My wireless router gives 11.0 Mbps speed. I have cable suppose to give 100Mbps speed. Do I need a new router?

Question

It is an old router about 2 years old. it is a 2.4 GHz.

I would like a faster connection, it seems slow....

I use my laptop at either 3 feet or 15 feet from the router.

If I were to buy a new router, what kind is best and inexpensive?

How do I setup my router? I can't find the manual.

Answer 1

your wireless router is probably using 802.11b standard
you need a router and a wireless card that supports the new 802.11g standard. However that will only get you about 54Mbps any faster you need to use a hard line connection.

Answer 2

11Mbps is fairly fast. I've never heard anyone complaining about that speed before, and most wireless networks are this speed. If it seems slow to you, there are a few things to look at first before you start looking at spending money.

First, ensure that you are connecting to the correct wireless network. If you are connecting to the wrong one, it is likely that the signal is traveling through a lot of interference and that can slow it down.

Next, check to see what signal strength you have. If the signal strength is low, look into getting an antenna modification that can direct the signal towards where you normally use it. You shouldn't have to pay very much for this. I've seen professional-grade stuff for $150 that can connect to wireless networks from hundreds of feet away, so that should give you a good price cap.

Finally, if you're connected to the correct router and have a strong signal strength, try connecting your computer directly to the router or modem with an Ethernet (also sometimes called LAN) cable. If the connection is still slow, then the cable connection is the limiting factor. Otherwise, it's the wireless router.

If you find the wireless router to be the problem, you can try upgrading to 802.11g. Be careful though. A little-advertized fact is that a single computer with an old 802.11b wireless connection on a 802.11g network downgrades the ENTIRE network to 802.11b, not just that connection!

EDIT: If you're only 3 to 15 feet away, and your laptop is usually sitting still and not being moved around a lot, consider just getting a 20ft Ethernet cable and connecting that instead of wireless. Non-wireless routers are a lot cheaper and faster.

EDIT2: Also, if you have a wireless telephone, check to see if it runs on the 2.4GHz band. That can be interfering with your wireless and slowing it down. Microwaves and Bluetooth devices also can interfere.

Answer 3

The network port on your cable modem may be 100Mbps, but as someone said earlier, no ISP can give you 100Mbps access to the Internet through cable modem.
According to how much you pay per month and who your ISP is, your access speed will me somewhat between 0.25Mbps and 6Mbps.
If your 11Mbps is working good, that is not the bottleneck to the Internet.

Try plugging your computer directly to the modem (you may need a different cable for this). Also most wireless routers have wired 100Mbps ports that you can use to connect your computer. If the speed is the same, and still slow, contact your ISP for technical problems or to get an upgrade for your service (if you are willing to pay for it).

If the speed increases, this means that there is something wrong with your wireless connection. It may be a nearby phone or some other wireless device operating at 2.4GHz, or a microwave oven, etc.

You can replace your router and wireless card with a wireless g (instead of the wireless b that you have now). This will give you higher speed (54Mbps instead of 11Mbps), but if you are having an interference problem, you will still have it with the wireless g.

But 11Mbps (if you can make the wireless portion of your connection run at that speed) should be more tan enough to access the Internet.

Answer 4

Wireless routers usually limit your internet connection if you bought a cheap router than it will slow down your internet. Check on the box to see what the speed of the router is than check to see what the speed of the wireless adapter on your computer is. If you need to buy a new router get a wireless G or wireless N router they are the fastest. Also if you use Internet Explorer I would strongly recommend getting firefox its a web browser thats significantly faster than IE you can download it with the link below

Answer 5

Some this srping the 11n standard for routers will be out, this is faster then the current 11g.

Wait until then, but make sure you upgrade your modem in the computer for the new standard.

Your slowness could be done to your computer. Delete history and cookies from your browser, clean your hard drive and then defragment it. You might want to check for viruses and spyware as well.

Doing these things should speed it up.

Answer 6

the router probably has Ethernet ports on the back that run at 10 Mbps. Your nic card is probably 10/100 Mbps. no Internet provider in the world offers downstream speeds of 100 Mbps.

the equipment that you have now is sufficient.

Answer 7

on a laptop i dont think you'll ever get 100 mbps, you'll get somthing like 54. but to make the connection stronger go to your router info and change the wavelength to a higher one (it also depends how far away from the router you are.

Answer 8

that is an extremely fast DSL fast line, most people only have a fraction of that. For the most part you are only using less than 10% of 54Mbps so there is not need to worry.