WRT54G v1 Slows my Connection

[RedZinger]

Hi,

I just upgraded my Internet connectivity from a 1 Mbps DSL line to 30 Mbps cable from Comcast.  When I have my computer (running Windows XP SP3) directly connected to the Comcast modem, I get the full 30 Mbps speed as measured by several speed test pages.  However, when I connect my computer to my WRT54G v1 router via a cable (not using wireless) I get about 18 or 19 Mbps using the same speed test pages.  I never had any slowness when I had my DSL line, I always had the full 1 Mbps download speed.  But with the fast cable connection the router seems to be unable to go over 20 Mbps.

I have upgraded the firmware to the latest version and reset the router and still get 18 or 19 Mbps when using the router.  I switched network cables to a new one; I thought maybe the cable from my modem to my router might be bad but that made no difference.  I tried playing around with the MTU settings in the router but that made no difference.

I'm running out of ideas.  Maybe the version 1 router just wasn't made to go over 20 Mbps?  Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get the full 30 Mbps speed?

Thanks!

[dudztgp]

Download a large file from the internet. Measure the download speed. Do the same file but connected directly to modem. Speedtests from the internet are not that accurate as we know it.

[RedZinger]

Ok, I found a suitably large file, the Ubuntu 10.10 iso which is 693 Mb. 

19 minutes at 625 KB/sec without the router

36 minutes at 300 KB/sec with the router

I did not complete the download.  I downloaded each time for about 5 minutes and discontinued it and deleted what was downloaded each time.  The numbers quoted above are what Firefox was telling me in the download box after several minutes when the speed stabilized.  If the download speed had been close I would have finished the download but the download speed is clearly different enough that I don't see a need to finish the download.

[dudztgp]

It's ok not to finish the download, you are just measuring the average download speed. Ideally, speeds should be measured from different download sites, probably every 5mins interval.

It's kinda odd, if you're averaging 625KBps without the router, that's equal to 5Mbps only. If you have a 30Mbps subscription, your download speed should be around 3.75MBps.

It's possible that there's a problem with the website you are downloading from or your connection. Being the reason why you have to try downloading from 3 different websites.

[gv]

The WRT54Gv1 is just too old and too slow for your internet connection. You have to get a new router to use your full speed.

See Smallnetbuilder for some performance measurements. As you can see the maximum download speed is about 19 Mbps...

[RedZinger]

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dudztgp wrote:

It's kinda odd, if you're averaging 625KBps without the router, that's equal to 5Mbps only. If you have a 30Mbps subscription, your download speed should be around 3.75MBps.

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Yes, you are right I noticed that immediately.  However, this was a download from the Ubuntu web site and I don't know if the site was in the US where I'm located or somewhere rather far away.  Also, the site was probably pretty busy at that moment because I tried again about 6 hours later and got a speed of 1.4 Mbps.

[RedZinger]

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gv wrote:

The WRT54Gv1 is just too old and too slow for your internet connection. You have to get a new router to use your full speed.

See Smallnetbuilder for some performance measurements. As you can see the maximum download speed is about 19 Mbps...

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Hmmm....  that's just about what I was getting, 19 Mbps.  I had a feeling that the router was just too old.  I was sort of hoping that since it's a G router it would have a maximum bandwidth approaching 54Mbps.

I assume that limitation is a limitation of the hardware and not the firmware.  I'd be tempted to flash one of the open source firmwares to the router just to see what happens.

Thanks!

[gv]

The limitation is mostly hardware. You may get a little bit better numbers with a firmware better optimized for fast routing but I doubt very much that you will see much improvement. I am pretty sure you won't get the 30 Mbps.

54 Mbps wireless effectively means you can expect about 25-30 Mbps at most on wireless links and only into/from the LAN but not into the internet.