Why is my dang router so slow?

[moze229]

I have my trusty WRT54g Linksys router that's about 10 years old. It's always worked well, and has rarely given me any issues. However, according to what Windows reports anyway, I'm only getting between 740k - 1 MB/s transfer speeds. I have about 12 items throughout the house connected wirelessly, but rarely are more than two things going at once. Sometimes two at once, but rarely. I'm not really concerned about our phones, iPads, Roku, or the TV right now - I'm just looking at computers first.

I went to transfer some MP3's from one machine to the other today and I just couldn't wait for it. I had to go into the bowels of my basement and dig out a peer-to-peer network cable to do the transfer. That produced 80 - 100MB/s transfer. That's what I'm talking about! (I don't expect anywhere NEAR those rates with WiFi, but 1 MB/s? Come on.)

I have three computers. A laptop, a PC, and an iMac. All three report the same transfer speed rates (approximately). So with me being lucky enough to have a crappy DSL provider, my max speed is only 3MB anyway, but at these rates I'm not even maximizing my poor excuse for a DSL connection. Wireless g at 2.4 GHz is supposed to have 54Mb/s max. (Again, I know that's not realistic.) I would expect half that maybe? Is that asking too much? LOL. All three computers are within 10ft. of the router. (Usually.)

What are some areas that I can check to see if there is anything that I can improve? Do I just need a new router? Is something configured wrong? I'm not opposed to buying a new router, but I'm fairly confident that's not going to solve my problem. I realize the standard is now 802.11ac. I realize that there's no way anyone can give me any definitive answers, but a point in the right direction would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

 

[theveterans]

The router is 10 years old already, but if it used to work fast before tt might be that the chip is overheating which results to throttling.

My suggestion is to upgrade to at least an 802.11n router, preferably with gigabit ethernet. Any decent 802.11n router would give far better speed with your home network (not internet speeds). A 802.11n router with Gigabit Ethernet switch can also provide that 100 MB/s speed that you get with Ethernet crossover cable. 802.11ac will only help with WiFi speeds, but if your devices aren't 802.11ac, it would be a waste of money to spend on one.

To know what WiFi radios your Windows devices support, just run admin command prompt and type "netsh wlan show driver"

C:\windows\system32>netsh wlan show driver
Interface name: Wi-Fi
    Driver                    : Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller
    Vendor                    : Marvell Semiconductor. Inc.
    Provider                  : Marvell Semiconductor. Inc.
    Date                      : 6/4/2015
    Version                   : 15.68.3091.193
    INF file                  : C:\windows\INF\oem80.inf
    Files                     : 3 total
                                C:\windows\system32\DRIVERS\WiFiCLass.sys
                                C:\windows\system32\DRIVERS\mrvlpcie8897.sys
                                C:\windows\system32\drivers\vwifibus.sys
    Type                      : Native Wi-Fi Driver
    Radio types supported     : 802.11ac 802.11n 802.11b 802.11a 802.11g
    FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes
    802.11w Management Frame Protection supported : Yes
    Hosted network supported  : Yes
    Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode:
                                Open            None
                                Open            WEP-40bit
                                Open            WEP-104bit
                                Open            WEP
                                WPA-Enterprise  TKIP
                                WPA-Enterprise  CCMP
                                WPA-Personal    TKIP
                                WPA-Personal    CCMP
                                WPA2-Enterprise TKIP
                                WPA2-Enterprise CCMP
                                WPA2-Personal   TKIP
                                WPA2-Personal   CCMP
                                Open            WEP-40bit
    Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode:
                                Open            None

C:\windows\system32>

Hope this helps

 

[moze229]

Thanks for the response. I think I'll just give replacing the router a shot. When I bought this thing, wireless n was already on the way in, and that was 10 years ago. With there being two standards released since, I think it's time for a replacement. Thanks.