Wireless network Q's need some A's

[erik_26]

I have cable internet. It feeds into a cable modem/wireless router.

I am supposed to be getting 25 MBPS...

My first test I got ~12 MBPS. I changed some setting in the router to make it stay on the N band. Now my speed test is ~25 MBPS.

Now my other devices do not work because they use the G band. How can I get my router to use N for certain devices and G for others? Or how can I get my laptop to only us the N band while the router stays in duel band?

Also, even though my speed test says ~ 25 MBPS.... it sure doesn't feel like I am going that fast. I would say normal surfing feels more like ~ 6-8 MBPS.

Is there anything I can do about that?

[Farnsworth]

Your router when you got inside it you can change settings to broadcast in G, N, or Both depending on the capabilities of your router.

As far as your speed goes are you using WiFi? Or are you hard wired? The speeds are based of of hardwired and one thing your ISP might do to trick you is use MegaBITS not Megabytes. Big difference in speed.

Check your speeds: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

[sholling]

If you set it for both it will slow things down to the speed of the slowest wireless device. My advice is to either update your other devices to N (the best solution), or buy a cheap wireless access point and let one run on N and the other run on G.

What I did before I went with hard wire is I placed 802.11N bridges in my entertainment centers to connect my gear to the network.

[erik_26]

I put the router back to Auto N. So far I am getting ~25 MBPS on my speed tests which is good. All my other wireless devices are connect.

But I am experiancing slow browsing. Some sites are ok. Other are really slow.

[Rivers]

Make sure you have the correct DNS numbers entered in your router, and/or each computer if not in the router. The right DNS numbers will use the ISP's dynamic name servers to make the connection to the correct IP address for each domain name. Yahoo.com actually goes to a number and the DNS makes the correlation between the name and number. Wrong DNS and your web surfing will seriously suffer.

[sholling]

Or try OpenDNS for your DNS servers. It's free and very good. Faster than a lot of ISP's DNS servers.

[JDay]

You'll need to purchase a dual-band wireless-N router that does both G and N at the same time. Most of the dual-band wireless-N routers on the market only have one radio in them so they are restricted to one band at a time.

[jmlivingston]

What are your wired speeds like? Start there and use that for your baseline. Know that wireless generally runs slower than wired as it is a shared medium, and when two transmitters attempt to broadcast traffic at the same time each has to back off the RF spectrum for a random interval before attempting to retransmit. Especially the 2.4ghz band which can see interference from devices such as bluetooth headsets, wireless mice & keyboards, microwave ovens, flourescent light fixtures, other wifi devices such as smartphones, etc.

Regarding Mbps (Megabits per Second) vs MBps (Megabytes per Second), bandwidth data rates are typically measured in Mbps which is just 1/8 of a MBps.

8 Megabits per Second = 1 Megabyte per Second = 8,000 Kilobit per Second

[NiMiK]

Dual band means it can broadcast in both 2.4 and 5Ghz spectrum. Performing a speed test over wireless is not recommended as there can be wireless interference that you're not aware of. A hard line is recommended. Normally, speed tests will show you the highest possible attainable rate that you're provisioned for. During the test, your traffic will go through the shortest path to the test server. When surfing or downloading, your data pathway could jump through various switches, routers and all sorts of devices that will cause a slight slow down in speeds.

[loose_electron]

one other comment on data speeds and web sites - no matter how fast your link is, when you go to many web sites, theuy call for material from many different servers to build the web page (lots of advertising getting linked in) - that can slow down building a web page a LOT!