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I recently upgraded my internet service from 8 Mbps to 16 Mbps. I have found that using Speedtest.net, I top out at ~12 Mbps. A few observations, if I connect directly to my modem through Ethernet I get the full 16 Mbps. If I use iPad to test speed wirelessly (using the WiFi router) I also get the full 16 Mpbs. I have checked my router settings for any QoS settings that may be throttling but can't find any. I have a NetGear WNDR3400v2 with the latest firmware. Any suggestions? If I can't fix this, does anyone know a good relatively cheap router to replace this with?

So using the Netgear, your iPad gets the full 16, but your primary system (whatever it is) only gets 12, is what you're saying? Is your primary system wired or wirelessly connected to the Netgear (or do you get the same result for both)?

absurdity wrote:

So using the Netgear, your iPad gets the full 16, but your primary system (whatever it is) only gets 12, is what you're saying? Is your primary system wired or wirelessly connected to the Netgear (or do you get the same result for both)?

Strange, I never saw an email there was a response to this. Sorry for the delay in responding.

My desktop is hardwired to the router. I have tested my laptop both hardwired and Wifi. As the modem is in the basement, I have only tested the laptop straight to the modem.

Desktop ~ 12 Mbps
Laptop direct to modem by Ethernet ~ 16 Mbps
Laptop to router by Ethernet ~ 12 Mpbs
Laptop by Wifi - can't remember, will retest tonight
iPad ~ 16 Mbps

Do all of the Ethernet ports get 12mbps? I had an Ethernet port fail on one of my old routers that slowed things down to about that speed.

+1 for trying other switch ports.

If just 1 port is bad you can pick up a cheap 100Mbps switch and plug it into a good port on the router if necessary.

Do you have any extra filtering (URL blocking, QoS, various DDoS settings, etc.) enabled? I've had various routers (Netgear, Asus, etc.), where if any of that stuff was turned on, performance would fall off a cliff. Another router would slow way down whenever it got warm.

These days, I build my own routers with pfSense and a WAP so I know exactly where any problems are.

homerdog wrote:

+1 for trying other switch ports.

If just 1 port is bad you can pick up a cheap 100Mbps switch and plug it into a good port on the router if necessary.

I agree with this. I dunno if they're still cheap, but 3com NJ220s were good, inexpensive 100Mbps switches (and even support VLANs). Connect the back port to the modem, and connect one of the front ports to a good port on the wireless router. Make sure the ports are set to full duplex, and hardcoded to 100Mbps, instead of letting it select 10/100, and you should be good to go.

Nope, you want a Gigabit switch on your local LAN, not 100Mb/s and you want to let it autoneg so that it will autoneg the 802.1x flow control. Gigabit internal switches make a huge difference in throwing large files from one box to another.

What speed is your desktops LAN connection configured to 10/100/or 1000?

It looks like it is set to 10MBps.

I just dropped my verizon FIOS 75dwn 35up service that tested 83-85 down and 30-40 up without a slowdown ever to RCN 110MBPS dwn and 15 up.

I was not getting over 100mbps ever then I tried moving a large file from one hard wired computer to another and I was only getting a true 11-12mbps when I used to get 100-200mbps or whatever speed the drive could read and write at.
I soon found out that the garbage wifi/wired router they gave me had only 10/100 fast ethernet....that is totally unacceptable.
I called RCN and asked then how they can charge me for a 1100mbps service and then give me a router that will only ever let me max out at 100mbps. They came out the very next day and swapped out the crap linksys 2500 for a gigabit capable linksys 2700.

I just tested at around 109mbps but at least I don't have to wait 10x as long transferring 10+ gigabyte file and it does fluctuate a bit down into the 90s.
But I am saving 50$ a month and it is slightly faster so I am happy for now.

notfred wrote:

Nope, you want a Gigabit switch on your local LAN, not 100Mb/s and you want to let it autoneg so that it will autoneg the 802.1x flow control. Gigabit internal switches make a huge difference in throwing large files from one box to another.

They also tend to be pricier. Personally, I'd use nothing *but* 1gbps or even 10gbps switches, but not everyone is willing to drop coin on those, when they can get a 100mbps switch for less.

Sad, but true.

*EDIT*

BTW, 802.1x is an port-based authentication method requiring supplicants, authenticators (the switch), and an authentication server (Radius and EAP) for port-sec. It's NOT for flow control. Besides, if his devices are limited to 100Mbps, the switchports will auto-negotiate down to 100Mbps, so he wouldn't see any speed boost. They'd also have to run Cat6 cable everywhere, since Cat5e doesn't support Gigabit speeds (IIRC). And based on experience, those have much tighter tolerances when it comes to "rolling your own" cable. Monoprice has pretty good prices on pre-made cables, but we have no idea how long their runs are, so making their own *could* end up being cheaper.

*EDIT 2*

I've never used one of their switches, just Hautespot WRAPs based on the RouterOS, but RouterBoard offers a 24 port gigabit switch with built-in b/g/n Wifi. No idea on price, though.

Sorry, I meant 802.3x, I always get those two confused.

