Reducing Bottlenecking

[Scooter92]

Right now I'm running Roadrunner Cable (7 mb/s) with their generic webstar modem, and a Netgear WirelessN 300 Router (megabit ports), a gigabit network card, and a Trednet Gigabit router.

Currently this is my ping:

Now, if I did my math right, I should be receiving around 56 Mb and not 20 Mb. So my question for you guys is, what's bottle-necking my internet speed? I'm assuming it's the modem and the router, but I just wanted to make sure.

One more question, this is my current set up:

Now I want to do this:

but when I try to, both of my computers are connected to an unidentified network that only gives me local connection. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

 

[KingArcher]

■To find out the true speed that you are getting from ISP, connect a computer directly to the modem and run the speed test.

To the next question about the alternate setup, it will not work. Cause a switch cannot split/share the internet. Only a router can do that.

■After the direct connection test. Connect the router to the modem and just one computer to the router.
modem ---> router --- > computer.
Do the speed test again so that you can compare the difference between direct connection vs. connection through router.
■Next test connect
modem ---> router ----> switch --- > 1 computer
Run speed test again to see if any difference with switch in the network.
Compare the speed test results to find where the problem exists.

 

[Kewlx25]

just a minor thing, but "Right now I'm running Roadrunner Cable (7 mb/s) " should read

"Right now I'm running Roadrunner Cable (7 *MB*/s) "

At first, I thought you meant to have a 7mbit service. I was gonna say, no router should limit 7mb, but 7MB is quite a bit faster. Yes, 7MB = 56mb like you thought

 

[Scooter92]

Alright here's the skinny.

Here's my internet speed for Modem to PC:

For Modem to Router to PC:

And finally for Modem to Router to Switch to PC:

So, if I am in fact supposed to be getting 56mb/s, I am missing out on quite a ton from the onset with my modem. In addition to the modem, it looks like the router is doing minimal bottle necking as well.

So is my only solution simply to upgrade my hardware?

 

[KingArcher]

From the results it looks like you're losing out quite some from the modem itself from what was promised by ISP. You could check with them on that.
And you seem to be losing around ~5-6Mbps through the router. IMO being N std. router, it should have performed better.

If your not too worried about security, you could try disabling the "NAT Filter" and check if the performance improves through the router.
On the router page [www.routerlogin.com], under Advanced, go to WAN Setup.
You'll find "NAT Filtering there. Select "Open" and try the speed test.
Hopefully the drop in speed should reduce further.

SmallNetBuilder website has a compilation of WAN-LAN speed throughput tests. They have done the test with the SPI turned off.
You could try disabling SPI on the same page as well.

Regards
KingArcher

 

[Scooter92]

So if all the ports on a switch are all Rx/Tx (i.e. they can send and receive packets) why can't I hook up my modem to my switch directly, receive internet directly, and then send it to the router? Does it has something to with each port on a switch having it's own "IP"? (trying not to oversimplify here)

 

[KingArcher]

When you connect the modem and other devices to the switch, the first device to wake up/start up will get the ip address from the modem. The other devices will end up with APIPA[ 169.254.x.x addresses], which means no internet.
Only that one device which woke up/started up first gets to keep the ip from the modem.
In order for each device on the LAN to communicate, they need an IP address which is in the same range. [so there is a need for DHCP server to automate it].
Next, if these devices need to communicate with an outside network, it needs a default gateway.[Think of it like a single door to the outside world]

Since ISP's usually provide only a single IP address for home usage, this gateway takes all these requests from the local network and does NAT [Network Address Translation: Port Mapping ].

So the router takes care of being DHCP server and Gateway for your network. Something the switch cannot do.

To keep it simple.
A switch is used to connect devices belonging to the same network
for example, a local area network.
A router is used to connect two or more different networks together.
ex. the internet and local area network

 

[Scooter92]

That was a very informative answer, how do I give you props for being so awesome?

 

[KingArcher]

thanks for the complement. That will suffice

Were you able to see any difference after disabling "NAT Filtering" and SPI Firewall?

 

[Scooter92]

Best answer selected by Scooter92.