Solved Will getting a new router make more bandwidth available to me?

[uilymmot]

My internet is really terrible and I am thinking of getting a better router
I am currently on an unlimited plan from my ISP
My current router is a NetComm NB304N N300 router
And I am looking at getting a D-Link DSL2870B
would I see any improvements?
or is it just my ISP being bad?

 

[chev65]

I'm not sure if you are using wired or wireless connections here but both of those routers are comparable and the D-link and won't really help as they are both 10/100Mbps Ethernet routers with Wireless N, although the one your using now is a combo modem/router.

A step up would be a singular modem not a combo unit like you are using now, then use a 10/100/1000Mbps wireless N router, of course this will cost more but you would probably see some improvements going that route, more range for the wireless etc.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
1) If you plan on using Wireless --then Wireless N is the way to go.
2) Are the Wireless cards in your computers able to use Wireless N -- if they can't then you won't get the benefit of Wireless N.
3) Does your ISP give you a decently fast internet connection in the first place -- if it doesn't then everything else is a waste of time.

4) If you are using wireless and don't get much of a signal in your house --switch channels to avoid contention with other people in the same area. You could also use a Wi-Fi extender that boosts the signal in your house so it will swamp any contention from neighbours.

5) If you have fibre optic cable etc then use a wired LAN if you can --much faster all round.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[openminds]

Good evening,
Your NB304N is not a bad router, capable of speeds up to 300Mbps as mentioned above. What you need to do is ask yourself the following questions:
What wireless units are you using in your computers and what speeds are they capable of?
Do you have any home network "issues" or computer settings that are causing a slowdown?
What speed is your ISP "Promising" you?
What do you consider slow?

You mentioned your ISP is giving you an "unlimited" plan. Chances are they are talking about quantity of bandwidth, not quality (speed). If they are giving you a 1.5 Mbps connection then you will only get just that. That would equate to around 150Kbps download speed when you're downloading a file.

If you are running wireless, then chances are you have at least up to a 54Mbps connection between your computer and your router. Now, if your ISP was giving you a 300Mbps connection, hardware would have to be addressed.

Give us the info on your wireless adapter on your computer, then let us know what speed your IP is promising you. Then, Google search a good online bandwidth speed tester. Let us know your results from there.

 

[uilymmot]

Good evening,
Your NB304N is not a bad router, capable of speeds up to 300Mbps as mentioned above. What you need to do is ask yourself the following questions:
What wireless units are you using in your computers and what speeds are they capable of?
Do you have any home network "issues" or computer settings that are causing a slowdown?
What speed is your ISP "Promising" you?
What do you consider slow?

You mentioned your ISP is giving you an "unlimited" plan. Chances are they are talking about quantity of bandwidth, not quality (speed). If they are giving you a 1.5 Mbps connection then you will only get just that. That would equate to around 150Kbps download speed when you're downloading a file.

If you are running wireless, then chances are you have at least up to a 54Mbps connection between your computer and your router. Now, if your ISP was giving you a 300Mbps connection, hardware would have to be addressed.

Give us the info on your wireless adapter on your computer, then let us know what speed your IP is promising you. Then, Google search a good online bandwidth speed tester. Let us know your results from there.

I cannot seem to find the precise name for my wireless adapter but it is a VIA USB LAN adapter capable of running up to 54Mbs on 802.11n

I am pretty sure i do not have any wireless issues

I have no idea what my ISP has promised me as they did not state it

What is consider slow would be less than 75kps and/or as soon as I start teleporting around in online multiplayer games

As I live in New Zealand I have heard than the internet is really bad and the connection cuts out at random times, but all of my friends do not seem to have any problems.

And I cannot connect my computer to the router via an Ethernet cable as it is too far away.

I have round 16 wireless devices connected to the router but most of them are only on standby, would getting a beefier router regulate stuff better? or would I be better off just waiting to have fiber optics installed in my area by the government which would take around 8 months

 

[openminds]

Ok, I suggest you go to dslreports.com and run some of their tools. I think you have to sign up for an account to use some of them but it's free.
They have some good speed test tools and line quality tools. You will see them under the "Tools" section in the link list on the left side of their pages. At least you will have some more info on the quality of what you are getting. Run the Flash Speed tests, using a couple different servers, running each server at least twice, and post what your averages are. Run a line quality test and post those results as well. A Smoke Ping would be good too, but will take a while to get the results. A Tweak Test won't help much as most settings it checks is in the router, but you can run it anyways just to see what you get. And note, You will need to log into your router and go to your security settings and enable "Respond On Ping" to use any of the tests other than the speed test.

As for 16 devices, umm, yeah, you might want to think of a more Enterprise level router if most of those are going to be running simultaneously. But you mention most are in standby mode. If this is the case, you are probably fine with your current router.





What is the name of your ISP?

 

[uilymmot]

Okay I'll do what you suggested

and the name of my ISP is Slingshot

 

[chev65]

I believe the original question had to do with comparing one router to the one you are using now, I believe you wanted more bandwidth and that is exactly what I'm trying to explain here so I would pay attention. There are no networking tools that will do this for you.

Your ISP speeds have nothing to do with using 10/100/1000 Mbps speeds on the LAN. The ISP may be having problems but unfortunately we have no way of making that better so upgrading the LAN would be the next best thing.

The router has nothing to do with ISP speeds but there are plenty of things you can do to obtain more bandwidth on your LAN, that's "local area network" just for clarification.

I would consider following my previous advice of using a regular modem and a regular 300Mbps N, 10/100/1000 router, not a combo router/modem unit which are inferior, although this probably won't make much difference, you could maybe hope for a stronger connection for your wireless devices.

There are ways to make the wireless LAN connections much faster, this is how you would gain bandwidth on your LAN "original question". Because we certainly don't have any control over what the ISP is doing.

There are many USB and PCI-e wireless NIC's capable of achieving 300Mbps, if you are seeing 54Mbps using a wireless N router and n adaptor then you aren't using the correct settings for your router which should be in the 802.11N Only mode which is actually the only way to achieve true 802.11n speeds of 300-450Mbps. Channel bonding, which shows up as the 20Mhz-40Mhz setting can also add bandwidth, isn't that what we are talking about here?

These settings will only work if all the clients are wireless n capable. In fact, any legacy wireless G or below devices that require support will bring your entire wireless network down to the old 54Mbps which is so ten years ago. The only way to gain more bandwidth is to upgrade all of your wireless clients to wireless n NIC's which would allow you to run the 802.11n Only setting.

It's also required that you use WPA-2 personal and AES encryption as these security settings are actually made to operate at full 802.11n speeds.

Most people are completely unaware of these settings and how to use them.

 

[uilymmot]

okay I guess I understood most of that

problem is some of the devices are rather old

thanks for explaining that stuff