Linksys WRT54G to Linksys WRT3200AC - No Difference

[paulbasel]

My ISP doubled my download speed to 100 Mbit/s and upload to 10 Mbit/s recently and I thought it was time to replace my ancient 54G router from Linksys. I bought and installed the WRT3200AC with a new CAT6 ethernet cable without a problem. I now receive 98 - 102 Mbit/s throughout the day.

My big disappointment is that I really don't see any difference in website loading, file downloads, etc. My hardware is shown below. Speedtests indicate I am receiving what the ISP is providing. Why am I not seeing any differences?

Paul
Asus M51AC, 3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-4770, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, 2 TB hard drive, Windows 10

 

[thiggins]

Not sure what you are asking. If speed test with a wired device says you are getting full ISP speed, what else do you expect?

 

[pege63]

A miracle

 

[paulbasel]

Not sure what you are asking. If speed test with a wired device says you are getting full ISP speed, what else do you expect?

I am asking why I don't see any improvement in the loading of websites or downloading files with the new router compared to the old. If the old 54G had a download speed of about 35 Mbits/sec and the new one is 100 Mbit/s then why don't websites (I've tried many) load faster and the downloading of large files is about the same. In other words what have I gained except paying $230 for a new router that is no better than my old one.

I'm not asking for a miracle, I want to know if there is something that I am not doing or should do to improve download performance. I don't mean speedtest speed, I mean real practical performance.

 

[thiggins]

The answer could simply be that websites and CDNs are not set up to provide the bandwidth you seek.

But others with connection speeds similar to yours would be in a better position to answer.

 

[degrub]

I am asking why I don't see any improvement in the loading of websites or downloading files with the new router compared to the old. If the old 54G had a download speed of about 35 Mbits/sec and the new one is 100 Mbit/s then why don't websites (I've tried many) load faster and the downloading of large files is about the same. In other words what have I gained except paying $230 for a new router that is no better than my old one.

I'm not asking for a miracle, I want to know if there is something that I am not doing or should do to improve download performance. I don't mean speedtest speed, I mean real practical performance.

do you have any security or filtering set up in the router ?
That can significantly impact effective speed.
Otherwise, it is usually the website or the ISP (if it varies by time of day) capacity. What is the connection type the ISP is providing - cable, dsl, fiber ?

 

[sfx2000]

Crazy stuff - but WRT54GL can handle 100MB broadband connection quite nicely for ethernet connections - and if one doesn't have too terribly many clients there - it would be hard to tell the difference...

that's probably why they're still selling it (and folks keep buying it)

http://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-WRT54GL/

 

[paulbasel]

do you have any security or filtering set up in the router ?
That can significantly impact effective speed.
Otherwise, it is usually the website or the ISP (if it varies by time of day) capacity. What is the connection type the ISP is providing - cable, dsl, fiber ?

I have cable service which I believe is copper. I have tested the speed at various times throughout the day and I receive 98 - 102 Mbit/s download consistently. The service is rated at 100/10.

Security and Filters
Firewall: IPv4 and IPv6 protection enabled,
VPN IPSec, PPTP, L2TP passthrough enabled,
filter anonymous internet requests enabled,
and Filter ident (Port 113 enabled.
DMZ off. Apps and gaming disabled.
VLAN off, and remote management off.
Guest account off.

I do have a Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ connected to the router which sends the signal down the electric lines to the ground floor. We have a 3 story home and the router is on the top floor in my office connected to my desktop via a CAT6 ethernet cable. We have wireless devices we use on the ground floor.

We have two ipads, one iphone, an iSmartalarm system with 5 window alarms, motion detector, and video cam. We obviously don't receive 100/10 on the ground floor, only about a third of that, but that is acceptable for what we do with those devices.

We also have internet telephony which is obviously connected to the router. Now that I have written all of this, I'm beginning to think that this may be asking a lot from a home router (meaning not business), but I'm not sure if all of these devices make a difference. After all, they were all working quite well with the 54G. What do you think? Any tweaks I can make in the router or the network?

 

[degrub]

You can try by disconnecting all other devices from the router (turn off wlan) and see if the web and downloads run faster. Cable is load sensitive, so depending on your neighbor use, you could see reduced bandwidth. But since speed test is showing full rate, doesn't seem likely for now. Not knowing what chipset ASUS is using on that mb, perhaps an intel lan card might boost it somewhat, but i suspect SFX2000 has it correct. What you paid for was faster and more reliable wireless, not wired throughput..

