Internet Speed/Performance Upgrade [HELP]

[benceh]

I currently have a very simple and basic router of 100Mbps.
And my current ISP connection is the Fiber Power 25Mbit/s. On my ISP's forum website, i read that only when i have the internet cable from my pc connected to my router, i can achieve 100% of the speed able to reach. Otherwise, over Wifi (wireless) i can't go over 30Mbit/s.

I want to upgrade my ISP connection from 25Mbit/s to 50. And get the N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router:
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/ultimate-performance/WNDR4500.aspx#three
It supports 900Mbps, but.. i don't get it, my connection is only able to give me 50. Is there something i'm missing? or not understanding?
If i would get this router, i would also get either a USB Network adapter, or a Powerline. Or either plug in my router in my PC to get optimal internet speed.

I am a competitive gamer, so the internet speed is important for me. We are 4 using the same network, this is why i'm more oriented to a Dual Band router.
Any solutions? Advise?

Thanks.

 

[eibgrad]

Ultimately your speed is limited by its weakest link, which is usually wireless. I assume your current router is only wireless G, which is probably explains why your ISP said you'd need a wired connection from the PC to the router to fully exploit the 25Mbps he's currently offering. Of course, if you upgrade the ISP to 50Mbps, you'll still need a wired connection from the PC to the router, OR, upgrade your wireless router to wireless N (which has a lot more bandwidth than wireless G).

So wireless N will give you the full 50MBps over the internet, but it may also help local file transfers where the full wireless N bandwidth could be exploited. But if that’s not relevant to you, then much of that wireless N bandwidth is wasted. But it’s the ONLY way to get past the limits of your wireless G router wrt the internet connection.

 

[benceh]

@eibgrad 802.11g and 802.11n : so you are saying i should get a "n" ? Or is that i am stating something else? (Not sure how to see if a router is G or N).

My idea was: Get a N router (maybe dual band), start using it and see if there is a change, then upgrade my ISP to 50Mbps. Test the internet again, and from there i will decide if i should get a powerline (way of connecting, which is equal to plugin in your router into your PC). Or perhaps stay in wireless.

What do you think??

 

[eibgrad]

We have to separate LOCAL wireless needs from REMOTE (internet) wireless needs.

Your router can handle both local traffic (data that travels back and forth between machines locally, say your desktop and laptop), and remote traffic (data that travels back and forth between some machine on that local network and the internet).

The internet speeds available from your ISP are typically MUCH less than what is possible between your local machines. Let’s say your wireless G router is capable of delivering 20Mbps (over wireless) between local machines (that desktop and laptop I mentioned). If you’re happy w/ that level of performance for local file transfers, or don’t even have a need for local file transfers (perhaps you only have a laptop), then that may be sufficient. However, we also need to consider internet access.

If your ISP is providing 25Mbps, then obviously that same wireless router is bottlenecked. It’s incapable of pulling that last 5Mbps (something you PAID FOR) over wireless. In that case, you have two options; change to a wired connection, OR, upgrade your wireless G router to wireless N, thus increasing your wireless capacity, perhaps to 100Mbps. And now it makes sense to consider the ISP’s 50Mbps offering. But without the wireless N upgrade, instead of losing access to 5Mbps w/ your current wireless G router, you’d now be losing access to 30Mbps! From bad to worse.

A side benefit of wireless N is that it would vastly improve your local wireless transfers. Sometimes ppl upgrade their routers for that reason alone. Their current wireless G router may be sufficient to pull the measly 10-15Mbps offered by their ISP (that may be all the ISP offers), so upgrading to wireless N doesn’t help the internet side of the equation, at all. But it ALWAYS helps the local transfers.