You always want to autoneg, in addition to pause negotiation (and in the case of 1000BASE-T master/slave negotiation), if you force the speed and that stops the PHY from responding to auto neg and the other side autonegs then the other side believes it is talking to 10Mb/s half duplex ancient stuff. The PHY will normally catch the speed mismatch and give you connectivity, but there is no way to catch the duplex mismatch, leading to a ton of spurious collisions and really terrible performance. Most stuff these days when you force the speed is still doing autoneg just with a limited set of speed/duplex options to avoid exactly this scenario.

Gigabit Ethernet in the home is 1000Base-T and only requires Cat-5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000BASE-T#1000BASE-T You may get longer runs and better noise immunity on Cat-5e and Cat-6, plus Cat-6 is 10GigE capable, but Cat-5 is sufficient. The signal bandwidth on the cable is the same as 100Base-Tx, it just uses all the pairs bidirectional and with better encoding to get the improved speeds.

Gigabit switches are cheap if you go for the plain unmanaged ones. I've got 3 of the DGS-1008 from D-Link which are currently $50 Canadian http://www.ncix.com/detail/d-link-dgs-1 ... Mgod71oAVQ there are similar from all the other switch manufacturers.

notfred wrote:

Sorry, I meant 802.3x, I always get those two confused.

You always want to autoneg, in addition to pause negotiation (and in the case of 1000BASE-T master/slave negotiation), if you force the speed and that stops the PHY from responding to auto neg and the other side autonegs then the other side believes it is talking to 10Mb/s half duplex ancient stuff. The PHY will normally catch the speed mismatch and give you connectivity, but there is no way to catch the duplex mismatch, leading to a ton of spurious collisions and really terrible performance. Most stuff these days when you force the speed is still doing autoneg just with a limited set of speed/duplex options to avoid exactly this scenario.

Gigabit Ethernet in the home is 1000Base-T and only requires Cat-5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000BASE-T#1000BASE-T You may get longer runs and better noise immunity on Cat-5e and Cat-6, plus Cat-6 is 10GigE capable, but Cat-5 is sufficient. The signal bandwidth on the cable is the same as 100Base-Tx, it just uses all the pairs bidirectional and with better encoding to get the improved speeds.

Gigabit switches are cheap if you go for the plain unmanaged ones. I've got 3 of the DGS-1008 from D-Link which are currently $50 Canadian http://www.ncix.com/detail/d-link-dgs-1 ... Mgod71oAVQ there are similar from all the other switch manufacturers.

Like a great man once told me: "Anything auto, you oughtta not use it". With a few exceptions, that still holds true for me.

I'm definitely mistaken about Cat5 not running GigE. My bad! Guess I'm just too used to having to run Cat6 to GigE and 10GigE SFPs.

I will disagree about unmanaged switches, though. Maybe I'm just jaded from seeing those things FUBAR networks in production environments, but that's me. I love having control over the switches, and being able to segment out traffic per-VLAN, idiot-proof trunking, Port Security, QoS enforcement, etc...

*EDIT*

And I'm kinda ashamed to admit it, but I've got a knee-jerk reaction to all things D-Link. A former CTO was getting kickba...er, "revenue share" from D-Link to deploy their unmanaged switches all over the place. They caused nothing but headaches, when a managed switch (HP ProCurve, Cisco, etc...) would've resolved all the problems we encountered. I need to work on that.

Oh, and one other thing, that RouterBoard switch I linked to upthread is an L3 managed switch, with built-in VPN, QoS, and firewall, as well as built-in WiFi. He could replace that router with one device (change one switchport to a routed port to connect to the modem), DHCP servers for each vlan, and sorta future proof himself (until he decides he needs an 802.11ac AP, in which case, he can just disable the onboard WiFi, and connect the AP to it (like a Ubiquiti UniFi AP). the newest 802.11ac APs can actually use 2-3 ports, to realize the 2Gbps and higher aggregate speeds off its backplane.

apkellogg wrote:

My desktop is hardwired to the router. I have tested my laptop both hardwired and Wifi. As the modem is in the basement, I have only tested the laptop straight to the modem.

Desktop ~ 12 Mbps
Laptop direct to modem by Ethernet ~ 16 Mbps
Laptop to router by Ethernet ~ 12 Mpbs
Laptop by Wifi - can't remember, will retest tonight
iPad ~ 16 Mbps

If you want to test routing/switching performance, it would be interesting to test from one wired device to another. For example:
- ping the router from a wired desktop
- ping the desktop from the laptop

You really should be able to saturate your link bandwidth (probably 100MBps) within the network. Otherwise, check for lost/corrupted packets and, consequently, for a bad cable or bad LAN port.

PS. The ping command sends packets requesting an answer (echo) to specific addresses. Try ping -f [router address] from the windows command line and see what you get. Note that the windows 7 firewall may be blocking ping echo responses, so if you ping your desktop you may not get a response unless you disable the firewall. You can read some pages online on the ping command (example: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/commandli ... ommand.htm) but there are other, more sophisticated utilities if necessary.