1 edit | [Wired] WRT54GS Limits Bandwidth My ISP is Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles and I was running the bandwidth test on speedtest.net with various configurations.
My configuration is my PC connects to the Linksys WRT54GS router via Cat 5 cable, which in turn connects to a Motorola cable modem.
If I connect my PC directly to the cable modem (bypassing the router) I get this speed:
If I connect my PC to the router which connects to the cable modem, I get this speed:
To be sure, I disabled the wireless and only had one PC connect to the router. I even upgraded the Linksys router firmware to the latest version. I still get the same result before and after the upgrade.
I even changed the firmware to Tomato. No difference.
Has anybody else noticed this? Is the Linksys router throttling the bandwidth from my cable modem?
Maybe it's time for me to get a new router? |
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spdickey
join:2002-11-17
Pacific Palisades, CA | Perhaps its a sick router. Hardware does fail. Try another one. |
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KoRnGtL15Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | reply to NeedForSpeed5
What version of the router is it? Could be to old and cannot handle the fast speeds. |
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| said by KoRnGtL15:What version of the router is it? Could be to old and cannot handle the fast speeds. Even the oldest GS should be faster than that. My old WRT54G maxes out my 10Mbps connection with ease. Something is wrong (or has failed). |
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| reply to NeedForSpeed5
Do you have say SPI turned on. A bunch or port rules. Are you using the QOS. There are some settings that if done wrong or even correctly can slow the traffic down. |
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| said by KoRnGtL15 :
What version of the router is it? Could be to old and cannot handle the fast speeds.
Model No.: WRT54GS v.4
Firmware Version: v1.06.3
said by "no_one" :
Do you have say SPI turned on. A bunch or port rules. Are you using the QOS. There are some settings that if done wrong or even correctly can slow the traffic down.
I proceeded and checked the Security -> Firewall and noticed the note to the right side "Firewall Protection | Enable or disable the SPI firewall." I then set Firewall Protection to "Disable". I re-ran the speed test again, and I detected no improvement.
Port rules are all set to the null default zero. QoS is set to "Disable".
I try to use a much of the factory default settings if possible, except for setting up the wireless security, and did not use any special rules.
said by Engineer_TA :
Even the oldest GS should be faster than that. My old WRT54G maxes out my 10Mbps connection with ease. Something is wrong (or has failed).
I strongly suspect that either this router is failing or it was not designed to handle a bandwidth greater than 10 Mb/s.
said by spdickey :
Perhaps its a sick router. Hardware does fail. Try another one.
Instead of debugging the router or my network any further, I will probably just get the latest router model.
Can the latest Linksys router models handle a greater bandwidth beyond 10 Mb/s?
In principle, if 24 Mb/s comes into a router, shouldn't 24 Mb/s come out of it, or am I expecting too much? |
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TX CS AggieTX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX
kudos:1 | said by NeedForSpeed5:Model No.: WRT54GS v.4 Firmware Version: v1.06.3 I see stock firmware!
try tomato
»www.polarcloud.com/tomato
direct link to file :»sourceforge.net/projects/tomatof···download
step 1: DL and unzip tomato (will need »www.7-zip.org/ to unzip good little program better then Zip)
step 2: reset stock router firmware to factory
step 3: flash the right tomato .bin fin (WRT54GSv4 in your case)
step 4: after flashing about (2mins) log back in Username:root password:admin and wipe the memory clean "Administration/Configuration then under Restore Default Configuration, select "Erase all Data in NVRAM (thorough)", then click OK" it will take a while
step 5: go through and set back up your wireless and security settings
step 6: re-run speed test and plz plz show us the results
hope this helps |
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| said by TX CS Aggie:said by NeedForSpeed5:Model No.: WRT54GS v.4 Firmware Version: v1.06.3 I see stock firmware! try tomato For installing the Tomato firmware, I did all the above steps. Then I performed the speed test five times each without the router and with the router. Keep in mind in both cases, I used a Cat 5 cable and not wireless. Here are the results.
