# Do routers boost speed?



## lollerskater69 (Dec 5, 2008)

Hey i'm new to the forums, andhave a question.

My IP is verizon and they gave us an Actiontec wireless modem. I'm not sure whether is is b or g, but I want to set up my home networking with N. So can I use the modem I have now and just plug the router into the wireless modem? Also, if I have a wireless router that supports n, if I have a local connection to it, will it boost my download speeds, or will they remain the same? It's cable by the way if you guys needed to know that. Sorry is this is a dumb question, networking isn't really my thing!


Thanks!


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## mrhuggles (Dec 5, 2008)

the thing about it is, it can if your situation is already bad, like say i have an openWRT router and even tho it uses G i get better performance across it than most people get on N simply becuase its set up well, also across the internet even wired i get better performance/stability than most people....

but other than that no, a router isnt going to make anything better, infact it is usualy slightly less than having a computer hooked up directly, my router looses 1ms [altho yay even under 100% load it only looses 1ms] 1ms isnt alot, but ive seen some really bad ones that would drop packets and often be way more than 1ms even on good days


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## lollerskater69 (Dec 5, 2008)

thanks alot


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## Ravenas (Dec 5, 2008)

If anything, routers lower speed.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Dec 5, 2008)

If ur existing equipment was a bottleneck .. yes .. otherwise no


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 5, 2008)

lollerskater69 said:


> Hey i'm new to the forums, andhave a question.
> 
> My IP is verizon and they gave us an Actiontec wireless modem. I'm not sure whether is is b or g, but I want to set up my home networking with N. So can I use the modem I have now and just plug the router into the wireless modem? Also, if I have a wireless router that supports n, if I have a local connection to it, will it boost my download speeds, or will they remain the same? It's cable by the way if you guys needed to know that. Sorry is this is a dumb question, networking isn't really my thing!
> 
> ...


This is something that's pretty hard for most people to grasp...

Your Verizon connection is going to run at most at a certain level of throughput, lets say 10 Mb/s.  No matter what you do in side your house, the speed will not exceed that.  If you want to increase it, it would have to talk to Verizon or find a different ISP.

The typical router has up to 100 Mb/s wired transfer speed and 108 Mb/s (802.11g) wireless transfer speed.  If you had a laptop (108) transferring data to a desktop (100), the fastest it can go is 100 Mb/s.  Likewise, if you are doing something on the Internet from the same laptop, the fastest it could go is 10 Mb/s because of your Internet connection.

So if you got a fancy new router which usually means 1000 Mb/s wired and 300 Mb/s wireless (802.11n), that means computers could communicate with each other faster so long as they're equipped to do so.  For instance, if you had two draft-n laptops, they could be moving data amongst themselves at no less than three times faster than with the old router; however, because your Internet connection hasn't changed, any of those laptops accessing information on the Internet will still be limited to 10 Mb/s.

There's other advantages to draft-n like MIMO which means a more stable connection to the router.  For the most part, Internet speed remains largely unchanged unless you got a bad router.


Yes, you can plug a router into a router/modem combo device but I wouldn't recommend it.  If you can, ask Verizon for a modem-only device so you can use your own router.  My ISP was charging $5 a month for a router/modem combo.


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## lollerskater69 (Dec 6, 2008)

SO there is no point in getting N becuase the modem limits it? Your right it is sort of hard to understand.


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## francis511 (Dec 6, 2008)

N only affects network transfer speed , not download speed.


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## mrhuggles (Dec 6, 2008)

its very simple. crappy router = bad, good router = good, your internet is atleast yay good and its not gonna get any better than that, but a bad router would make it worse.


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 6, 2008)

lollerskater69 said:


> SO there is no point in getting N becuase the modem limits it? Your right it is sort of hard to understand.


What's your network topography? How many computers with what speed NIC (10, 100, 1000)?  How many laptops with what mode (b = 54; g = 108; n = 300)?  You don't have to be exact on this--just a best estimate will do.


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## freaksavior (Dec 6, 2008)

it depends. 

Are you using Fiber fios? If so then it might help if they gave you the apropriate modem with a 10/100/1000 wan port if so the wireless wont benifit much but a gigabit router will help


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## mrhuggles (Dec 6, 2008)

there is another reason to get N, your inside network.

i like g becuase its so cheap and you can get plenty of routers that work with openWRT out of the box.

also you should note that even under the best conditions g isnt getting over 30mbit and b isnt getting over like i dont know... i never ran a b network

personaly i prefer useing wires where possible


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 6, 2008)

I consistently get 120-100 Mb/s on my Systemax draft-n notebook connecting to a DGL-4500.  That's about 25' away through a few walls.


