Can a router significantly slow down the computer's Internet speed?

Question

I have a Netgear Router (Model: RP614v2). We bought it back in 2003. Recently our ISP boosted our speed. When i have the modem connected directly to my laptop i get 10Mb/s. When i have the modem connected to the router which is connected to two other computers, we get around 5Mb/s. I know that 3 computers connected to the router can slow the speed, but even if the other two computer are shut down, i still only get 5 Mb/s. From what i have read, routers should only slow the speed by a few milliseconds, not 5Mb/s. I have also read that there are "b", "g", and "n" routers and that each one can handle a different internet speed. Should a router reduce a 10Mb/s line to a 5Mb/s line? How do you know what type of router you have (b, g, or n) and what its db limit is?

Answer 1

Lots of questions here...

1. B, g, and n are wireless communication protocols. Routers that use one or the other don't connect to the internet at different speeds. They connect your PCs to the router (and each other) at different speeds. B is an older 11 mbps standard (PC to router). G is a newer 54 mbps standard (some routers can double this). N isn't a standard yet, but can connect PCs at as much as 300 mbps. Your internet connection speed, however, is limited by your ISP. If your ISP provides a max of 10 mbps, you won't get more than that no matter how you connect. If you connect via a wireless router, you might notice some difference between b and g.

2. Your current router is wired, not wireless, so none of the b, g, n discussion applies. It is more than adequate to handle the maximum bandwidth available from your ISP. Your PC most likely connects to your router at 100 mbps (10x your internet connection maximum).

3. Can a router significantly slow down access to the internet? Yes, in all or none of several different ways. In addition to the overhead of sharing a connection, the router's TCP/IP settings may not be optimized - RWIN, MTU, and MTU Discovery are often overridable. You could also have a cabling issue that goes away when that cable isn't in the path. There's most likely not "one" answer to this question. Consult sites like http://www.broadbandreports.com for more information.

Answer 2

well, 802.11n doesnt exist currently, the closest you can get is Belkin's "Pre N" Wireless Router, which uses MIMO to trasfer packets.
The modem is probably the bottleneck, but you wont have to worry about it, because the reading of the Mb/s is probably wrong anyways, like many other things that windows provides. This is also because modem takes away some of the speed, it needs some for itself. b, g, and n routers are wireless routers, and if you dont have wireless, dont use it. b is around 11 mb/s, g is about 30-50 mb/s and n is supposedly 100 mb/s, but with a huge range, around 300 ft.

to check out which router you have, take a look at the bottom of the router. the one you have right now is neither a, b, g, or n, it is a local ethernet conncetion, so dont worry about that, You should get 100 mb/s if you have cable, and other speeds...like 45 kb/s if you have dialup. modem usually has 10-5mb/s, so nothing is wrong with yours.

Answer 3

You are confusing internet speed with network speed.

Your internet speed is determined by the package you have purchased from your provider. The average is around 1.5 to 2Mb/s.

Your network speed is determined by the type of router and network adapter you use.

For wired networks you will have network connection speeds of 10, 100 or 1000Mb/s, depending on the speed of the ethernet adapter and router ports.

For a wireless network it depends on the equipment again. The MAX network speed for 802.11b is 11Mb/s, for 802.11g its 54Mb/s and for the pre-draft 802.11n its about 100Mb/s, but these speeds can go as low as 1Mb/s depending on the distance and number of walls or 2.4Ghz devices between the router and the computers.

The 5Mb/s would probably be increased if you moved the router and computers closer together or you might want to consider purchasing a wireless range extender to make the low signal spots in your home/office receive a better signal.

Also if you have WEP or WAP security enabled on your router you will see a slow down in data transfers also.

Answer 4

It should say what kind of router it is if you still have the box you bought it in. I have a wireless G router, and it doesn't slow down. But I have it connected to only one computer. Although, I would be on the internet on my PSP as well as the computer and it never slowed down. Try re-installing it, calling customer service, or buying a new computer/processor if it's old/slow.

Answer 5

Yes it can if it's wireless. 802.11b and g wireless at least is very slow in real world conditions. 802.11g will give you about 6-9Mbps if you're 30 feet away through a couple of doors, and b will give you even less, instead of the 54M and 11M that they are supposed to theoretically give. 802.11n is designed to be faster and with better range, but I haven't seen it in action. To determine what kind of router you have, find the model number and look it up on the internet.

Answer 6

lots of confusion around here regarding network devices and bandwidth.

when a network adapter can operate at 10/100 Mbps that adapter has enough bandwidth to accommodate 100 mega bits per second.

ok...so you have 2 computers both with 10/100 Mbps NIC set to 100 Mbps and full-duplex with a 100' segment of CAT5 between them using the T568A wiring standard for Ethernet. the "link" between those computers can handle the theoretical maximum data bit rate of 100 Mbit/s. the actual data signaling rate (DSR) will be much less than the theoretical maximum due to overhead, packet loss, etc. It also depends on the type of data being sent, you will always see a higher DSR with UDP then with IP data.

ok..years ago the PCI bus was the bottleneck in a PC and now PCI bus now has a much much higher bandwidth than the NIC. so now we add in the main bottleneck to the equation the computer hard drive and the internal and external transfer rates. regardless of the bandwidth capabilities of your network devices your PC can only "offer" data to the network at a certain data rate. the internal sustained transfer rate is lower than the external transfer rate so that is the main bottle neck for data today.

if the STR of your hard drive is 20 Mbytes a second that translates to 167,772,160 bits per second. so under optimum conditions (no disk fragmentation and no disk seeking, etc) with a 100 mega bits per second network link it should take 1.67 seconds to transfer a 20 mega byte file. in the real world network devices NEVER transfer under optimum conditions not even close. then once you add in latency from network devices and the OS actual network bandwidth utilization decreases further.

so if you are seeing 10% network utilization on your 100 Mbps link and you upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet NICs and CAT6 what have you accomplished, nothing except wasting money...

same thing applies to wireless. if your current 802.11g network is running at 5% network utilization and you upgrade to 802.11n besides increasing the available bandwidth of your network segments you really haven't done anything...