SUPER SLOW INTERNET Belkin n750 dual band router?

[Steven Louise]

Hey, I have a belkin n750 Dual Band router. I called up time warner cable because my internet was super slow. They told me to connect my laptop directly to the modem and I had no no problems. My speed were 15++ and upload was 1++ since I'm only paying for those speed. After that they told me to connect my router to my modem and use wireless connection to see if my internet was still slow and after that my internet was slow again. The customer service said it might be a problem with my router. I'm a little computer geek so I know what I'm doing, I changed the channel to reduce interference with other router and I have the latest firmware update. Intellistream is off, I have security up with both of my channels 2.4ghz and 5ghz. I turned off the guest access to see if that will help but no. It didn't help at all, I just bought this router couple months ago. And the people from TWC told me to just buy another router but I don't want to waste my money. And I spent a lot on this router because I thought that it would give me good results. Should I buy a new router? And I don't know what to do anymore. I tweeked all the possible ways to speed up my internet, but still no luck. And sometimes my speed goes down to .50mpbs download which is very dissappointing but I have no problems with my upload speed. What can I do?

[Naughty]

i think you should help from there customer centre.

[Sporadic]

Skip wireless for the time being, and sort the problem wired first.

As it works with the laptop plugged in to the modem, you know it's not either of those. Now wire (not wifi) the laptop to the router, and the router to the modem. If that works, it's not the router, if it doesn't then it's the router.

The next stage (assuming the router works properly on the wired connection) is to try the wireless. Ideally you need a least two devices, or one laptop and two wifi dongles. This will help to see if it the device's wifi, or the router which is the problem. If both devices have trouble, it's the router, otherwise it's the device.

In this situation, you want to test the set up, change one part, test again, change another, test, and so on.

[rowlfe]

You said: "I'm a little computer geek so I know what I'm doing" and that is NOT true! You obviously have NOT taken "networking 101".

Do what they said, use wire instead of wireless. You already showed that wire resolves the problem, so you proved it MUST be your wireless link that is the problem! You have obviously NOT thought this through. What they did NOT tell you is they know exactly what the problem IS, the wireless link itself. YOU are suffering from the dreaded "party line effect" which they will NOT admit exists. The party line effect is a general slowdown of network THROUGHPUT. SPEED is constant since speed is determined by what radio frequencies you use. Throughput is the quantity of data moved over time. It is not how fast your truck travels at any given point in time (speed), but how much of a load (throughput) it can carry back and forth per day that counts. What happens is you send and receive data in high speed bursts. With wireless, the more users share the line so to speak, the slower ALL go as a result. There are two reasons WHY his happens. First, the access point has only ONE transmitter so it can "talk" to only ONE user at a time. More users means each user gets less individual time because of sharing the transmitter talk time, which means shorter and shorter bursts of data per user. Second, traffic jams. On a party line, you listen and then if the line is clear, you talk. No problem. If the line is busy, you wait for the line to clear and then talk. Again, no problem. The problem surfaces when someone else is waiting just as you are. Both of you try to talk when the line clears, which makes for interference, and neither of you get through. So, you wait for a reply and not getting one in a reasonable time, you try again. And so does the other guy and you collide again and neither gets through. This colliding goes on for a while until eventually, you get out of sync enough that one of you hears the other when you listen to see if the line is clear, and that puts you into more waiting. There is no one directing traffic, no traffic cop on wireless. THAT is what a traffic jam IS, dead time with no data moving because of transmission collisions. Both of these things slows you down. More users means slower traffic, less throughput for everyone who wants to use the line. Of course, your provider will NOT admit that this happens, but they DO know about it, which is why they told you to swap to wire to see if the router itself, the hardware, is the source of the problem. Which you proved is NOT at fault for the slowdown. How many users on YOUR network? How many other wireless networks are in your network list? Each of those networks COUNTS against you as users even though NOT connected to your access point. The thing is, they have transmitters just as you do and you are all on the same party line (set of radio frequencies) which means you have to wait while THEY talk just as THEY have to wait while YOU talk, which is why everyone slows down equally when there are more then one user. One user means no competition for air time. Two users mean you each get HALF the access time available. Do you see what the problem is now? Hmmm? By the way, "hey" is for horses... Before you claim to be an expert, or a "little computer geek" as YOU claimed, you should at least do your homework BEFORE you open your mouth. "Little" is right... as in LITTLE knowledge.