Will a new Wireless Router speed up my internet?

[Nick R]

The problem with increasing transmit power is that it only affects the transmit power of the router. Don't forget, the wireless device has to be able to communicate with the router as well. It's not a one-way system. Even if the laptop can receive the signal, if the router can't receive an intelligable signal from the the laptop... It's useless.

The pioneer 10 space probe is a good example of this. Even though it most certainly could receive the final contact attempts, it couldn't transmit powerfully enough for a useful signal to be received by the DSN.

 

[rg200amp]

Hello everyone! Just another update on the router.

As you can see, the speeds are being maintained. This test was taken with the iMac (three floors away from the router with lots of brick in between) while my laptop was downloading a movie, my TV was streaming Netflix, and my ipad was streaming a HD video on youtube.

This router really rocks! Could not be more pleased with the performance.

And the price is really nice considering how good the thing performs.

That is all!

 

[rg200amp]

Another update:

I had a DOCSIS 2 UBEE modem from Comcast. Today, I just got a DOCSIS 3 Modem.

I gained a good bit of speed on the Upload and Download. .

It REALLY makes things a lot "snappier".

Also, just got word Comcast/Xfinity is raising the speeds for everyone.

Anyone that has Blast (30mbps) will be upped to 50mbps.
50mbps users will be upped to 105mbps.

CSR said that should take affect within a day or two for my area. Looking forward to that!

 

[Bill in Utah]

That's great that you are back online and up to what you are paying for.

I will say that you will not notice anything more over what you have now. When I went from 1 to 15Mbps VERY noticeable. 15 to 50Mbps not so much. Above 50Mbps (my service is up to 100Mbps) nothing noticed except running speed tests.

I wish I could take my speed back to 15Mbps and save some $$. Even with many computers/tablets/smartphones/video players and such all going on at once 15Mbps would be just fine.

Take care, bill

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
That's great that you are back online and up to what you are paying for.

I will say that you will not notice anything more over what you have now. When I went from 1 to 15Mbps VERY noticeable. 15 to 50Mbps not so much. Above 50Mbps (my service is up to 100Mbps) nothing noticed except running speed tests.

I wish I could take my speed back to 15Mbps and save some $$. Even with many computers/tablets/smartphones/video players and such all going on at once 15Mbps would be just fine.

Take care, bill


I download and "use" internet quite a bit. An extra 20-25 mbps is always welcome!

I can tell the difference very much so while using work wifi, 14-16 mbps compared to my home's. But your right, the "normal" stuff like web surfing is not going to see a difference. Web sites fully load before im finished taking my finger off the mouse already.

 

[LeakySeals]

What kind of router are you using again?

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
What kind of router are you using again?


It's a dual band Netgear WNDR3400.

 

[rjundi]

IMHO use Ethernet if possible. Wireless can be an intermittent choke.

I wish they would increase the 3 mpbs upload to 10-15. It hangs me up a lot.

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
IMHO use Ethernet if possible. Wireless can be an intermittent choke.

I wish they would increase the 3 mpbs upload to 10-15. It hangs me up a lot.


Not if you have a good router.

Take a look at the start of the thread. I was getting under 10mbps with a old router. A mid grade new one gets me to exactly where I should be. Heck, even higher.

 

[LeakySeals]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
What kind of router are you using again?


It's a dual band Netgear WNDR3400.

Have you set up your QoS rules yet? You have a fast connection, prioritizing traffic through the router will help prevent the router from being a packet bottleneck.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Originally Posted By: rjundi
IMHO use Ethernet if possible. Wireless can be an intermittent choke.

I wish they would increase the 3 mpbs upload to 10-15. It hangs me up a lot.


Not if you have a good router.

Take a look at the start of the thread. I was getting under 10mbps with a old router. A mid grade new one gets me to exactly where I should be. Heck, even higher.


I think I have a decent router Cisco E3000, and still find the ethernet cable to also be faster. I occasionally download large files for work and it is always faster to connect to ethernet over using Wifi even if close to router.

 

[rg200amp]

Just got an email from Comcast telling me to unplug the Modem so that the speed upgrade will go through!

Good Stuff!

And a lot of you were right, the Wifi did take away a good bit of speed!

