New router and plan, no speed increase :(
donhanavan
Newbie

First, I want to thank anyone in advance who can help. I'm really looking forward to getting this figured out.

I recently upgraded from a 50/35 plan to a 75/35 Quantum plan. At the time of the upgrade, I had the old, big and black ActionTec router. The Verizon tech I spoke with through a chat said that that router won't support the new plan's speeds, and that I should upgrade to the MI424WR GigE http://www.actiontec.com/products/product.php?pid=214#.UhPUWpLrxyW . It just came in the other day, and I hooked it up. I tested wired speeds with SpeedTest.net, and I hit roughly 83/38, but the ping was real high (about 50ms). At this point I wasn't worried about the ping, just glad the new speed was working. But I tested wireless speeds, and they were slower than with the old router. The desktop I was testing on is on the same floor as the router, 2 rooms away, both in the same locations as with the old router and same computer that I'm testing on (has a Netgear N900 wireless adapter rated at 450Mbps). 

How am I getting slower wireless speeds with this much newer/better router? The tech said all I would have to do is unplug the old router, plug the new one in, and that's it. So I did. Swapped the old one out, plugged the new one into the Ethernet cable coming from the ONT in the basement. All my devices can connect to the new network fine. It's just that this desktop and my laptop are getting wireless speeds of around 30/20 when on the old router and plan they'd get 32/25. Why are the faster plan and new router slowing my wireless speeds?

I've been reading a few things here and there about troubleshooting this type of thing, and one thing I read was about releasing the DHCP when switching routers. I didn't do this because the tech never told me to, but would not doing this slow down my speed?

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
Anti-Phish1
Master - Level 1

@donhanavan wrote:

would not doing this slow down my speed?


No.  Not releasing the DHCP lease would have no impact on your wireless speed.

There are many factors that affect your wireless speed.  Try chaqnging wireless channels to see if another channel is less congested.

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
donhanavan
Newbie

Thank you for the reply. Well...I tried changing the channels as you suggested. They all seem relatively similar. The default setting was Automatic. I changed it to 1, to 11, and a few in between. 1 and 11 were the only ones that didn't come with the warning "You've chosen a channel that isn't recommended for optimum performance", but I tried them anyways. Every one seems the same: all give between 25-29mbps. On my old router I was always a little over 30mbps.

Better plan, better router, everything physically in the same spot in the house. I guess it is most likely something to do with the settings, but changing channels seemed to have no effect.

Just out of curiosity, since I'm fishing for a solution here, when I was in the settings I noticed this:

image

Just looked kind of wierd, since it was set to "Use the Following DNS Server Adresses" and then none were listed. This wouldn't be affecting anything would it?

Also...noticed the Connection Type was set to Bridge, not Router. I saw it listed on the one details page, but it didn't have the option to change the Bridge setting, it just stated that that's what the Connection Type was set at. That wouldn't be affecting the speed either would it?

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
JOSEm441
Specialist - Level 2

GREAT FINDS, fill in primary 8.8.8.8 and secondary 8.8.4.4 (these are the google DNS servers) save your new settings!

If it is still slow you may need to reboot the router.

My  connection is Ethernet/Coax. If you have the same setup as I do - ONT-Router-devices I believe it should not be in Bridge.

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
donhanavan
Newbie

Thank you. So Connection Type should be "Router", not "Bridge"? My setup is Ethernet cable as well, going from the ONT to the router. Any idea on how I would change that? When I went to one of the Basic Settings pages it just basically told me the Connection Type was Bridge, it didn't have a drop-down menu or anything where I could change it.

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
JOSEm441
Specialist - Level 2

GOOD question, ON the page titled

Broadband Connection (Ethernet/Coax) Properties

does connection type show up as as Bridged? (mine says Ethernet/Coax)

On:  Network (Home/Office) Properties my connection type is bridged (and it works fine)

At ths point it may help to reset the router (press and hold the reset pinhole 15 seconds, release then wait about 2 minutes to test

Did filling in the DNS servers help at all? (note you will lose this and all custom settings if you reset the router.

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
donhanavan
Newbie

Unfortunately, it did not help. Might have made it a little slower. Now I seem to be hitting in the low 20's.

I found some more information on the networks-

image

Does that look the way it's supposed to? "Network (Home/Office)" says Bridge for me as well. Not sure what it and the others listed should say, but yeah, this is what the Network Connections page looks like. 

Is there any other settings/sections that I could take a screenshot of that would help diagnose this? 

Changing the DNS Server didn't help, so if I have to Reset the router then I guess I could try that next. Not sure what I'll have to adjust after doing that though, or will everything be the same as it was the first time I turned it on? (except for the SSID and password, I would assume)

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@donhanavan wrote:

 

How am I getting slower wireless speeds with this much newer/better router? The tech said all I would have to do is unplug the old router, plug the new one in, and that's it. So I did. Swapped the old one out, plugged the new one into the Ethernet cable coming from the ONT in the basement. All my devices can connect to the new network fine. It's just that this desktop and my laptop are getting wireless speeds of around 30/20 when on the old router and plan they'd get 32/25. Why are the faster plan and new router slowing my wireless speeds?


It's because you have poor wireless signal.  If you insist on using wireless and want better speed you'll either need to move the device closer to the router or you'll have to add a wap closer to the device,

Should have added, If the wireless adapter in the device is a G adapter you're not going to get any better speed than you wer getting before anyway as it was already running at max.

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
donhanavan
Newbie

I had an old ActionTec router, and 35/35 plan. Was getting 35mbps download speed on this computer. Now, with the 75/35 plan and a brand new MI424WR GigE, and the router location and this computer in the exact same spots, I'm getting slower speeds. If everything is in the same spots, and is dealing with the same amount of interference, then how could a better plan and router (the only 2 variables that have changed) result in slower speeds? It just seems...illogical.

The wireless adapter I'm using is a Netgear N900, rated at 450mbps. It was getting 35mbps with the old router/plan, 25mbps now. And everything else is the same. Also have full reception on this computer, as well as on the laptop, which is 2 floors away in the basement.

I could see if this was the first time everything was set up. But the only 2 things that changed from the previous setup were upgrades. Is it possible that a router that's years newer would have a harder time going through walls?

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Re: New router and plan, no speed increase :(
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@donhanavan wrote:

The wireless adapter I'm using is a Netgear N900, rated at 450mbps. It was getting 35mbps with the old router/plan, 25mbps now. And everything else is the same. Also have full reception on this computer, as well as on the laptop, which is 2 floors away in the basement.

I could see if this was the first time everything was set up. But the only 2 things that changed from the previous setup were upgrades. Is it possible that a router that's years newer would have a harder time going through walls?


Yes, it may well be worse at obstacle penetration, the wireless side of all the Verizon routers appears to be somewhat pathetic.

I thought that the netgear N900 was a router not an adapter. How is your home network put together?

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