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## theeldest (Dec 6, 2008)

francis511 said:


> N only affects network transfer speed , not download speed.



N will also give a better range which can translate to better speeds.

As you get to the outside edge of your router's wireless range, it'll start throttling the speed down to maintain the connection, getting as low as 1Mb (something you'd definitely notice).

If you get an N router, then if you get further, and it throttles the speed down, it'll go from 300Mb => 150Mb => 54Mb, etc. So the increased speed and range will give you more of a guarantee that you're wireless connection won't be your internet bottleneck.


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## Sasqui (Dec 6, 2008)

I haven't read any bad advice here... just remember (if you didn't already know this!) - if you get an "N" wireless router, your laptop/pc connected wirelessly must also support the "N" protocol to get the speed or range advantage.


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## Nitro-Max (Dec 7, 2008)

In my experience online gaming surfing the web etc no wireless device ive used is as fast as a cable. my wireless setup is 125mbs but its no where near as fast unless im sending stuff from one pc to another on the same router i was downloading episodes of hereos on my gaming pc with wired connection i was able to download at over 400kb on the pc downstairs mainly used for web browsing and on wireless the max i could get was 75kb BIG difference tbh.

same with xbox360 users on wireless they seem to lag pretty bad.


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 7, 2008)

Yes, wireless naturally introduces more latency because space doesn't convey a message as fast as a closed system.  Wired is always the way to go unless your system is mobile.


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## mrhuggles (Dec 7, 2008)

my question is, are you getting 100-120mb/sec via like FTP or something? or are you just connecting that high?


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 7, 2008)

Connection speed is that high.  I could transfer a file from my server if you want to know actual throughput (probably 12-15 MB/s).  All my wired computers are gigabit.  Problem is, no home-use router I've seen is capable of sustaining speed much over 300 Mb/s.  That barely even scratches the surface of the 125+ MB/s (CAT6) the lines are capable of handling.


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## lollerskater69 (Dec 7, 2008)

thanks


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## mrhuggles (Dec 8, 2008)

thats an important thing to note, my wifi gets 2+mb/sec on basic 802.11g with no special features

ive seen alot of people with much worse wifi performance

so 802.11n can do 12-15mb/sec eh? thats faster than my 100mbit wired, i get about 11-12mb/sec over that

what about ping times and droped packets?

sorry ive never had the chance to get my hands on some wirelessN equipment so im really curious about what its actually like, in real world conditions


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 8, 2008)

Connection Speed: 39-52 Mb/sec
Signal Quality: Good/Excellant
Ping Server: 32 byte packets, 4 sent/4 received, all responses <1ms
File (pulling from server to laptop):Service Pack 2 for Server 2003/XP x64 Edition
File Size: 367,964,016 bytes (350.91 MiB)
File Transfer Time: 97 seconds
Average Transfer Speed: 3.62 MiB/s

This test was ran from the basement (router is on first floor).  In the direct line of sight of the router, there is a very large ventalation duct.  Approximate direct distance between the router and the laptop is about 35'.

Laptop was plugged in throughout the test so it wouldn't throttle back the wireless connection.


Same thing, different location (about 15', through a wall to the router)...
Connection Speed: 130 Mb/sec
Signal Quality: Excellant
File Transfer Time: 49 seconds
Average Transfer Speed: 7.16 MiB/s


Hardware...
D-Link DGL-4500 Router (4-port 10/100/1000, 802.11n)
SMC SMCGS16 Unmanaged Switch (7-port 10/100/1000)

75' CAT6 Crossover cable connecting the router and switch
6' CAT6 Patch cable connecting the switch to the server

Laptop: Systemax SR-15 (P9300 processor, 5400 RPM HDD, Windows Vista Home Premium) using an internal Intel WiFi Link 4965AGN wireless card (PCI Express bus).
Server: Custom (Dual Xeon 5310, 4 x 320 GB 7200 RPM System RAID5, 2 x 250 GB 7200 RPM Storage RAID1, Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition) using onboard Intel PRO/1000 EB NIC.

The file retrieved resides on the Storage volume.


Edit: Wired Test
Same file as above transferring from the server to the computer in my "System Specs" (also attached to the switch via 6' CAT6 Patch cable):
Custom (AMD Opteron 180, 2 x 250 GiB 7200 RPM System RAID0, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition) using onboard NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller (Marvell something or other is the chip manufacturer,10/100/1000).

File Transfer Time: 9 seconds
Average Transfer Speed: 38.99 MiB/s


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## mrhuggles (Dec 8, 2008)

what did you use to test that? i would like to benchmark my 802.11g


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 8, 2008)

Just Windows file sharing protocols (peer to peer).  Just did a copy and paste and started a stop watch when I clicked on paste.


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