the entire time without you knowing (does the 5ghz blue light on the router stay on?). You might want to secure it with a password.

 

[JackMDS]

Even though your adapter supports 802.11n doesn't mean it supports 5ghz...

.

This.

---------------
The majority of the Wireless cards that are in consumers devices in the last few years do not support Dual Band (Aka a/b/g/n a=5Ghz b/g/n = 2.4GHz)

If the card does not support Dual band you do not see the 5GHz SSID on your device.

So forget about 5GHz and make it work as 802.11n

Depending on the environment Good N suppose to yield 40-60Mb/sec.

 

[Hmoobphajej]

I don't know specifically what the wireless bands are set to but the wireless options are on for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I changed the SSID to something I can recognize more and still don't see it.

Lenovo Z585

That is the laptop I'm using. How would I know if its capable of 5GHz or not?

 

[ImDonly1]

I don't know specifically what the wireless bands are set to but the wireless options are on for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I changed the SSID to something I can recognize more and still don't see it.

Lenovo Z585

That is the laptop I'm using. How would I know if its capable of 5GHz or not?

As mentioned above usually it is 5Ghz is it says it supports a/b/g/n.
If it says it supports b/g/n then it usually is 2.4Ghz.

You can always go to device manager and see which model of the wireless adapter is in there. Should say like Intel ... or Realtek ... Google that model and a technical spec sheet should come up.

Link you posted shows your laptop as having b/g/n (so probably no 5Ghz).

 

[JackMDS]

Lenovo Z585

That is the laptop I'm using. How would I know if its capable of 5GHz or not?

By looking at the on its page in the Detailed descriptio.

Its states [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- Integrated high-speed 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I.e., it is Not Dual Band[FONT=Arial, sans-serif], thus you ca[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]n[/FONT] not see and communicate with the 5GHz channel of your Wireless Router.


[/FONT]
[/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Hmoobphajej]

Ahh I see then. That's good to know now. Thanks for helping me out so far guys. Should I get a new router or should I stick with the current one that I have? It's not the worst speeds at times but if I could get better download speeds It would be much appreciated.

 

[ronss]

I Have had netgear , d-link and linksys routhers...i seem to end up with linksys most of the time....and mostly happiest with linksys...a buddy of mine uses asus, and he is happy....i allways buy the best i can get,,,,and i got a linksys e4200....$159......now linksys is owned by belkin, ,,,not sure whats going to happen with linksys now..