# Cable Internet + Wireless Router = Slow speeds, dropped wireless



## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

I see this problem all over the place, but have never seen a solution. 

The internet works fine when the cable modem is connected directly to the PC. When a wireless router is entered into the equation, the wired connection drops to 1/10 of the original speed and the wireless connection has intermittent "dropps" at a fixed range of time (every 10~30 mins).

Firmware is up to date, cables are correct, products are new, etc.


If I connect my computer via a non-wireless linksys SWITCH it works fine - a wireless router, however, causes terrible results. I can get speeds of 4000+ kbps direct (or via switch), but only 1/10 of that via a wireless belkin 
router. FYI - I have had the same problem with Comcast in the past (Indianapolis, IN). What's worse, wirelessly there are intermittent outages (i.e. my computers must request network addresses ever 30 min or so).

I noted that it is almost exactly timed the same each hour by looking at an Instant messenger "signed off" log. This is NOT equipment specific: two cities, three different routers, two different modems, about 5 computers. 


Current config:
XP PC, XP laptop(s)
Motorola SurfBoard Cable Modem SB5100
Belkin 802.11g Wireless Router F5D7230-4
*Linksys 4 port switch EZXS55W (still poor connection without this)
WEP enabled, using hex keys on wireless connections

SPEEDS (on WIRED PC):
Through router: 282/65 (down/up) for PC
No router: 4237/413

USING TRACERT:
Tracing route to so-6-0-0.gar2.Washington1.Level3.net [67.29.170.1] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.2.1 
2 6 ms 7 ms 16 ms 69-171-92-1-gate.clvdoh.adelphia.net [69.171.92.1] 
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.



IPCONFIG:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-A6-57-38-DB
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 24, 2005 12:13:09 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 17, 1902 2:59:30 PM


***I changed my DNS server to 199.5.157.128 to see if I could solve the wireless "intermittent disconnect" issues...so far, 1 hour without a disconnect...so far so good.....DOWNLOAD SPEEDS STILL MINIMAL ON BOTH MACHINES


Any suggestions?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

have you the correct date and time in the router as this looks a bit odd
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 24, 2005 12:13:09 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 17, 1902 2:59:30 PM
it expires a 103 years before it is obtained


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> have you the correct date and time in the router as this looks a bit odd
> Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 24, 2005 12:13:09 PM
> Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 17, 1902 2:59:30 PM
> it expires a 103 years before it is obtained




Time on the router is correct and date is today.

However, the lease time for IP's on my server is set to "Forever". I think that the programmers of the firmware simply decided that if they put an expiration date before that of the "obtained" date, then the software would never kick a user off his/her IP.

I could be wrong though...


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
try tcpoptimizer


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
> try tcpoptimizer


Thanks for the program link...

Worked on tweaking the values for a bit...slow speed problem still persists. I am skeptical whether or not the cable companies actually did something to limit the thouroughput when using routers. 

Has anyone out there been able to solve a problem like this in the past?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

d/l and run this and check what speed you are actually getting you can set it to run auto at set times i.e. every hour
http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpeed/Download/


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> d/l and run this and check what speed you are actually getting you can set it to run auto at set times i.e. every hour
> http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpeed/Download/




Thanks, I'm downloading right now and will post what I find.

Perhaps it's another issue, but I'd guess that these are related...when directly connecting PC to Modem and viewing Networking in Task Manager, my downloads are constantly high - i.e. they form a straight, constant line until completed. HOWEVER, when modem -> router -> PC (wired connection) my Networking plot is a series of spikes.

This means that the connecting gets some data and then goes to 0% utilized - over and over and over again.

Also, my cable modem downstream is 6 dBmV - is that too high? It seems a little out of range. 

This whole issue has left me confused :4-dontkno


Thanks a LOT for your help though - it's nice to get someone who'll offer assistance these days.


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> d/l and run this and check what speed you are actually getting you can set it to run auto at set times i.e. every hour
> http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpIQ/LineSpeed/Download/




Last 24 hours 
Number of tests 16 
Download speed 1492.18 KBits/sec 186.52 KBytes/sec 
Upload speed 289.25 KBits/sec 36.16 KBytes/sec 
DNS Speed 4308.00 mSec 
Latency 244.00 mSec 


My regular (non-router) connection is well over 3500 KBits/sec. 186.52 KBytes/sec is not bad though - compared to the 30 KBytes/sec that I was getting on tests later today...I am going let this run overnight and tomorrow and see what happens...


...I still don't see how adding a router to the network would possibly change the speed by so much (especially since I'm still using a wired connection)...that is really what I want to solve --- why does a router decrease speed so much?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check if there is a firmware upgrade for the router


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> check if there is a firmware upgrade for the router



Yeah, as per my originial post this was the first thing that I did with my router (and do with all other hardware). 

The issue with disconnectivity seems to be solved - not exactly sure how, but AIM has stayed on all night.

The speed issue is still present though.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

i had similar speeds and had to replace the router to a adsl2+ compliant router and then had fun and games updating the firmware on it


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> i had similar speeds and had to replace the router to a adsl2+ compliant router and then had fun and games updating the firmware on it



hehe - great....so an adsl2+ router...don't know if I can afford to replace this one right now :-(

The amazing thing (to me at least) is that this problem presists over a range of routers.

Anyway, thanks for the help!


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

i bought thr router my isp advised and they gave me the wrong model no.store refused to restock it,so had to fork out for another one
then when i connected it found it needed a firmware update to make it compliant
firmware would not install as to the instuctions from dlink,so they rma'ed it
the replacement was the same,
their techs guided me through it over the phone and at the end said press enter and now you are right,
they were not very impressed when i informed them the result was the same
they went away to think about it and so did i
i thought drive firmware updates are done from within windows,so to hell with it,if i had to buy another one so be it
so i followed their instructions up to the point of pressing the update firmware button and instead exited the router setup
went to were i had saved the update and clicked on the icon,up popped the update box and took about 20secs and the firmware was updated
it pushed my speed from around 1600 to 3 to 3500kbis,still not happy with it as i have a 12000/1000 connection
the upload sits around 750-780 so to my way of thinking i would expect the d/l to be around 9000+


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## Traida (Jul 24, 2005)

dai said:


> i bought thr router my isp advised and they gave me the wrong model no.store refused to restock it,so had to fork out for another one
> then when i connected it found it needed a firmware update to make it compliant
> firmware would not install as to the instuctions from dlink,so they rma'ed it
> the replacement was the same,
> ...



Yeah, there was an easy solution to my problem, but one which the manufaturer failed to list in the installation steps...

Apparently there was a DIFFERENT FIRMWARE FOR MY VERSION OF THE ROUTER (i.e. my router was v3000 or something and there was an additional file on the site).

I had been using the "update my firmware" option in the router's homepage (i.e. 192.168.x.x) but was told that "for this version, the router's page does not hook up with Belkin's webpage correctly - you must download directly from there"


That is what I did, and now the speeds are fast.

***Funny story --- about 2 days after I figured all of this out, I purchased another D-Link 108 Mbps router for really cheap and am now using that with no problems --- oh well.

Thanks to all who offered help!

My advice: CHECK THE MANUFACTURER'S WEBSITE AND YOUR ROUTER VERSION AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO INFACT HAVE THE MOST UP TO DATE FIRMWARE. 

Looking back it seems like such a rookie mistake --- never trust the software :4-thatsba


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