PC --> Cable Modem
Download (Average): 14.10 MB/s
Upload (Average): 1.71 MB/s
PC --> Linksys Router --> Cable Modem
Download (Average): 8.02 MB/s
Upload (Average): 1.73 MB/s
Router download seems to be stuck at 8 MB/s, while router upload is unaffected. |
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TX CS AggieTX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX
kudos:1 | well ... nuts
with such a good connection I don't think a new WRT54GL would make you happy with it's speed although that is weird that it tops out at 8 MBs. It might be time for you to get something with a gigabit switch in it. i have and am using a WRT54GSv4 but it is on a connection that tops out at 8 MBs on a really god day so i can't offer any testing.
any other idea people? |
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2 edits | reply to NeedForSpeed5
Did you use the stock tomato firmware or the version WRT54GSv4.bin that is included in tomato? Version 4 of this router is the first GS that Linksys neutered.
Not sure if you can run the ND (New Driver) version of Tomato on this or not. Might help....but could brick the router.
Edit: I see it was suggested to use the WRT54GSv4.bin above. Sorry for the already suggested suggestion.
I'm wondering if either your WAN port or your PC connection to the router are not defaulting to 10Mbps (instead of 100 Mbps) for some reason. |
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| reply to NeedForSpeed5
If I'm not mistaken, I think I read somewhere before that the WAN port on the WRT54G is only a 10MB port... All the LAN Ports are 100MB... Someone else here may know for sure... |
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| I think I was wrong... I just looked it up again... and It appears that the WAN port is a 10/100MB port...
Sorry... |
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TX CS AggieTX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX
kudos:1 | said by BryanC1968:If I'm not mistaken, I think I read somewhere before that the WAN port on the WRT54G is only a 10MB port... All the LAN Ports are 100MB... Someone else here may know for sure... I bet you are thinking of the linksys wired 8port router "BEFSR81" good little router crappy little WAN port. |
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1 edit | reply to Engineer_TA
said by Engineer_TA:I'm wondering if either your WAN port or your PC connection to the router are not defaulting to 10Mbps (instead of 100 Mbps) for some reason. If the router could indeed do 100 Mbps, then probably for some reason the duplex is defaulting to 10 Mbps.
I did check the PC device controller for the ethernet port, and the controller is detecting the router at 100 Mbps.
In looking through the device settings, I noticed that the PC device controller and the Tomato firmware has these options for speed:
•Auto
•10 Mb Full
•10 Mb Half
•100 Mb Full
•100 Mb Half
By default the PC device controller and the Tomato firmware are set to "Auto". I decided to try different combinations of "Auto", "100 Mb Half", and "100 Mb Full" on both the PC and router sides, which comes out to 9 possible combinations.
Unfortunately, I did not detect any improvement. Maybe 10 Mbs is probably the best it can do.
said by TX CS Aggie:said by BryanC1968:If I'm not mistaken, I think I read somewhere before that the WAN port on the WRT54G is only a 10MB port... All the LAN Ports are 100MB... Someone else here may know for sure... I bet you are thinking of the linksys wired 8port router "BEFSR81" good little router crappy little WAN port. I rechecked the hardware specs for the WAN port, and it says it's 10/100.
said by TX CS Aggie:with such a good connection I don't think a new WRT54GL would make you happy with it's speed although that is weird that it tops out at 8 MBs. It might be time for you to get something with a gigabit switch in it. i have and am using a WRT54GSv4 but it is on a connection that tops out at 8 MBs on a really god day so i can't offer any testing. Instead of debugging my router, I'm considering getting another Linksys router that can hopefully handle more bandwidth.
For example, I'm seriously considering the WRT310N. The specs says that is has a "Built-in 4-port, full-duplex 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet switch to connect wired-network PCs and devices."
My concern is I want to make sure the router can deliver the bandwidth before purchasing the product at the store.
If someone can post a test of a Linksys router exceeding 10 Mbps, or even better 15 Mbps, I might get that one instead. |
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| reply to NeedForSpeed5
I repeated the speed test this morning, five times each without the router and with the router. Here are the results.
