[SOLVED] Can old router firmware throttle internet speeds?

[saitamalor]

So I have been getting slow internet speeds for the past few years and never really thought much of it and thought I just had shitty internet, but when I finally went to check my internet stuff, I found out that my router firmware version is from 2012 and turns out that there is a 2019 version could this be the reason why I've been getting slow internet speeds? A couple of years ago I had way faster download speeds than now. My modem is up to date since I just received a new one from charter because they were increasing internet speeds in my area which is the main factor of this being brought to my attention.

 

[bill001g]

Not unless there was some bug in the firmware.

It might have a hardware limitation. Modern routers use a hardware accelerator to get above 200mbps speeds. They bypass the router cpu chip to do the nat. This is pretty much on all router now but years ago it was not as common. The dirty secret is if you use a lot of the fancy feature in your router it disabled this because the cpu need to see the traffic.

The best first test is to plug into the modem and compare that to what you get though the router. Maybe you do not have any issues.

 

[saitamalor]

Not unless there was some bug in the firmware.

It might have a hardware limitation. Modern routers use a hardware accelerator to get above 200mbps speeds. They bypass the router cpu chip to do the nat. This is pretty much on all router now but years ago it was not as common. The dirty secret is if you use a lot of the fancy feature in your router it disabled this because the cpu need to see the traffic.

The best first test is to plug into the modem and compare that to what you get though the router. Maybe you do not have any issues.

I updated my firmware and my internet speed increased not by a lot, but enough to see a difference. Also feels more stable now (previously it would just cut out for no reason occasionally).

 

[Ketchup79]

Which modem do you have? When I got a new modem from Charter last year, also due to a speed increase, I called because my speed was actually slower than my old one. Turns out I needed to plug in the modem in a very slow order from power own for full speed to work. (like a 5 minute wait after power on to connect it to the network).

 

[saitamalor]

Which modem do you have? When I got a new modem from Charter last year, also due to a speed increase, I called because my speed was actually slower than my old one. Turns out I needed to plug in the modem in a very slow order from power own for full speed to work. (like a 5 minute wait after power on to connect it to the network).

They gave me the Hitron Docsis 3.1 E31N2V1

 

[Ketchup79]

From what I have read it could be a good modem. It depends what version you get. If it is actually LABELED Hitron, it has the slow Puma chip, but if LABELED Spectrum, it has a much better Broadcom chip.

Source: https://www.larrytalkstech.com/the-spectrum-mystery-modem-e31_2v1/

 

[saitamalor]

From what I have read it could be a good modem. It depends what version you get. If it is actually LABELED Hitron, it has the slow Puma chip, but if LABELED Spectrum, it has a much better Broadcom chip.

Source: https://www.larrytalkstech.com/the-spectrum-mystery-modem-e31_2v1/

Exact same one as in the photo.