2 Linksys 300N Routers

[NoAIm1337]

Hey Ladies and Gents,

I am looking to setup a home network on a 50Meg Circuit using two Linksys300N routers. My setup is below:

Router1: 192.168.1.1
Router2: 192.168.1.2
Router1 is setup as DHCP for WAN, and Clients receive DHCP IP address Ranges (192.168.1.50-192.168.1.75). Wi-Fi is setup on router1 as well,
Router2 is setup with Identical Wi-Fi credentials, and DHCP tuned off.

Everything is working properly with Wi-Fi broadcasting on both routers, and clients connecting on wired ports are getting proper IP assignments. What I'm running into is any device plugged in or connected to router2, my speed test results are capped at 6 MBps, but when running a speed test from a device connected to Router1 I'm getting ~47-49 MBps. I am using a 50FT cat5e cable connecting the two routers. Is there a setting i am missing or something I can do within the routers to get a faster connection on the devices connecting to Router2?

 

[kanewolf]

Is the 50ft cat5e cable a commercially built cable or did you terminate it?

 

[NoAIm1337]

Pre-Built Certified Straight Cable. Although i did run the cable myself. I made sure not to damage it though, and i did put a cable tester on it to verify it was still good afterwards. It's also strange that when i plug that 50FT cable directly into a machine and into router1, my speed is 45-50 MBps. so this would eliminate that the cable is bad, it has something to do with bandwidth going through router2. I do have defaults for everything else on router2 (except for the static IP, the matching WiFi info, and DHCP turned off). I wouldn't need a gateway for it because it's one LAN segment (i think). Basically it is setup for Auto for everything else (WAN wise), and i didn't really change anything else LAN wise. Im not sure if i should try setting up a DMZ or any Port forwarding,etc. Just trying to think of some other things to try.

 

[kanewolf]

It shouldn't matter, but I would start with a factory reset on router 2. Leave it in "router" mode for the test (use the WAN port to connect to router1). See what the wired throughput is. Maybe router 2 has some hardware problem. If the throughput is GOOD after the first test, then convert it to an access point. Retest the wired throughput.

 

[NoAIm1337]

Connecting router2 from the WAN port will work? i didn't think it would going from a LAN port on Router1 to the WAN on Router2? i will try that and run some test when i get back.

 

[kanewolf]

Connecting router2 from the WAN port will work? i didn't think it would going from a LAN port on Router1 to the WAN on Router2? i will try that and run some test when i get back.

You need to re-read my last post. By doing a factory reset of router 2, it will go back to router mode (DHCP enabled, etc). In that configuration, you can use the WAN port of router 2. You will want to change the LAN IP address to 192.168.2.x so that it is a different range from router 1. This is only for a test configuration to see if router 2 has some kind of hardware problem.

 

[NoAIm1337]

i understand what you are saying. I will try that, but router2 has been in production for about 3 months (it was the original 300N i had). it was factory reset when i set it up as a 2nd router. i basically just purchased another identical one. It hasn't had any issues previously. I went the route of purchasing a 2nd router because i would like a few hardwired connections as well as boosting the wifi signal.

 

[NoAIm1337]

After testing router2 with a connection in the WAN port from router 1, it is still limited to only 5MBps. the connection from a PC plugged directly into a port on router1, it gets 49MBps wired and ~30MBps through the wireless. The thing is, i can swap router2 and have it act as router1 (without a second router) and i get the full bandwidth. Any other suggestions?

 

[kanewolf]

Well, my little test did tell us there is SOMETHING about router 2 that isn't related to it being an access point. Do routers 1 and 2 have the same revision of firmware? Is the connection to the modem a DHCP connection or PPOE ?

 

[NoAIm1337]

After some digging and speaking with Linksys. It seems like the only option we had to insure decent speeds (at least 40MBps) was to config router2 into bridge mode.
The firmware for both routers was already the latest build. Also we had to turn off the firewall for ipv4 and ipv6 in router2. Right after that the speed jumped to around 15MBps. Connection to the modem is via DHCP.
We had to assign it a static ip for router1 (we chose 192.168.1.2). however you have to configure the Wi-Fi first before putting it into bridge mode. I did find out with this router, you are able to have your own WI-FI SSID and login credentials, but you have to set that up first before putting it into bridge mode. All other variations and orders will cause much lower through puts.
Once that was done im now running a solid 48-49MBps on wired connections. Now to work out the Wi-Fi lol.

 

[NoAIm1337]

***Update, well those speeds seem to drop again drastically once another device decides to stream or something else. I dont know if this is a manufacturer thing or what. i had one client streaming netflix and my wired port connection dropped to under 2 MBps.

Reading around i found another suggestion which is to assign router2 an Ip address outside of the DHCP range from router1 and to leave router2 in router mode, i also removed the gateway from router2 when entering in the static ip address. This gave my wired machine a solid 8 MBps while i had another client streaming netflix via wireless.

You would think with a 50MBps connection you should at least hold half of that.

Im not sure what to look at next :/