 

[rg200amp]

Just wanted to add an update.

My friend bought my iMac, since I am picking up a the next gen model, and he did not have a dual band "5ghz" router. So I gave him my Netgear WNDR3400.

Sooo. . .

Me being sick in the head, I decided to buy WAYYY more than I needed and got the Asus AC66r.

As imagined, I have no complaints! lol
The thing is a power house!


Here is a speed test on the 5GHZ band on my MacBook Pro sitting in my car, outside the house, and the router is on the other side of the house:

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Anyone want to buy my 8 year old Linksys???

Put DD-WRT (or tomato) on it and set it to repeater mode, and sell it as a repeater on craigslist. I just sold mine for $20 this way.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
The problem with increasing transmit power is that it only affects the transmit power of the router. Don't forget, the wireless device has to be able to communicate with the router as well. It's not a one-way system. Even if the laptop can receive the signal, if the router can't receive an intelligable signal from the the laptop... It's useless.

The pioneer 10 space probe is a good example of this. Even though it most certainly could receive the final contact attempts, it couldn't transmit powerfully enough for a useful signal to be received by the DSN.


Also another thing is usually if you increase the transmission power you will reduce the sensitivity of the reception, so it will not really gain much speed. I found that adding a repeater in the middle of the path is the best way to increase the range.

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: rg200amp
Just wanted to add an update.

My friend bought my iMac, since I am picking up a the next gen model, and he did not have a dual band "5ghz" router. So I gave him my Netgear WNDR3400.

Sooo. . .

Me being sick in the head, I decided to buy WAYYY more than I needed and got the Asus AC66r.

As imagined, I have no complaints! lol
The thing is a power house!


Here is a speed test on the 5GHZ band on my MacBook Pro sitting in my car, outside the house, and the router is on the other side of the house:

Bit of advice regarding that router. wall mount it, and turn it on it's side, so the antennas are parallel to the ground. It stays much cooler this way, as air goes in the vents on the bottom, and out at the top.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
so the antennas are parallel to the ground.

Not sure that this is the best approach for all situations. Having antennas parallel to floor and ceiling may be beneficial when you have clients on multiple floors, but not necessarily when they're all on the same floor. I'd suggest to experiment with different antenna positions and measuring the signal strength with something like Xirrus WiFi Inspector or inSSIDer.

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Nick R
so the antennas are parallel to the ground.

Not sure that this is the best approach for all situations. Having antennas parallel to floor and ceiling may be beneficial when you have clients on multiple floors, but not necessarily when they're all on the same floor. I'd suggest to experiment with different antenna positions and measuring the signal strength with something like Xirrus WiFi Inspector or inSSIDer.




No, I mean you can rearrange the antenna configuration. But turn the router on itself, so you read the ASUS sideways, because it runs a LOT cooler that way than it does on the stand, or flat.

Wall mount it, the antennas are on one side, facing the right, and the LEDs on the left, going vertically. Those routers run hot, and I get the best performance and stability out of it, and it runs much cooler, like that.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
Those routers run hot, and I get the best performance and stability out of it, and it runs much cooler, like that.

Not sure how much hotter the AC66 runs, but my N66U on Tomato only feels warm to the touch when propped on its stand. I wouldn't call it hot.

The stock Asus firmware has a temperature display. What temps are you seeing when you have it mounted sideways vs. the normal way on stand?

 

[Nick R]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Nick R
Those routers run hot, and I get the best performance and stability out of it, and it runs much cooler, like that.

Not sure how much hotter the AC66 runs, but my N66U on Tomato only feels warm to the touch when propped on its stand. I wouldn't call it hot.

The stock Asus firmware has a temperature display. What temps are you seeing when you have it mounted sideways vs. the normal way on stand?


When mounted on it's stand, The antenna connectors, and any metal on the back, feels hot, hot enough to actually be painful. The top/middle/front of the unit is fine mostly, but the back of it and bottom get ridiculously hot. I burned my finger on the antenna connector once.

With it mounted sideways, you can feel the heat coming out of the vents that are on the top, and the whole unit feels much cooler. Mine doesn't appear to have the temp display, but it got hot. And I'm talking about the N66U which is what I have.

This is with stock output, and both radios at 200mW