PC --> Cable Modem
Download (Average): 28.94 MB/s
Upload (Average): 1.74 MB/s
PC --> Linksys Router (Wired) --> Cable Modem
Download (Average): 9.422 MB/s
Upload (Average): 1.676 MB/s |
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| reply to NeedForSpeed5
I believe I have a version 3 of that router. My dsl modem shows a lan connection of 100. Of course I do not get that as I have only 12 meg service. 
Does your modem show what speed the lan connection is to the router?
Have you tried a different cable to the modem? Or is this cable the same one as tested straight to the computer? |
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2 edits | reply to NeedForSpeed5
After reading around, it was suggested in a few other forums that playing around with the MTU (you can do this in Tomato) could help or even fix this. One suggested changing from 1,500 to 1,468 and another said start at 1,400 and move +-10 until you see something.
If that doesn't help, just for giggles, you should try the "ND" version of the driver.
If you do, telnet into the router and from the CLI (Command Line Interface), type the following...
nvram show | grep corerev
It must return a value of 7 or higher for the ND driver to work. If it's 7 or higher, I would try it. You may try to upgrade to the WRT54GSv4.bin first and then upgrade from there using the .trx file for the ND version of tomato (New Driver). |
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TX CS AggieTX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX
kudos:1 | reply to NeedForSpeed5
said by NeedForSpeed5:For example, I'm seriously considering the WRT310N. The specs says that is has a "Built-in 4-port, full-duplex 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet switch to connect wired-network PCs and devices." if you are already spending $99.99 + tax in store I would consider going on line and looking at newegg.com
Even thought it is only draftN not draftN 2 i like the WRT610N personally but I am broke at the moment so I an forced to play the waiting game.
Another bonus is that the WRT610N should soon be a fully supported DD-WRT router. As of now it is still being tested. So I would run the most updated linksys firmware till the bugs are worked out.
and if you don't really care about 3rd praty firmware these are my picks.
ASUS RT-N15 -------------- $64.99 Free Shipping
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33320031
BUFFALO WZR-HP-G300NH - $94.99 Free Shipping
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33162031
D-Link DIR-655 ------------ $94.95 Free Shipping
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33127215
LINKSYS WRT320N -------- $91.99
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33124332
D-Link DIR-825 ------------ $129.99 Free Shipping
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···33127258
LINKSYS WRT610N --------- $132.99
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···=WRT610N |
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1 edit | reply to NeedForSpeed5
Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions. Unfortunately, I was not able to resolve the speed issue.
I think my best bet would be to get a brand new router. Hopefully, the throttle for such a router would be much higher than what I currently have.
said by no_one :
Does your modem show what speed the lan connection is to the router?
Have you tried a different cable to the modem? Or is this cable the same one as tested straight to the computer?
My Motorola modem interface doesn't provide that info. I did try to swap cables, and even substituted a Cat 6 in place of a Cat 5, but that didn't seem to help.
said by Engineer_TA:After reading around, it was suggested in a few other forums that playing around with the MTU . . . If that doesn't help, just for giggles, you should try the "ND" version of the driver. I played with the MTU settings, but to no effect. Then I installed the ND driver. I admit I thought my router would turn into a brick after the install, but at this point I didn't care anymore. The ND install was successful, but it didn't really effect the speed.
said by TX CS Aggie:if you are already spending $99.99 + tax in store I would consider going on line and looking at newegg.com Thanks for the tips and advice. I will take a look at the other routers you suggested. If I get one, I will be sure to post the speed results on this forum. |
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| If you still have Tomato installed, you could try to change the WAN port to a LAN port and play with it to see if it makes a difference.
Telnet into the router (login: root password: your regular password) and then from the command line (CLI) type the following:
nvram set vlan1ports="0 5"
nvram set vlan0ports="3 2 1 5*"
nvram commit
reboot
This would assign port 4 (I think) as another WAN port. |
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