Slow Connection, High Pings Through Router

Lately things have gotten much worse. My computer along with all the other laptops in my house are getting very slow connections and so is my Xbox 360. Also, the desktop gets the same crappy connection of about 2 to sometimes (if I'm lucky) 5 Mbps. However, when I hook the desktop directly into the modem it gets 15Mbps (we're supposed to get 20, but 15 is close enough). That made me rule out a problem with the modem or ISP. Now I'm worried it's my router. It's not the newest router but it's a pretty good one. It's the Linksys WRT300N and it's spitting out 802.11n wireless but it has to be mixed in order for the other laptops to pick it up because they don't have wireless N adapters. I checked every possible thing that could cause this problem on the router and I don't know what's doing it. I don't think it's the wireless either because the desktop is hooked via ethernet into the router and suffers the same problem.

Can anyone help me? Also, sorry if the above text is confusing, I'm really frustrated and I wanted to type this up quick.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this doesn't constantly happen. Sometimes I'll get 10-12 Mbps on my computer and then in about 20 minutes it'll drop again. That is also the reason my Xbox suffers massive lag spikes while playing. It's really annoying when I am playing Modern Warfare 2 and all of a sudden my guy is flying around the map only to end up dead in the spot I was last.

 

you on cable ? play with mtu see if it helps

 

Yes I am and I'm not very savvy when it comes to internet stuff so could you kind of help me with what to do? Thanks.

 

How's the signal strength?

 

Uggg. The WRT300n has waaay to many issues, esp with the stock firmware. Most likely its crapping itself when to many connections are established at once.

 

i have a 300n ver1 and it always worked well . on set up page select mtu not auto and try 1500 ,
also try to update the firmware , if i remember the first fw was not great . i'll look at mine tomorrow see what it is running

 

This too ^^^^

 

Okay, well the signal strength is excellent according to my computer and it doesn't surprise me because the router is basically directly under my room in the basement. As for the too many connections thing, it will do this when all the computers are running or only mine so I doubt it's too much traffic. The 300n is a version 1.1 with the latest firmware it can have which is 1.52.1 or something like that. Also, I'll try the MTU thing and tell you if it works. Thanks, everyone.

Edit: Well, I just switched the MTU to what you told me and ran a speed test and got 10Mbps down and 1.88Mbps up. This is better than what I normally get but I'm worried that it's just for a little bit of time and then the connection will go bad again.

Edit: Yeah, my connection has gone to crap again. I'm the only one home right now so I know that my computer is the only one on the internet and I'm still having problems. Is there a firmware for the 300n that isn't by Linksys that may fix some of these problems? I heard some routers have other firmwares.

 

The MTU setting made things a bit better but does anybody have other suggestions because it still isn't fixed.

 

turn off everything wireless in the house, microwave ovens, bluetooth, cordless phones, etc, etc. Anything that could possibly run in the 2.4Gz band.

 

I already changed the frequency and that isn't the problem. However, I just setup QoS on my router for the Xbox and things seem to be better and my computer isn't doing that bad anymore either.

 

I didn't ask you to change the channel of the router. I asked you to shut off everything else that could possibly be interfering with signal quality.

Two different things.

The 13 802.11 channels are so close to each other that it is unlikely that simply changing the default router channel will solve interference from other devices that happen to be running in the unlicensed 2.4gz band.

Be careful with QoS. QoS always makes something better at the expense of everything else. You're going to have to learn about CoS, ToS, and DSCP before declaring understanding or "victory" with QoS.

 

Well from what I've seen so far the QoS thing is working without any unwanted side effects. Hell, the Xbox is on right now and my computer isn't having any problems with it. As for the frequency stuff, why would it just randomly start? Up until about 2 weeks ago I had absolutely no problem with my internet.

 

It only seems random because you're not looking past your own room.

Anything within say 100 meters could be messing you up.

Any neighbors with microwave ovens, cordless phones, other wireless devices? Has the city installed new wireless water meters, are there wireless power or gas meters in the area?

etc.

 

No nothing new has been added that I know of. Unless like you said my neighbors added something. Oh well, it's working right now but I can't just turn everything like that off every time I want to play my games or go on the internet.

 

Okay now it's acting up again so can someone please tell me a way to fix this that doesn't involve turning every little thing off in my house?

 

i have the same router, but the problem is the wireless range. i dont like it, altho the connection stays quite solid. is there anyway way to increase range of router, without things like "placement/newrouter"?

 

The range isn't the problem. I have a full signal and the router is in the basement directly under my room.

 

Have you tried isolating each connection/device? How do they perform if only one device is connected?

 

Well I think I just fixed the problem for good. All I did was switch the ethernet cable between my modem and router and now I'm getting consistent 4 bars in Modern Warfare 2. Apparently it was just a faulty ethernet cable. Thanks guys for all your help and now I feel like an idiot.

 

Don't , faulty cable is common and overlooked all the time , and hard to diagnose cause some routers work well with a cable that will give intermittent connection on other router .

 

lol talk about faulty cables, my comcast modem box made by arris had a problems with the telephone port today, turns out is was the faulty 56k cable. too bad i couldnt find a new one that was 20ft long in my house, now i have base station in my room, which is a good thing

on to the WRT300N, i know wireless =/= wired. i hardly ever use wireless since my laptop stays on my desk. but when i do, the thing that pisses me off is it fluctuates so dramatically in download speeds even if im rite in front of the router with excellent signal. on solid wired connection i'll get 2MBps, while on wireless i will get a fluctuation from 300KBps-1.9MBps-1.1MBps etc etc. it keeps moving and is never stable. i know like i said above, wireless=/=wired, but is this a common thing with wireless? if not, is it my router? anyone else have this problem with the WRT300N?

 

bump, any answers to my question ^

 

Of course it's common. Which is why wireless is not the de facto standard: it can be effected by so many errant signals/things. Not only do I get fluctuation due to other devices, my connection strength changes depending on the time of day (this reminds me of year ago when I'd get radio signals from across the state at certain times of the night). Wired is also more secure, so unless I have a necessity to go wireless, I stay plugged in!

 

It sounds like a firmware problem to me. Only hope would be an update.