The Router Slows down the Connection WRT54G2 V1.5

[Justin]

I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their
Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem the speed
increases by a hell of alot.
I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few sports figures
names and a massive number - 20 characters and impossible to guess; so I
don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.

Could the router be bad?

[$Bill]

Justin wrote:
> I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their
> Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
> As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem the speed
> increases by a hell of alot.
> I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few sports figures
> names and a massive number - 20 characters and impossible to guess; so I
> don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.
>
> Could the router be bad?

Test numbers ?

I assume you mean that a wired connection is faster than a
wireless connection. It has a 10/100 switch for wired
access and that would give you 100 Mbps vs 54 Mbps when
running wireless (minus any extra crap for encryption), so
I would think you should get at least double the speed when
running wired.

[Bill M.]

On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:05:01 -0700, "$Bill" <news@SPAMOLAtodbe.com>
wrote:

>Justin wrote:
>> I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their
>> Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
>> As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem the speed
>> increases by a hell of alot.
>> I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few sports figures
>> names and a massive number - 20 characters and impossible to guess; so I
>> don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.
>>
>> Could the router be bad?
>
>Test numbers ?
>
>I assume you mean that a wired connection is faster than a
>wireless connection. It has a 10/100 switch for wired
>access and that would give you 100 Mbps vs 54 Mbps when
>running wireless (minus any extra crap for encryption), so
>I would think you should get at least double the speed when
>running wired.

I believe best case actual throughput on a 802.11g connection is about
24 Mbps, but that's still quite a bit faster than most people's
Internet connection, so the bottleneck wouldn't be the wireless
portion. OTOH, we don't know if the wireless portion is connected at
802.11b, with about 6 Mbps throughput. Without more numbers and
details, it's hard to tell.

--
Bill

[Timothy Daniels]

"Justin" wrote:
> I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
> As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem
> the speed increases by a hell of alot.
> I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few
> sports figures names and a massive number - 20 characters and
> impossible to guess; so I don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.
>
> Could the router be bad?


Try changing the channel. I had problems with the same router -
slow speed, dropping connections. All I did was change to a different
channel, and it all cleared up. I figure one of my neighbors was using
the same channel for his/her router and/or wireless telephone, and it
was interfering with my router.

*TimDaniels*

[Justin]

$Bill wrote:
> Justin wrote:
>> I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their
>> Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
>> As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem the
>> speed increases by a hell of alot.
>> I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few sports
>> figures names and a massive number - 20 characters and impossible to
>> guess; so I don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.
>>
>> Could the router be bad?
>
> Test numbers ?
>
> I assume you mean that a wired connection is faster than a
> wireless connection. It has a 10/100 switch for wired
> access and that would give you 100 Mbps vs 54 Mbps when
> running wireless (minus any extra crap for encryption), so
> I would think you should get at least double the speed when
> running wired.


No, I mean the wired connection is just as slow as the wireless.

I don't need numbers, youtube takes forever to load on the router, it
takes a second connected directly.

[Justin]

Timothy Daniels wrote:
> "Justin" wrote:
>> I set up some relatives with a Linksys cable modem router on their Comcast connection. It is the WRT54G2 V1.5.
>> As soon as we connect the computer directly to the cable modem
>> the speed increases by a hell of alot.
>> I have WPA encryption enabled with a long password; a few
>> sports figures names and a massive number - 20 characters and
>> impossible to guess; so I don't see how anyone can be using it illegally.
>>
>> Could the router be bad?
>
>
> Try changing the channel. I had problems with the same router -
> slow speed, dropping connections. All I did was change to a different
> channel, and it all cleared up. I figure one of my neighbors was using
> the same channel for his/her router and/or wireless telephone, and it
> was interfering with my router.
>
> *TimDaniels*
>
>


No, the connection is slow using the ethernet connection with the
desktop PC connected directly to the router.

[$Bill]

Justin wrote:
>
> No, I mean the wired connection is just as slow as the wireless.

So when you say directly connected, you mean to the modem and not
the router ?

> I don't need numbers, youtube takes forever to load on the router, it
> takes a second connected directly.

How long does it take to go to a speed test site and run both scenarios
to give us some idea ?

Do you have the latest firmware for the router installed ?

Have you tried powering the router for a couple of minutes and resetting
it back to the default config and then setting it back up again (shouldn't
require much if any setup) ?

[Justin]

$Bill wrote:
> Justin wrote:
>>
>> No, I mean the wired connection is just as slow as the wireless.
>
> So when you say directly connected, you mean to the modem and not
> the router ?

No, sorry, I am being unclear.

There are two machines behing the cabnle modem, one is a laptop using
the wireless, the other is a desktop connected via the cat5.
We took the desktop and connected it directly to the cable modem
bypassing the router.
Normally the desktop would be behind the router connected via ethernet.


>
>> I don't need numbers, youtube takes forever to load on the router, it
>> takes a second connected directly.
>
> How long does it take to go to a speed test site and run both scenarios
> to give us some idea ?

That wasn't necessary due to the obviousness of the speed degredation.
We're talking old school dial up speeds.

>
> Do you have the latest firmware for the router installed ?

That's my next project - once I get back over there I'll update the
firmware.

>
> Have you tried powering the router for a couple of minutes and resetting
> it back to the default config and then setting it back up again (shouldn't
> require much if any setup) ?

[$Bill]

Justin wrote:
> $Bill wrote:
>> Justin wrote:
>>>
>>> No, I mean the wired connection is just as slow as the wireless.
>>
>> So when you say directly connected, you mean to the modem and not
>> the router ?
>
> No, sorry, I am being unclear.
>
> There are two machines behing the cabnle modem, one is a laptop using
> the wireless, the other is a desktop connected via the cat5.
> We took the desktop and connected it directly to the cable modem
> bypassing the router.
> Normally the desktop would be behind the router connected via ethernet.

That's what I said - directly connected to the modem it works fine,
so you believe the router to be the problem.

Do the 2-3 min. power off and reboot first and see if that helps -
it may have just had a memory leak or some such.

Then check the Linksys site for the latest firmware whether it
helped or not and download and install it (check the router's
web page first and see what rev you're running on currently).

Did it ever work OK ?

[Justin]

$Bill wrote:
> Justin wrote:
>> $Bill wrote:
>>> Justin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> No, I mean the wired connection is just as slow as the wireless.
>>>
>>> So when you say directly connected, you mean to the modem and not
>>> the router ?
>>
>> No, sorry, I am being unclear.
>>
>> There are two machines behing the cabnle modem, one is a laptop using
>> the wireless, the other is a desktop connected via the cat5.
>> We took the desktop and connected it directly to the cable modem
>> bypassing the router.
>> Normally the desktop would be behind the router connected via ethernet.
>
> That's what I said - directly connected to the modem it works fine,
> so you believe the router to be the problem.
>
> Do the 2-3 min. power off and reboot first and see if that helps -
> it may have just had a memory leak or some such.
>
> Then check the Linksys site for the latest firmware whether it
> helped or not and download and install it (check the router's
> web page first and see what rev you're running on currently).
>
> Did it ever work OK ?

I understand. no, it was slow the day I installed it. But the same
thing happened to me when my cable was turned on - it was slow for a few
days then it was fast as hell.