Updating router

Question

I have a linksys 802.11b router that doesnt seem to reach all parts of my house equally.  I have an macbook pro, ipad and hp wireless router.  When i test my broadband speed it says i am only getting 4 mbps download and 480 kbps upload.  The max our plan has for wireles is 7 mbps download and 512 kbps upload.  Will updating/upgrading my router help with better coverage of the house and improve the download capabilities?  We are thinking of upgrading interent services as well, so I need to know if it is a router issue or a interent issue.
thanks

Answer 1

NoNoBadDog wrote:
First, you will never get your quoted speed, although under ideal conditions you may get close.  Your older router can handle about 7Mbs with no problem, although if you upgrade you'll definitely need to upgrade to an 802.11n router. 802.11g can only handle about 8Mbps max (the 11Mbs is not a real world figure, but a mathematically derived max). 
If you are intending on upgrading to a faster service, I would not bother with the old router.  I would buy a new 802.11n router.
Wrong.
1)  Most service providers have low enough caps that you'll see 95% of your quoted speed except at peak times of day.  I see 15 megabits/second from my Time Warner service all the time, and back when I had a 5 megabit cap, I NEVER failed to hit it.
2)  802.11g is good for far more than 8.
General rule of thumb - in good signal quality you'll almost never see more than about half the maximum rated bandwidth, and will usually see a bit less than half.  The advertised rate is the raw signaling rate of the interface - when you take into account wireless handshaking and overhead, you usually drop to about half the raw signaling rate since wireless isn't full duplex.  In an area with little interference and only one active device, I've never had problems hitting 20-25 Mbps on an 802.11g router.  Interference and multiple simultaneous active devices will drop this quickly though.
This is consistent with your experience, since you're seeing a bit less (4 megabits) than half the signaling rate (5.5 mbps = 11 divided by 2)
Also, if you're in an interference-prone area, 802.11n in the 2.4 GHz band performs very poorly - for 802.11n to shine it really needs to be running in the 5 GHz band.  My experience has been that up to 10-15 feet, my 5 GHz N router outperforms my old 2.4 GHz G router.  Beyond that - the G router blows it away, although that's partly because I have a high-power G router with an external high-gain antenna.  It's VERY difficult to find N routers with external antenna provisions.
For your purposes, a good solid 802.11g router with a good antenna (MAKE SURE it has an external antenna - if you can't see an antenna sticking out of it, don't buy it) will be your best bet.  Even the stock antenna of an external-antenna G router will be better than any internal-antenna router.
Also, for determining what your external connection is truly capable of - use a wired connection to test it.  Take the wireless out of the equation.
*disclaimer* I am not now, nor have I ever been, an employee of Best Buy, Geek Squad, nor of any of their affiliate, parent, or subsidiary companies.