[SOLVED] Large speed drop through router

[Pimpom]

My 100 Mbps fiber connection normally gives me 93-98 Mbps when tested with fast.com. Recently, I dug up my old Linksys WRT54GS router and connected the WAN port to one of the 1Gigabit output ports on the fiber modem. One Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) output on the router then goes to my desktop. I use short Cat5e cables for both links.

It works but the speed stays at around 40 Mbps (usually 38-42 Mb/s, max 45 Mb/s). I expected some drop in speed but not this much. Nothing else is using the connection. All settings are at default. Is this normal?

 

[Pimpom]

P.S.: These same Cat5e cables give me up to 150 Mb/s when used to connect my computer directly to the fiber modem.

 

[Ralston18]

Which model Linksys WRT54GS?

Start here:

https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=135389

 

[Pimpom]

There's only one WRT54GS model there.

 

[gggplaya]

It's a wireless G router. Wireless G maxes out at 54mbps. The NAT controller likely can't handle the WAN traffic at speed much higher than that because the original designers felt it didn't need to. When this came out on the market, most broadband providers were only dishing out 6-10mbps download speeds.

 

[bill001g]

I agree with gggplaya it is likely it is just so old the cpu was not designed for high speed. Modern routers even very inexpensive ones have a NAT acceleration function so they are not limited by the CPU chip. Sometimes you must disable this feature to and allow the cpu to process the traffic and even very fast router will cap out at under 300mbps.

 

[gggplaya]

Here's a review of the original WRT54G router, only about 22mbps WAN speed: https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir.../24609-linksyswrt54gwireless?showall=&start=2

Here's the V5 Version, about 48-54mbps: https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...wrt54gv5reallyisalousyrouter?showall=&start=2

 

[Pimpom]

That must be it. I was on 4 Mbps when I last used the router regularly. I'll test it with LAN traffic when I have time. Mine is v6.