Do I Need A New Router?

[porkfat]

I've had Time Warner (RR) for years and Comcast b/4 that. Although I should have the highest speed package I've consistently been in the 6 meg to 4 meg d/l speed. Upload is on point at 1.6 to 1.8 megs. I called support and they agreed something is wrong but at the time I wasn't at my computer. Later that evening I decided to do some research and hooked my computer directly into the modem bypassing the router. Tested my speed on Time Warner's site and low and behold my d/l was 28 to 30 megs so obviously it's the router.

It is a BESFR41 V2 and I have a feeling it's really outdated and probably not able to keep up. Just for your info here are my network specs:

Computer one: Dell XPS 700 - Win Ult 7 32 bit - 4 Gigs Ram - Nvidia dual graphics running 3 monitors

Computer two: Dell Inspirion desktop - Win XP SR3 - 2 Gigs Ram - Nvidia graphics

Computer three: Dell Inspirion laptop 6000 - Win XP SR3 - 2 Gigs Ram - onboard graphics

Computer four: Dell Server 6000 - Win server 2003 - 4 Gigs Ram - graphics unk - Note: This was from my old job that closed I asked for the server and got it.

Connection five: Direct TV video on demand

All of this is hard wired (I don't do wireless)

Sorry for such a long post but I'm needing some advice on the router upgrade.

Thanks all

Lamont

[zalternate]

Just bumping this up in case someone missed it to give a better answer.......

A good router and then a switch to get your 5 ports that you need for your 5 systems.

Cable modem ---> router ---> switch.

I've got a ASUS router. It works pretty good for $40. And can be re-flashed to firmware other than the manufacturers. I had a TrendNet before and the wireless started to drop out. I think it was $20.

[porkfat]

Just bumping this up in case someone missed it to give a better answer.......

A good router and then a switch to get your 5 ports that you need for your 5 systems.

Cable modem ---> router ---> switch.

I've got a ASUS router. It works pretty good for $40. And can be re-flashed to firmware other than the manufacturers. I had a TrendNet before and the wireless started to drop out. I think it was $20.

Hey Zalt,

Thanks for the reply. Just an update I went ahead and got a netgear WNDR3700 at Radio Shack for $179.00. Hooked up everything worked right out of the box. Tested my main computer D/L speed at Time Warner 29 to 30 megs - upload 1.8 to 1.9. Tested the other systems and same results.

Apparently the BESFR41 V2 just couldn't handle the speeds, which is not surprising since it is quite old and when it came out those kind of speeds didn't exist. At any rate I am a happy camper course I'm still thinking about hooking up the Linksys/Cisco SRW2016, 16 port gigabit switch just to get rid of all the clutter and simplify my cabeling.

Lamont

[CA3LE]

great to hear that you figured out the problem. With great speed comes great responsibility... lol

Also, one note. Another thing that people don't take into consideration is also the CPU and Disk Speed.... You could have a 100Mbps line but if those can't keep up then you'll never be able to max out. My girlfriends macbook before I changed the hard drive was only able to get half my line speed. I changed my hard drive out for a SSD and gave her my old hard drive and now she maxes out the line. Something that not many people take into consideration... just a side note.

-Damon

[porkfat]

great to hear that you figured out the problem. With great speed comes great responsibility... lol

Also, one note. Another thing that people don't take into consideration is also the CPU and Disk Speed.... You could have a 100Mbps line but if those can't keep up then you'll never be able to max out. My girlfriends macbook before I changed the hard drive was only able to get half my line speed. I changed my hard drive out for a SSD and gave her my old hard drive and now she maxes out the line. Something that not many people take into consideration... just a side note.

-Damon

Good point Damon, My CPU is an Intel Pent 4 670 Dual core and the hard drive is a 312 GB SCSI not sure of the maker. I've also ran the test here and below are the results. Not quite as fast as what Time Warner shows or Speakeasy but still faster than before.

Lamont

]https://testmy.net/stats/id-98MLVGSTJ]