 

[paulbasel]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'm not unhappy about about the download speed or the reliable service provided by our local ISP. It is simply why I don't see a difference between the two routers and my expectation was that I would have faster downloads.

By the way, I live in Switzerland and we are 7 small villages who banded together and contracted with a local ISP rather than accept the high cost of the big Cablecom company or the Swisscom DSL service. My cable service includes: Internet 100/10, TV - 190 HD - 75, Mobile TV, Digital telephony - all calls throughout the country included regardless of provider, 50 GB Cloud, Mobile phone (no service charge, just phone calls), all for the low price of CHF 60.00 (~$61.00) per month. I guess I shouldn't complain about web performance.

Thanks again

 

[diesel2k]

Hi,

Are you complaining about

- upgrading from 50mbit internet to 100mbit internet did not result in improved internet load times?
- upgrading to a more modern router did not give you better performance?

Question 1: Your old WRT54G router how did that perform with speedtest on the 100mbit ISP provided line? Full 100 mbit or only 35 mbit?

You mention the following that is not improved:

- website loading
Going from 50mbit internet to 100mbit internet will show absolutely no difference in website loading times. If you expect a website like snbforums to load faster you have the wrong expectations.

- file downloads
Speedtest now shows 100mbit (vs. 50mbit before) - this validates that you have 100mbit internet. If you download something from the internet do you get full 100mbit speed or what do you experience? Remember to get 100mbit it is not only your connections that matter, but also where you download from.

 

[paulbasel]

My complaint is that upgrading to a more modern router did not give better "work" performance, for the lack of a better word.

Your question 1: The speedtest with my old 54G was about 38 Mbit/s +/- 3 with my old 50/5 service. It was the same with my new 100/10. With my new router I now receive 98 to 102 download on speedtests.

I did expect website loading to be faster but I now realize from everyone's comments that is not going to happen.

I don't know how to measure download speed when downloading a large file, I only know how long it takes. I downloaded a very large file from my Google Drive with the old router and then again with the new router and the time difference was about 5% different over several tests. Everything else on my network remained the same so the only variable was the router. And yes, I had the same settings on both routers - I made sure of that.

My issue is if router manufacturers promise higher performance but the real world performance is not significantly different between a 10 year old router and one that was introduced 6 months ago then what have I gained.

Thanks for your response but I'm ready to call it quits and write off the $230 I spent for nothing.

 

[diesel2k]

Hi Paul,

You did not spend it on nothing, you got a speed upgrade from 38 -> 100mbit. That is something. Google drive is notoriously slow and will often not max the internet connection.

It seems like you don't use the wireless on the router since your office computer is connected with cable. In that case you could definitely have found a much cheaper option. Your only requirement is a router that does 100mbit lan->wan.

For wireless wifi the WRT3200ac router will absolutely blow the wrt54g out of the water. The old router would only allow you to download 22mbit and the new router will max out your 100mbit on the wireless without a hitch.

The router is definitely overkill when you don't harvest its wireless powers.

You could consider running a cat5e cable from the office downstairs - and then place it there and use it as an access point so the clients down there get full internet speed. (of course this would require you to buy another router for the office)

All the best

 

[sfx2000]

Before we dump on the WRT-3200AC - like others have mentioned, the wired performance won't be that much "faster", but LAN side performance across the wire will be much better compared to the WRT54G(L) - and even WAN side, under load, will be better.

And all clients will benefit from the 802.11ac capable chipsets - even legacy clients (note, watch the 2.4GHz configs, as some (including the default) are not optimal for legacy)

So... one has to look at the use cases.

 

[paulbasel]

For wireless wifi the WRT3200ac router will absolutely blow the wrt54g out of the water. The old router would only allow you to download 22mbit and the new router will max out your 100mbit on the wireless without a hitch.

I do use the wireless capability of the new router. I didn't want to get into those details because I didn't want to complicate the discussion about the wired connections. But, here goes. I am also somewhat disappointed with the wireless performance as well, particularly on our laptop. Yep, yet another complaint.

In my office an iPad sitting 10 feet away from the router consistently reaches speeds of 70 Mbit/s down. That is indeed faster than the old 54G. However, the laptop in the same location as the iPad maxes out at 38 Mbit/s or less, no matter when it is tested. And, again the "work or use" performance isn't any better than with the 54G.

However, we don't ever use the handheld devices on the top floor, but rather on the ground floor where the Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ powerline only delivers 30 - 35 Mbit/s. I understand that powerline systems will degrade wireless performance so I can't expect much more than this probably, although I hoped the new router would improve the performance. The devices used in the living room seem as sluggish as before with the old 54 G on the top floor.

