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Does a router affect internet speed?

#1 JackieP

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Posted 03 September 2009 - 07:46 PM

Hopefully I can ask for help with this.

I have Comcast and the speed is supposed to be 6Mbps. My internet connection has been slow lately. I have a wired D-link EBR 2310 router. Comcast tells me that a router can interfere with internet speed. Is that true? My OS is Windows XP Pro, use Firefox and I'm using a Dell laptop.

I did a speed test on speed.io:

Results from http://www.speed.io
(Copied on 2009-09-03 20:38:29)
Download: 3972 Kbit/s
Upload : 1421 kbit/s
Connects : 857 conn/min
Ping: 100 ms

#2 hamluis

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 04:26 PM

Whomever told you that...you probably ought never to ask for advice again.

Connection speed will always vary...based on many factors such as time connected, system overload, equipment used by ISP, network saturation due to neighborhood, and so on.

But I've never heard of the router as being one of the many factors.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-is-my-Reside...?&id=145690

BTW: You left out a key word when quoting that speed Comcast mentioned...maximum. You might ask them when you can reasonably expect to see that rate...the answer will be "never".

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#3 cpumelter

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Posted 06 September 2009 - 07:26 AM

I have Comcast and the same router as you; I am supposed to have 10Mbps down, & I registered just over 6 at that site. Go Comcast... :thumbsup:

#4 ThunderZ

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Posted 06 September 2009 - 08:06 AM

@ JackieP & Cpumelter.

What Louis said. If you read the fine print you will most likely see the words "up to" xxMbps somewhere in there.

#5 cpumelter

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Posted 07 September 2009 - 06:18 AM

Thunder, you are correct...I know when I have talked to Comcast tech in the past, they tell me that is considered a max speed, not sustained...

#6 Daniel326

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Posted 09 September 2009 - 05:48 PM

if you want call comcast and have them come out and check that you are at full connection. They checked mine and seen that they had old equiptment and they changed it out. It's just a call away and you pay for the service so they should come out.

#7 Animal

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Posted 09 September 2009 - 10:30 PM

To answer your question, no, a properly configured and fully operational router will not be a cause for bandwidth issues. Configured improperly or having operational issues, it is possible.

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#8 the_patriot11

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Posted 09 September 2009 - 11:09 PM

most routers are designed to handle at least 100 mb bandwidth, so 6 will not strain it, unless you have like over 100 computers all using it, in which case I suspect several things, A: your a genious for getting 100 computers hooked up to a normal router and B: the router is the least of your worries. Unless the router is not working right, there should be no reason that router would be slowing you down. The actual internet connection will bottleneck you more then the router.

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#9 pcar

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Posted 14 September 2009 - 07:25 AM

No way your router is a problem. The tech was... uninformed.

My Comcast speeds vary a lot (download 10-15Mb/s. upload ~5-8Mb/s) depending on the time of day and where the servers are located. This site has a bunch of servers all over the country.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Good Luck