[bacchus]

Now I thought perhaps I was imagining things, but i did some bandwidth tests today and i'm now convinced that the home network i've setup ( Mac, PC, PS2, Airport - all connected through a router ), seems to have knocked my net connection speed down a fair bit.

Is this a typical problem with routers or is it something i can mess with?

Or is it imagined entirely?

Bacchus

[ghporter]

I need details, but I can make a guess. If you're using a DSL connection your router is sending packets at the wrong size, causing fragmentation and thus slowing your connection. The OS usually either self-discovers the optimum packet size, called MTU, or uses a preset optimum size based on the type of connection you tell it you have. A router usually doesn't make assumptions about your connection, and uses a factory default unless you tell it otherwise-assuming you can.

What kind of broadband connection do you have, and what brand and model of router? How do you havehe way you have everything configured and wired together? That can make a difference too.

[bacchus]

Hey thanks for the reply...

I'm actually use a cable modem, and a linksys router. I have done nothing to configure the router.

Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

Bacchus

[ghporter]

Let me point you to a font of wisdom about Linksys routers, and their products in general. On Broadband Reports' Linksys Forum, you can find lots of discussion, and their FAQ helps too.

To configure the router, go to 192.168.1.1 in your browser. If you haven't altered the configuration out of the box, there may be some things you can set to speed up your connection. Chapter 8 in the user's guide gives you lots of details on what you can set and usually what the settings do or mean. If you are a cable user, and you didn't have to enter a username and password to get the router to connect, your router is probably simply bridging between the cable modem and your LAN-that's probably good.

Check the main page on the router, and see if it is receiving a gateway address and DNS server addresses. If they show up on the main page, you can tell all your computers so use the router page (192.168.1.1) as their gateway, and assuming you're using DHCP (automatic IP address assignment), your computers will automatically pick up the DNS server addresses. This could be your slowdown; having to discover and search through an extra hop for DNS servers can easily slow things down.

In general, the MTU for cable connections should be 1500. You can find that setting, depending on the firmware version you have, at the bottom of the main configuration page for the router. Scroll down and you'll see both a choice to use the MTU feature, and a box to set the value for it. The value is automatically 1500 if the function is disabled, so you should keep it disabled.

Let me know how it goes.

[Camelot]

I generally agree with GHPorter, except in one area, MTU.

Yes, 1500 is the default MTU on ethernet networks, however, there are many situations where this isn't the case.

For example, if your router uses PPPoE to get an IP address, etc. from your ISP, your MTU will likely be 1492 (IIRC). Setting your computers to have 1500 when your router is set to 1492 is a bad thing.

The other question that I think needs to be asked is that baccus states "i'm now convinced that the home network i've setup... seems to have knocked my net connection speed down a fair bit."

The question has to be "what's changed?"

What is different now from when you thought you had a faster connection? Are you comparing a single-connected system with your multi-system network now? (a pretty drastic change), or do you think nothing's changed that could cause this. Answering that question might help pinpoint where you should be looking.