Linksys WRT54GS Performance

Hi,

Can anyone tell me the maximum forwarding rate for a Linksys WRT54GS between
its WAN port and the wired LAN ports.

My ISP has just upgraded my Internet bandwidth from 4Mb to 10Mb and I haven't
seen much improvement - I've have traced the problem to my ageing SMC 7004WBR
router which seems unable to forward data faster than 5.3Mb between its WAN
ports and wired 100Mb LAN switch ports. (I've been running the speed test at
www.giganews.com to check my connection speed.)

Removing the router and plugging the PC directly into my cable modem I get
speeds of 9.7Mb, so I'm looking for a replacement router - potentially the
Linksys WRT54GS - that's capable of forwarding faster than this so that I can
see the benefit of the ISP upgrade on my LAN.

Thanks,

Dave

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:20:58 GMT, (E-Mail Removed)
(Dave) wrote:

>Can anyone tell me the maximum forwarding rate for a Linksys WRT54GS between
>its WAN port and the wired LAN ports.

19.7Mbits/sec for the WRT54G. See:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Review...D-WRT54G-7.php

33.7Mbits/sec for the WRT54GS. See:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Review...-WRT54GS-6.php

>My ISP has just upgraded my Internet bandwidth from 4Mb to 10Mb and I haven't
>seen much improvement - I've have traced the problem to my ageing SMC 7004WBR
>router which seems unable to forward data faster than 5.3Mb between its WAN
>ports and wired 100Mb LAN switch ports. (I've been running the speed test at
>www.giganews.com to check my connection speed.)

Try:
http://nitro.ucsc.edu
or other WEB100 NDT server. Look at the "More Details" and
"Statistics" buttons and see if they're complaining about MaxMTU,
RWIN, or other parameters. Also try:
http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks
and see if it also complains about MaxMTU, RWIN, etc. This is
probably NOT the problem since the directly connected computah works
as expected, but it's worth a try to see if something related is
screwed up.

>Removing the router and plugging the PC directly into my cable modem I get
>speeds of 9.7Mb, so I'm looking for a replacement router - potentially the
>Linksys WRT54GS - that's capable of forwarding faster than this so that I can
>see the benefit of the ISP upgrade on my LAN.

Any chance that you might be:
1. Running 10mbits/sec on the PC or router ethernet port? 10baseT-HDX
will yield about 6Mbits/sec maximum. 10baseT-FDX will do up to about
9.5Mbits/sec.
2. Running 100baseTX-HDX (half duplex)? (NWAY failure) This will
result in erratice thruput. You can see the errors with:
Start -> run -> cmd <enter>
netstat -es | more
3. Have you tweaked the default receive window (RWIN) for the
increased speed?
4. Borrow a different computer and see if it does the same thing.
5. Crappy cables?
--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the info and the pointers to the Tomshardware reviews.

Have run the tests on the sites you suggested and all looks fine. I'm running
100Mb FDX into my router so no problems there and all cables are CAT5 and less
than 6 feet so all points to the router to me. Have a couple of hardwired PCs
on the LAN here and both suffer the same way so all points to the router in my
mind.

Have just ordered a Linksys WRT54GS which will hopefully resolve the problem
when delivered in a couple of days time.

Many thanks for your help.

Dave


Jeff Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:20:58 GMT, (E-Mail Removed)

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Jeff
Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> 19.7Mbits/sec for the WRT54G. See:
> http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Review...D-WRT54G-7.php
>
> 33.7Mbits/sec for the WRT54GS. See:
> http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Review...-WRT54GS-6.php

it appears he is testing a very old version of the linksys wrt54g.
comparing the description of his unit with the the wrt54g autopsy at
linksysinfo.org, it looks like he used a rev 1 hardware unit. the
wrt54g is up to rev 5 hardware now, and recent models have a much
faster cpu (roughly twice as fast) along with other enhancements.
thus, i'd expect a current wrt54g to be substantially faster than what
this review indicates. his review of the gs is more recent, and that
is probably a good guide as to how well a current model wrt54g would
perform.

<http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=6>