Advice with router settings

[numnutz6383]

Hey all, I'm new to the site, but not new to networking/PCs. Networking has never been my forte but I understand the basics and have been setting up basic networks for years, nothing too advanced though and have never been concerned with the speeds I was getting too much.

I recently moved and set up the network at my new place. Out of curiosity I set up the network using an On Networks N300R (it came free with the cable modem I got to avoid the monthly rental fee) and also tried the Cisco/Linksys E2000 that I've owned for a couple of years. As far as I see, they are very similar, exception being the Cisco having dual band capability and gigabit Ethernet. I set up both with very similar settings, keeping the Cisco at 2.4 ghz and both at 20/40 mhz coexistence. So I did some testing on Speedtest using my laptop, in the same location in the apartment. Using the E2000 I got average down speeds of 15-20 mbps, using the N300R the speeds were 45-55 mbps. I can't account for the difference, what gives?

I'd rather use the E2000 because of a short service interruption I had with the N300R that needed a restart and the E2000 has never failed my in years.

In any case, can someone help me setup the E2000 up to get the best performance out of it?

Thanks

 

[azazel1024]

What are the router settings though.

Its possible one is defaulting to 20MHz versus 40MHz mode. Coexistance being set doesn't mean it will function properly.

If channel is set to auto, one could be selecting a very busy channel and the other one not. One could be setting 20MHz and a very busy channel and one 40MHz and a couple of non-busy channels.

It could just be that the one router is crap.

I've seen pleny of speed differences between supposedly same class clients and routers.

If the N300R is much faster with Wifi, you can always set it up in access point mode (I assume its a possibility) and run the E2000 as the router with Wifi off.

Just disable DHCP on the N300R and you are good to go (and connect it LAN to LAN with the E2000).

 

[numnutz6383]

What are the router settings though.

Its possible one is defaulting to 20MHz versus 40MHz mode. Coexistance being set doesn't mean it will function properly.

If channel is set to auto, one could be selecting a very busy channel and the other one not. One could be setting 20MHz and a very busy channel and one 40MHz and a couple of non-busy channels.

It could just be that the one router is crap.

I've seen pleny of speed differences between supposedly same class clients and routers.

If the N300R is much faster with Wifi, you can always set it up in access point mode (I assume its a possibility) and run the E2000 as the router with Wifi off.

Just disable DHCP on the N300R and you are good to go (and connect it LAN to LAN with the E2000).

Thanks for the reply.

I've tried both routers with them set to either 20mhz or Auto and in each situation the N300R blows the doors off the E2000. Yea I understand speed differences between same class routers but didn't think the difference would be THAT big (25-30mbps), especially between a budget class router like On Networks, and a supposed higher class like Cisco/Linksys.

I think I may just use the N300R as an AP as you said, but could I use the N300R as a 2.4ghz router (connected LAN to LAN to the E2000) and the E2000 in 5ghz mode simultaneously?

I figure I could use the 2.4ghz band for longer distances across the apartment and the 5ghz band for the better speeds closer to the router itself.

 

[azazel1024]

Yes, you can set them up that way. Just disable 5GHz on one and 2.4GHz on the other. Of course if the other router is slower on 5GHz than the one router is on 2.4GHz...doesn't seem to make sense, but that would require testing.

 

[numnutz6383]

Yes, you can set them up that way. Just disable 5GHz on one and 2.4GHz on the other. Of course if the other router is slower on 5GHz than the one router is on 2.4GHz...doesn't seem to make sense, but that would require testing.

Only the Cisco is 2.4 OR 5ghz capable, and NOT simultaneous, the N300R is 2.4 ghz only.

So I'll set the Cisco at 5ghz @ 40mhz channel width and leave the N300R at 2.4ghz with 20/40mhz coexistence on. I'll turn of DHCP on the N300R and connect it via LAN to the E2000, and that should be it. Does that sound about right?

Thanks for the help.

 

[numnutz6383]

I took a further look at the Speedtest.net results and it appears the consistently slow results (from the Cisco E2000) are from a different Internet IP Address than the consistently fast results (N300R). Is there any way to assign the same address the N300R was using to get those speeds on the Cisco E2000?

 

[jlake]

How have you cascaded the routers? LAN to LAN ? LAN to WAN ?

What is the local IP address of the N300R? What is the local IP address of the E2000? You probably realize they both have the same default IP address of 192.168.1.1? Right?

