How do I Optimize my Router?

Hello, i just bought a Linksys E2000 and I've noticed my connection to be slower as opposed to my older Linksys WRT54G V.4. I would like to know what ways i can help boost my connection through router configurations. I normally play my PS3 wireless, but i plugged in and saw little difference. my laptop and netbook suffer longer webpage loads and downloads too.

So any suggestions, or some golden key I don't know to configuring routers would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you.

 

Biggests thing I can recommend without knowing more details about your laptops is that you make sure that the router is broadcasting at max power and in the N-Band only. (Or N/G if you still have G-wireless on some of your machines). Make sure security is set to WPA2 with AES cipher, and make sure your wireless machines are using that security.

Also, if you're able to, compare signal strength between your two routers with a program like InSSIDer.

 

WPA2-AES/40mhz/ N-mode Only

and use the Channel with least traffic

 

changed it to N. Changed it to WPA2 (didn't see anything about AE and don't see where to change the Mhz). I'll test more thoroughly tomorrow, thanks!

 

Change stock firmware to DD-WRT if it supports it

Id say in most cases its vastly better than the stock firmware.

 

It's a common misconception that DD-WRT is better than stock firmware when it comes to performance. It's more feature rich but not faster. See here for a test of Broadcom based Netgear router using both stock and DD-WRT firmware.
Linksys is very good when it comes to firmware for Broadcom based devices- if you compare routing performance of Asus RT-N16, Netgear WNR3500L and Linksys E3000 the latter comes on top easily although all use the same Broadcom 4718 CPU.

OP should follow flipfire's advice- it's everything one can do to make the most of wireless n router.

 

Hmm I have seen much the opposite of what you claim. I think linking one review for one router is not enough to make a claim that DD-WRT has worse performance than stock firmware.

That also would really matter what router it is to begin with. I did say in most cases DD-WRT would be better not all cases.

 

It's not really surprising if you think of it- you can't really get all the features in the world and the best performance on the same hardware.
I gave an example of a Broadcom based router with a high-end CPU. The weaker hardware you get the more DD-WRT "weights" compared to what a router can do.
Netgear WNR3500L is 480MHz CPU and 64MB RAM- OP's E2000 is 350MHz CPU and 32MB RAM.
I'm not saying DD-WRT doesn't improve performance but it does so on routers with poor stock firmware whereas Linksys is very good with firmware for Broadcom-based devices.

 

Well one thing to note is I have not looked into this since N standards came out, perhaps that makes a difference. Also when I say DD-WRT I am using it as a general name to cover all the open source firmware like Tomato and stuff as well, and last I checked Tomato is faster than DD-WRT.

Google searching a bit does show me some people claiming DD-WRT to be faster/better than stock still though and for sure the customization and options cant be beat!

 

Yeah- it was different with 802.11g. Also you are right about Tomato- it's smaller and faster although it doesn't support as many devices and doesn't have as many options (it's probably why it's faster in the first place).
Anyway- I always recommend routers that are supported by 3rd party firmware.
If you buy a good hardware (preferably with good stock firmware) you are left with more options than you need when it comes to firmware.
OP’s E2000 is a good choice both hardware and firmware-wise.