[Zafar Iqbal]

I swapped out my 10+ year old small and cheap switch with a router some months ago and immediately noticed it had an impact on my internet connection.

I can reach same speeds, but it's as if the connection chokes when too much is going on. but it doesn't take much at all to reach the "too much" level.

Some example:

Before, I could have multiple upload jobs (for instance 2 albums) going on from Lightroom with no problem what so ever.

Now, attempting the same will most certainty result in some photos not being uploaded.

With one upload job alone, I was before able to browse without noticing any difference.

Now, there are long delays or even time-outs - it's so bad now that when I need to do vital stuff, such as online payment, I kill other internet activity first.

Today, a client called and we talked about photos I uploaded last night - she then went on to mentioning one photo looking very weird and when I looked it up, it was some file corruption causing it to look that way. It could be something else, but I think it's the connection being choked so much that it lead to the file corruption.

I'm not sure which router I currently have, but it doesn't matter - it's crap. What router can you recommend? Something that doesn't cripple when I'm accessing internet from multiple programs, not to mention, multiple devices accessing the internet.

LAN is secondary.

[wombat2go]

I have set up routers downstream of gateways in a few countries, and have not seen problems with throttling or corruption.
I think the cheap typical wireless routers from the local store are generic, that are all made to use the same protocol and probably use generic chip sets.

In my home I have a network of relayed routers in various rooms . We do streaming video and can upload 100MB photos the the cloud server with no problems.

You could log in to your router, go the the page for, maybe "Parental Controls" and turn off any filtering.
Set up access list so that it only connects to the computers you want.
Also find the log, and see what it is saying. I am just doing a D-Link router and I see the log on this one has to be set up and sent to an email address.
The netscape routers have log access on one of the configuration pages

Hope you fix the problem

[aleonx3]

Are you connecting to your home router via WIFI or via Ethernet cable? Ethernet is more reliable (less interference and also inherent native protocol). If you have to use WIFI, choose one of the more reliable frequency (ie. 5.8hz) if you router supports dual band (less subject to interference); Asus RT-N66U is pretty good.

[Zafar Iqbal]

Thanks for the replies.

As I've never had any routers before, I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it but I can give it a try.

I'm connected using Ethernet - same cables as before.

[wombat2go]

The instructions for the router should tell you the ip address of the router's http server
Very often it is http://192.168.0.1, so you type that into the "www" field at top of your browser.
Then it will give a login page. The default password should be in the instructions

[aleonx3]

OK, so you use Ethernet cable connection to the router (your own) which is directly hooked up to the ISP (router). Do you have many devices connected to the same home router? If you experience any slow down of Internet speed or any transfer speed between devices, there may be a bottleneck somewhere (could be your uplink connection speed such as your ISP provider). Google "check Internet speed test" to ensure that your ISP provides adequate download and upload speed (around 5Mps should be good).

[Banskojoe]

I swapped out my 10+ year old small and cheap switch with a router some months ago and immediately noticed it had an impact on my internet connection.

I can reach same speeds, but it's as if the connection chokes when too much is going on. but it doesn't take much at all to reach the "too much" level.

Some example:

Before, I could have multiple upload jobs (for instance 2 albums) going on from Lightroom with no problem what so ever.

Now, attempting the same will most certainty result in some photos not being uploaded.

With one upload job alone, I was before able to browse without noticing any difference.

Now, there are long delays or even time-outs - it's so bad now that when I need to do vital stuff, such as online payment, I kill other internet activity first.

Today, a client called and we talked about photos I uploaded last night - she then went on to mentioning one photo looking very weird and when I looked it up, it was some file corruption causing it to look that way. It could be something else, but I think it's the connection being choked so much that it lead to the file corruption.

I'm not sure which router I currently have, but it doesn't matter - it's crap. What router can you recommend? Something that doesn't cripple when I'm accessing internet from multiple programs, not to mention, multiple devices accessing the internet.

LAN is secondary.