You realize that you typically can't just swap routers from your modem? Right? You'll probably need to unplug your cable modem from the electrical outlet for 10 minutes every time you swap routers so the MAC address gets registered properly with your ISP.

Make sure they both have the latest firmware and reset to factory defaults and try again. Search this forum or search linksys forum for proper way to cascade routers. Also, remove your old wireless profiles from your computers, phones etc.

Make sure you set 2.4 ghz width to "20 MHz only" and use inSSIDer to help you find best non overlapping channel.

 

[numnutz6383]

How have you cascaded the routers? LAN to LAN ? LAN to WAN ?

What is the local IP address of the N300R? What is the local IP address of the E2000? You probably realize they both have the same default IP address of 192.168.1.1? Right?

You realize that you typically can't just swap routers from your modem? Right? You'll probably need to unplug your cable modem from the electrical outlet for 10 minutes every time you swap routers so the MAC address gets registered properly with your ISP.

Make sure they both have the latest firmware and reset to factory defaults and try again. Search this forum or search linksys forum for proper way to cascade routers. Also, remove your old wireless profiles from your computers, phones etc.

Make sure you set 2.4 ghz width to "20 MHz only" and use inSSIDer to help you find best non overlapping channel.

They haven't been cascaded yet, both local IP addresses of the routers are 192.168.1.1 when they're connected. All the profiles on my clients are new profiles set up when the routers were hooked up to the modem the first time at the new apartment. Both routers were set to 20 MHz when connected. I've used inSSIDer but that was little help 1,6, and 11 are all heavily used. I'm just trying to figure out why the On Networks router regularly doubles the down speeds of the Cisco router. The only difference I can see right now is the Internet IP Address assigned by Comcast is different between the two based on Speedtest.net results.

You realize you come off awfully condescending typing "right?" after each comment, right?

 

[azazel1024]

I missed that you were using speedtest.

If you want to test wireless speeds you need to do this WLAN to LAN. No other method is reliable. Otherwise you are testing WAN to WLAN or WLAN to WAN throughput, which has not all that much to do with wireless.

It could be WAN settings that are messing it up or the method of connection, PPPoE or something else slowing things down, though I'd think just about any router from the last 7-8 years should be able to handle at least 50-60Mbp of WAN throughput no matter the protocol (unless VPN).

It doesn't sound like wireless settings are to blame.

 

[numnutz6383]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, lets see if I understand this correctly. If Speedtest only measures the ISP provided bandwith to my router, to measure the speed the router provides to my home network I need to use another method to measure client-to-client transfer speeds.

So, what accounts for the drop in bandwith results as provided by Speedtest between the two routers I mentioned above? Why would the OnNetworks router regularly spank the Cisco/Linksys router (tests between the two routers were done within minutes of each other, several times, over the course of several weeks).

 

[stevech]

Speed test fills the capacity provided by your Internet Service Provider (if the distant test host computer can keep up). This is the WAN port on your router, to the cable/DSL modem, to the ISP, to the Internet, to a test host on the Internet, and back.

Testing speeds within your home does not use the WAN port on the router. It's all local. SpeedTest can't test your LAN speeds because there are no host computers that provide the speedtest software.

the easiest way to test LAN speeds, with or without WiFi, is to have a folder share open to the LAN. Then copy one big file (like 200 megabytes) from a fast PC to another fast PC. And try to do this with the ethernet wired connections using gigabit ethernet. Doing this, you should see 700megabytes/sec (not megabits/sec). Megabits/sec = megabytes/sec x 8.

If your LAN is 10/100BT rather than gigabit (1000BT), expect intra-LAN speeds 1/100th as fast as gigabit.

With WiFi involved in this transfer, e.g., one end is a laptop using WiFi, expect another big step down in speed.

Most of us need no more than 10-20Megabits/sec for snappy Internet response times while web surfing. Really fast intra-LAN speeds are handy if you do a LOT of big file transfers among PCs in you home, or to a network attached storage (NAS) device.

 

[Kris404]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, lets see if I understand this correctly. If Speedtest only measures the ISP provided bandwith to my router, to measure the speed the router provides to my home network I need to use another method to measure client-to-client transfer speeds.

So, what accounts for the drop in bandwith results as provided by Speedtest between the two routers I mentioned above? Why would the OnNetworks router regularly spank the Cisco/Linksys router (tests between the two routers were done within minutes of each other, several times, over the course of several weeks).

I suggest you try DD-WRT on E2000 to see if it helps. You can always revert back to stock firmware if you want.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_E2000