Ok guys, I need your help as I am royally confused. I am an avid Call of Duty player on xbox 360 (connection is hard wired to router). I have Comcast cable internet that is rated up to 12 Mbps. I've had it for about 3 months now, and at first I noticed a big difference with it over my dsl connection I previously had. I have a linksys WRT54G V 4 that is about 5 years old or so. I constantly have only 3 out of 4 bars of connection when I play Call of Duty. Every once in a while I will be the host of the game, and get 4 bars. It is amazing the difference in playing with 4 bars. So my thought was maybe my router is holding back my internet connection since it is so old. In doing research I keep seeing the router supports 10/100 wired lan. Does the 100 mean 100 Mbps? Thinking how far the internet connection speeds have increased since I purchased my router, I went out and bought a Netgear WNR3500 the other day. Got it all hooked up and configured, and still only 3 bars. So I am guessing it wasn't my router, but I am still not sure. Did I just waste $100 on a router I don't need? I realize there is a technology difference for the wireless portion going to N for G, but I am not all that concerned about the wireless speed. I just figured I guess going to a gigabit wired ethernet would speed my gaming up. I've run speed tests on both comcast's speed test site and speedtest.net, and all seem to fall around 8Mbps download and 2.2Mbps upload, even during peak times of the day. Now I will say that I normally play with friends about 1,000 miles away on the xbox, and typically one of them is the host, so is that the main cause of the 3 bars, and not my actual internet speed or router speed? I should also mentioned I have opened all of the necessary ports in the router settings for both the old and new routers. I was able to confirm doing that did set my NAT to open, but didn't seem to increase speed, only my ability to connect to people with moderate NAT's. Hopefully I have provided enough info for you guys to tell me what the problem is, but if not let me know if there is something else I could tell you about my setup to help. I am really starting to think I am just out of luck because of the distance between me and the people I generally play with. Thanks in advance!
The "100" in 10/100 is 100mbps, or about 12.5MBPS. You did waist your money on a new router; your old one was far faster than your internet connection, at least in wired mode. Linksys does not make very good stuff, but it is still better than netgear. If you had an internet connection that was at least 90mbps, then a gigabit router would have been a wise investment...but if this was the case, you would want a higher quality router from a company like 3Com, Intel, or USR. A wired connection to your old (or new) router would probably work better for you...if you are averaging 3-4 bars out of 5, then the wifi is probably hurting your responce time. Also, 2.2mbps upload is very good for a 8mbps download...so I think the download speed is being hurt at least a little.
Interesting. Well at this point should it sounds like I should just exchange the Netgear?. I have like 10 days to do it, and I've only had it for 3 so not a big deal. I do want to note though, I do have the xbox hooked up through a wired connection, it is not wireless. It was interesting though, I played for about 4 hours last night and was constantly selected by the server as the game host, so my connection was fantastic. That doesn't happen with my Linksys. I am certainly open to suggestions as far as what I should get. I'd like to keep it under $150 if possible, and it needs to support both wired and wireless. My only experiences have been with Linksys and D-Link (which was complete garbage), so I don't know much about the other brands you mentioned. Any suggestions of what I could get?
I must have been very tired when I was reading your message... Newer routers do tend to become servers. My 3com is actualy a bit older, but it still tends to be the server anyway...I assume this is because it is a very overbuilt unit. I'm all wired here, but I have been thinking of going wireless for my portables, and I have been looking at this unit: http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Cabl...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259858663&sr=8-3 It seems to be a very nice quality unit, and should be great for connections up to 100mbps. The reason it is so cheap is that while it does support 300mbps wifi, it only supports 100mbps wired connections; even the input is just 100mbps. Gigabit ports would be nice...but to get them with 300mbps wifi from 3com would cost a fortune...probably more than your computer is worth. Also, there is one netgear that I like; it is super-hackable, and is a very nice unit once you have the new firmware in place...plus it is dirt cheap. If I make the jump to wifi, I will probably get this to try it out; if it does not work well, I'll get the 3com: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122223
just get your money back on the netgear, and flash your linksys with dd-wrt firmware. might not help the connection a lot, but will give you loads of more options on how to tweak it for your needs. and yes. the distance between you and others, plus the load on the LIVE servers play into it.