We've had an Asus RT AC86W for about six months, hard wired to cable TV provider internet. We had ongoing recurrent problems with previous entry level and mid level routers of different "brand name" manufacture. The Asus was expensive, but has performed flawlessly. The router is a basement office of a four level home and currently supports three laptops and six cell phones throughout all four levels, plus functions well outside on the deck.

[Zafar Iqbal]

Wombat2go: I've borrowed the router and the person who owns it is out of the country for few months The IP doesn't lead to any login page, so it must be something else.

aleonx3: There are currently 2 devices connected to the router - before, I topped 3 when I had the switch, all using internet.

I don't feel like it's the actual speed being the cause of the issue, but rather the amount of connections causing things to go slower.

Besides that, my speed really shouldn't (and never was with the switch) be a problem:



Banskojoe: Thanks for the suggestion - I tried googling it to find local sellers, but can't find a single one in the entire country

[hjoseph7]

I have the Netgear N600. It's not a cheap Router by any means. Actually it is more expensive now than when I first purchased it 2 years ago. This router can handle wireless and wired connections with ease and at the same time . Right now I have 2 computers attached to it, but I once had 2 wired and one wireless connected to it.

[Zafar Iqbal]

I have the Netgear N600. It's not a cheap Router by any means. Actually it is more expensive now than when I first purchased it 2 years ago. This router can handle wireless and wired connections with ease and at the same time . Right now I have 2 computers attached to it, but I once had 2 wired and one wireless connected to it.

Is this the one you mean?

Netgear N600 WNDR3400 Dual Band Router WNDR3400-100PES | Billig

[pishta]

Zafar, your on a 90Mb/90Mb with a 2ms ping time and you can't do WHAT? Man, that's a big pipe here in USA, although we are way behind when it comes to bandwidth. Routers are "traffic cops" while switches are just manifolds (no routing, just pooling the bandwidth to all users) and switches can have collisions and all sorts of other side effects like an 802.11b device bring everything down to its level of speed (bump that guy off!) Routers learn client IP's and can route traffic to that MAC instead of showing it to everyone on the network and having the recipient acknowledge its receipt, that wastes time. Almost all routers are better than switches but you must make sure your router is using 100baseT on all its connections. Usually that means all the link lights are a certain color, depends on the router. There is also traffic shaping options and PNP settings that you can alter. USe the DOS command "ipconfig /all" (space between g and /) in the command (cmd) prompt (hit "run" at bottom of task box and then type cmd) and that will show you all your interfaces. Look for the one that says local or LAN and youll see your ip address followed by your subnet mask and your default gateway. Your gateway is your GUI address, type that in your address bar (eg. 192.168.0.1 or you can look up your router and use its gui URL that points to its interface, ie. netgears "www.routerlogin.net"

[Rupert]

I have the Netgear N600. It's not a cheap Router by any means. Actually it is more expensive now than when I first purchased it 2 years ago. This router can handle wireless and wired connections with ease and at the same time . Right now I have 2 computers attached to it, but I once had 2 wired and one wireless connected to it.

I too have a Netgear 600 and it is perfect. I can run three computers and two TVs wireless at the same time with no problems. I am not a tech person at all, but I do know my cable company guys and they told me this one was the best and with the least trouble, so I bough it and it has performed flawlessly.
It was a nice surprise to see the increased speed over my old router and the extra load it can carry with ease. I don't know much about it ...except that it works perfectly without any hassle.

Regards!

[Zafar Iqbal]

pishta: exactly, and it's become very frustrating. I'll try the ipconfig thing. Thanks.

[pepperberry farm]

LInksys - I've used and installed Linksys routers for home networks for years, without any issues....

[realitarian]

Sometimes just changing the channel helps. The bandwidth on a router (whether 2.4 or 5Ghz) is divided into about 11 (I think) segments depending on the router. Base stations of cordless home phones and other devices may interfere with the router's frequency. Try changing to a different one a couple of segments away.