Cable Modem & Linksys Router

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 6:20 pm

Hello,
I just bought "Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router(Model BEFSR41 V.2)" and I got it all set up with my cable modem etc, and it wasn't sharing internet with another computer, because I didnt have the other computer hooked up yet and my kb/sec went down from like 511 kb/sec. All the way down to around 90 kb/sec. That is a very steep drop. I didn't think when you don't have another computer connected to the router or even setup to share it would cut your internet speed. Well one of my main questions was why is it so slow! I unplugged the router because it was driving me nuts! Also I'm just curious when you have a router and say your not using the internet or don't have the computer hooked or setup with the LAN does it automatically take your kb/sec and split it up? I think there is a firmware update for the router, if I update will that do the trick? I don't currently have any patches etc.. installed. Is there any I should install to increase speed for the router or even in general? I'm new to broadband, but not to the internet. I was just wondering if you could clear some of this up for me. Thanks for you time.

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 7:03 pm

Are the speeds which you reported in kiloBytes per second or kiloBits?

How long have you had the cable modem?

We'll try to help.

Kip

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 7:32 pm

Well, when you are done downloading anything. It says we'll you are downloading the kb/sec... so I would be assuming KyloBytes. If that is the measuring amount in downloads dialog box. It wasn't just downloads were much much slower. I could tell surfing was slower also. I got it like the... 27th of July. At first I had bunches of trouble, and Customer Support was going to come and see what the deal was bit it seemed to fix itself. No problems with that anymore.

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 8:02 pm

People have reported that newly-installed @home modems are not capped initially. The cap is added at some later date. This may account for the drop which you are seeing.

Kip

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 8:30 pm

Alright... but when I unplug my router it works back up to par like I been having... it is just when I plug the router in it does this.

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 9:32 pm

What speed network card do you have in your computer?

You should try setting its properties to 10 mhz half-duplex. There have been several problems reported with autonegotiation.

There are some useful sites for your router, but I don't know them. Someone should be along soon to aim you there.

Kip

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Mon Aug 13, 2001 9:48 pm

It is also a Linksys 10/100 LAN card and it is running at 100 when I had the router on. I'm not really worried about getting my other computer connected at the moment since it is Linux and I'm getting help on that later. I mostly want to get the speed up to what I have been getting, because I don't know why I would be getting that much of a decrease of speed just going through a router and the other computer not connected at the moment. I'm not really sure where I could check about the 10 mhz half-duplex thing though.

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Tue Aug 14, 2001 5:21 pm

Well, do you think I should call Customer Support?

msturgill · Post by **msturgill** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 4:06 pm

I am using a cable modem and the 4 port Linksys router at the office and at home. I have noticed no loss of speed with the router. I just added it at home due to the code red virus driving me crazy with activity lights, and my downloading seems to be as fast as before. I might add that I was getting probe hits almost every 2 minutes this week from code red affected servers and that dropped to NONE (so far) in the 3 days the Linksys has been on the job. My software firewall, Black Ice, was doing a good job at logging these before, so I felt ok, but it is sure nice not to have the activity lights blinking. I don't know what could be causing your problem. Did you name the router the name the ISP gave you, then rename your machine?

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 4:40 pm

Boy I hear those storys a lot... glad to hear it works for you well! uh, I did not fill in the fields Host Name or Domain Name.

msturgill · Post by **msturgill** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 9:17 pm

The only reason I asked is that it seems that the router is now supposed to appear as the "host computer" that your account is set for.... and maybe if the ISP can't see that name something is slowing down. In retrospect, that should just slow down the initial negotiations for a download, not the whole thing, so to quote Rosanne Rosanadana...."nevermind".

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Wed Aug 15, 2001 10:00 pm

Well, I was just surfing on how mabey I could fix it, and I came across a thing about at home and before this post I filled in the host name and domain name. I put in my computer name that @home assigned me and then filled in under that "@home". I didnt download anything but I could tell by the way the main page loaded, because it always takes longer with the router plugged in to load. Mabey I should take a screen shot of the router info and show you? That could clear things up to what I could have filled in incorrectly.

msturgill · Post by **msturgill** » Thu Aug 16, 2001 8:06 am

You are welcome to send the screen shot. However, I am by no means an expert on this. I managed to get my two routers going, so I will take a look. I just remember having to change my pc's name to something else, then naming the router what the pc WAS named, since that is what @home was looking for.

HeadRusch · Post by **HeadRusch** » Thu Aug 16, 2001 11:44 am

Try these steps:
Check to see which BIOS your Linksys Router is running. THe newest one can be downloaded from the Linksys website, this allows you to set the MTU speed for the ROUTER at 1500. WIthout this bios upgrade your Router is a bottleneck.

I know because just last night I was doing speed-tests using a RoadRunner Test file out of New Jersey that was 50 megs large. Before updating the BIOS of the router I was getting that file at almost 250-300K. After updating my bios on the router and using the CABLENUTS program to modify my pc's registry (http://www.cablenut.com) with their settings I went back and grabbed that file at more than 700K...it dropped down a bit to about 550K after awhile, but that was at 10:30 PM on the east coast...prime time net usage.

Good luck!

foneroot · Post by **foneroot** » Thu Aug 16, 2001 4:59 pm

Alright, I don't really know how to check my BIOS of my router or where I can upgrade on the site. I couldn't find it on the site to upgrade... are you talking about firmware? I did install cablenut but I'm not experienced with Windows Registry to edit it... I think what is the problem is my cable is to fast for the router hence the slower speed, because I have done and said I was getting around 2000 kb/sec I have no idea how but many tests have said the same thing. It does not say this when I download programs etc though, it says then around 500 kb/sec usually. Could maybe someone help me with the BIOS thing and reg edit?

TedM · Post by **TedM** » Mon Aug 27, 2001 11:57 pm

I had a the same router which had been working just fine from January to July and then stopped working. We had some lightning and I though I had taken a hit so I bought another router. It seemed to cure the problem, but two days ago the new router stopped working. I spent two days on the phone with Linksys and Roadrunner tech support, couldn't solve the problem so I bought another router. It didn't work this time. I can plug the computer directly into the modem and it works fine. After spending most of the day trying to make it work I was getting desperate and bought a Netgear RT311 and a new switch. It does work but it is SLOWWWWW. I don't know what I was running at before but now I've dropped down to 22k through the router and over 300k if I'm directly hooked up through the modem. I've got both a W98se and a W2k machine on my small network and I get the same results with both machines.

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