It is also interesting that connecting the laptop to the Devolo in the living room using an ethernet cable has a speed about the same as the wireless devices, even less on the upload speed maxing out at about 5 Mbit/s compared to 10 Mbit/s on the handhelds.

This arrangement in the living room is sometimes frustrating, but acceptable for the iPad and iPhone, but not for Netflix wireless broadcasts to a Chromecast Gen 1 device where I doubt if it is receiving more than 20 Mbit/s judging by the number of dropped connections when watching a movie. But, that is another story.

 

[degrub]

I do use the wireless capability of the new router. I didn't want to get into those details because I didn't want to complicate the discussion about the wired connections. But, here goes. I am also somewhat disappointed with the wireless performance as well, particularly on our laptop. Yep, yet another complaint.

In my office an iPad sitting 10 feet away from the router consistently reaches speeds of 70 Mbit/s down. That is indeed faster than the old 54G. However, the laptop in the same location as the iPad maxes out at 38 Mbit/s or less, no matter when it is tested. And, again the "work or use" performance isn't any better than with the 54G.

However, we don't ever use the handheld devices on the top floor, but rather on the ground floor where the Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ powerline only delivers 30 - 35 Mbit/s. I understand that powerline systems will degrade wireless performance so I can't expect much more than this probably, although I hoped the new router would improve the performance. The devices used in the living room seem as sluggish as before with the old 54 G on the top floor.

It is also interesting that connecting the laptop to the Devolo in the living room using an ethernet cable has a speed about the same as the wireless devices, even less on the upload speed maxing out at about 5 Mbit/s compared to 10 Mbit/s on the handhelds.

This arrangement in the living room is sometimes frustrating, but acceptable for the iPad and iPhone, but not for Netflix wireless broadcasts to a Chromecast Gen 1 device where I doubt if it is receiving more than 20 Mbit/s judging by the number of dropped connections when watching a movie. But, that is another story.

Don't forget that the wireless limitations are also a function of the wireless adapter in the device. So if the laptop is only capable of N or lower....

The power line bandwidth is shared among all of the devices using that wireless access, so if there is any competition between devices.... Also, it does not degrade the wireless. It will run at the standard speed subject to interference and the physical environment and what link rate the devices connect at. If you have any devices connecting at the old A or B link rates, it used to be that would pull all link rates down. i don't know what the AC std implemented regarding this.

 

[paulbasel]

Don't forget that the wireless limitations are also a function of the wireless adapter in the device. So if the laptop is only capable of N or lower....

The power line bandwidth is shared among all of the devices using that wireless access, so if there is any competition between devices

Excellent points. I'll have to look up the laptop adaptor, it can't be AC, most likely N. Would a new wireless adapter dongle do anything to improve the throughput?

You're right about the power line bandwidth. My powerline system must share it with two ipads, an iphone, a iSmartAlarm system, and as of today, an Amazon Echo. Little wonder the power line is slow. I'll have to turn off some devices, I guess.

Thanks for the comment.

 

[degrub]

Excellent points. I'll have to look up the laptop adaptor, it can't be AC, most likely N. Would a new wireless adapter dongle do anything to improve the throughput?

You're right about the power line bandwidth. My powerline system must share it with two ipads, an iphone, a iSmartAlarm system, and as of today, an Amazon Echo. Little wonder the power line is slow. I'll have to turn off some devices, I guess.

Thanks for the comment.

a new adapter would only be as fast as the fastest USB port - and likely slower due to driver overhead.

Have you tried other plugs or circuits for the powerline ? the newer versions (AV2 ? ) may increase the throughput.

 

[TonyH]

Excellent points. I'll have to look up the laptop adaptor, it can't be AC, most likely N. Would a new wireless adapter dongle do anything to improve the throughput?

You're right about the power line bandwidth. My powerline system must share it with two ipads, an iphone, a iSmartAlarm system, and as of today, an Amazon Echo. Little wonder the power line is slow. I'll have to turn off some devices, I guess.

Thanks for the comment.

Please try not to argue. You double the speed which is proven now. Simply there are many other factors
in relation to overall performance. Your new router is multiple times more powerful than that old work horse WRT54G for sure. Did you try real time streaming, or watching youtube? Is there really no difference?

 

[degrub]

Please try not to argue. You double the speed which is proven now. Simply there are many other factors
in relation to overall performance. Your new router is multiple times more powerful than that old work horse WRT54G for sure. Did you try real time streaming, or watching youtube? Is there really no difference?

what argument ?