Ethernet speed halved when connecting through wifi router

[exhale]

Hi folks,
I have a Motorola Surfboard SB6141 modem and a Belkin N450 wifi router.
I get peak download speeds of 23.05 mbps when connecting through the LAN port of the router(it's just one wired connection from the router) as opposed to 50 mbps when connecting directly through the modem.

My router and modem aren't close together, so i doubt that it's noise causing the slower speeds.

Can i fix this without buying another router? Can i buy a switch and split the connection coming out of the modem one going to the wired device and the other to the router?

 

[thiggins]

The Surfboard isn't a router, so no, you can't split the output.

Any current generation router should support 50 Mbps routing throughput. So there may be some incompatibilty between modem and router causing the lower throughput. Try another router.

 

[stevech]

Hi folks,
I have a Motorola Surfboard SB6141 modem and a Belkin N450 wifi router.
I get peak download speeds of 23.05 mbps when connecting through the LAN port of the router(it's just one wired connection from the router) as opposed to 50 mbps when connecting directly through the modem.

My router and modem aren't close together, so i doubt that it's noise causing the slower speeds.

Can i fix this without buying another router? Can i buy a switch and split the connection coming out of the modem one going to the wired device and the other to the router?

50Mbps.. wow. I'm jealous. My really old Linksys WRT54G router could not achieve 15+ Mbps from WAN to LAN; old CPU. Retired long ago.
Suggestion: don't over-buy to get a newer WiFi router. Like $50 for N300 should be fine.

My cable modem service is 15Mbps down, 1Mbps up. To get even 25Mbps, I must pay a lot more.
That's the consequence of these cable companies having an effective territorial monopoly. I once contacted the City who gives Time Warner their easements for their cables, and asked to whom in the City can I formally file a complaint on their pricing practices versus that in other cities. Try as I might, I could not get an answer.

 

[CaptainSTX]

The city is in effect a partner with TW. The city collects a franchise fee of 5%. The more money TW collects the more the city gets.

For the city really to take action against TW one of TW's trucks would have to run over both the mayor's and police chief's mothers.

 

[stevech]

The city is in effect a partner with TW. The city collects a franchise fee of 5%. The more money TW collects the more the city gets.

For the city really to take action against TW one of TW's trucks would have to run over both the mayor's and police chief's mothers.

Didn't know that could be legal as there's no way to get competitive bidding - due to the easements.

But then, my large city has held a contract with a single emergency medical tech/ambulance company for over 10 years. Duplicates what the fire dept. EMTs do (whom I have lost respect for). Bill from contractor to patient for services is huge beyond belief.

 

[jlake]

Hi folks,
I have a Motorola Surfboard SB6141 modem and a Belkin N450 wifi router.
I get peak download speeds of 23.05 mbps when connecting through the LAN port of the router(it's just one wired connection from the router) as opposed to 50 mbps when connecting directly through the modem.

My router and modem aren't close together, so i doubt that it's noise causing the slower speeds.

Can i fix this without buying another router? Can i buy a switch and split the connection coming out of the modem one going to the wired device and the other to the router?

What troubleshooting steps have you taken?

Reset router to factory defaults and reconfigured from scratch?
Tried a different Ethernet cable?
Tried a different computer?
Unplugged your modem for 20 minutes?

You didn't list a single thing you have done in your post.

 

[exhale]

Reset router to factory defaults and reconfigured from scratch?
Tried a different Ethernet cable?
Tried a different computer?
Unplugged your modem for 20 minutes?

You didn't list a single thing you have done in your post.

Sorry for not listing all of that.
I have tried using quite a few different Ethernet cables, tried a different computer, reset router and unplugged modem. I have also tried moving the router further away from the modem. I don't know what else to try.

 

[jlake]

Try checking to see if there is a difference between ipv4 and ipv6.

http://speedtest.comcast.net

 

[stevech]

Try checking to see if there is a difference between ipv4 and ipv6.

http://speedtest.comcast.net

IPv6 will likely be slower. Often it's tunneled via IPv4, in this transitional time.

speedtest.net has a much larger number of servers to test with - meaning closer servers may have better speeds. Be sure to try several and average.

 

[sfx2000]

Hi folks,
I have a Motorola Surfboard SB6141 modem and a Belkin N450 wifi router.
I get peak download speeds of 23.05 mbps when connecting through the LAN port of the router(it's just one wired connection from the router) as opposed to 50 mbps when connecting directly through the modem.

My router and modem aren't close together, so i doubt that it's noise causing the slower speeds.

Can i fix this without buying another router? Can i buy a switch and split the connection coming out of the modem one going to the wired device and the other to the router?

Hmmm... sounds like your WAN port might be in half-duplex mode on the Belkin N450 router... that would be the first place I would check - also whether it is in GigE mode or in 100BaseT...

I've heard some incidental stories about some of the newer DOCSIS 3.0 modems being very sensitive to ethernet cable quality, make sure you've got a good CAT6 cable between the modem and the router.

 

[exhale]

Hmmm... sounds like your WAN port might be in half-duplex mode on the Belkin N450 router... that would be the first place I would check - also whether it is in GigE mode or in 100BaseT...

I've heard some incidental stories about some of the newer DOCSIS 3.0 modems being very sensitive to ethernet cable quality, make sure you've got a good CAT6 cable between the modem and the router.

That was it. Ordered a new router from Amazon and installed it today. Im getting average speeds of 56 mbps and peak speeds of 76 mbps.

Running speedtest on wifi on my phone, the speed went up from 5-7 mbps to 35-56 mbps lol.

It's so awesome!
Thank you guys for all your help.