Slow cable internet with Linksys Router!!!HELP!

[AMCRambler]

Got a problem that is killing me, and haven't been able to find much on it. I'm setting up a home network for internet sharing for a friend. She is using Road Runner with a Toshiba cable modem. Trying to use a Linksys 5 port router to share the internet connection. My problem is when the router is connected to the cable modem and the pc's are hooked into the router, the internet connection works, but it's extremely slow(Like death by 1200 baud modem!) on both computers. I've tried having only one computer hooked up to the router, but it doesn't seem to matter. With the cable modem hooked directly into the pc through the USB port it works great, blazin fast. But as soon as the router is in there, slows down completely.

Here's in detail the setup we've got:

Toshiba cable modem
Linksys 5 port router with the cable modem hooked up through the WAN port
desktop pc running Windows 98 with a 10/100 nic hookedinto the router
laptop running XP with onboard 10/100 hooked into the router

Any ideas? Anything? This is driving me nuts! Thanks

 

[AMCRambler]

Going to bed bump.

 

[sohcrates]

hard reset the router would be my first suggestion

how are you judging speed? by trying to browse the web?

 

[PRODD]

Which Linksys product are you using ? Linksys does not unless it is an older product have a 5 port Router. They do have Switches specifically for sharing a cable modem connection. These come in 1, 4 and 8 port versions as well as Wireless variations. So what hardware are you using ?

 

[AMCRambler]

Looks like it is a four port router. I was counting the uplink port also. It has a WAN port, 4 network ports and an uplink port. I believe the model type is BEFSR41. Sorry about that. Yes I was judging speed by browsing the web. After switching between having the cable modem hooked up through the router and just going directly into the pc(tried it both ways twice), the slow down is very obvious. Pages load in minutes with the router as opposed to seconds with the cable modem only. Does this help any?

 

[blahsome]

If resetting the router doesn't help, try upgrading to the latest firmware. I once upgraded my Linksys router with a corrupt firmware, which brought down the Internet connection to its knees. Re-downloading and re-applying the fireware solved it beautifully.

 

[Slapstick]

First make sure your plugging the cable modem into the WAN port. 2nd update the firmware if it?s version. 1.40.1, there was a lot of complaints about that version slowing things down. The latest version is 1.42.6 and works well for me.

 

[AMCRambler]

Resetting doesn't help either and the cable modem is definitely hooked up to the WAN port. I think you guys may be right about the firmware. I just hooked the thing up right out of the box, didn't upgrade the firmware at all so it probably has 1.40.1 on it. I'll give it a shot and let you guys know. Thanks for the help.

 

[spyordie007]

If flashing the firmware doesnt fix it than you might have defective hardware.

-Spy