Noob question - Mbps of ISPs?

[wolfman140]

Heya,
Sorry for the noob question, but. I'm trying to find out if having a quality cable modem, is going to increase the speed of my cable connection thru Earthlink. I believe my connection has a cap of like 4mbps, so how could any better of a router or the dual-gigabit configuration offer any more speed? (Right now Im using the POS modem that came with the installation) Thanks, and be gentle plz! 🙂
-Kevin

 

[mikeyp410]

What is your speed that you purchase through your ISP? If you only purchase 3MB then you will only get close to 3MB with your router. If you are not getting the 3MB speed that you are purchasing then you will need to deal with the router end.

 

[blue68f100]

If you want to check your connection speed here is a link to SpeedTest

 

[wolfman140]

I do believe that 4mbps is my cap..But I'll further investigate it. So I'll goto the speedtest and if the download rate isn't near 4 Mbps, I'll get a better cable modem and router. Correct?

 

[blue68f100]

Most cable modems that I have seen have a bandwidth of around 30mbps, which exceds your requirment. If in dought go the mfg home page and dig up the specs.

Routers have a bigger impact if you are using one, Which I recommend for the hardware Firewall.

 

[mikeyp410]

Most newerr routers have no issues with handling speed. I had a Linksys Modem about 6 years ago that had issues with speed but that was about it. Your router should be fine. You can also test your speed at Toast.net too. That is another good site.

 

[fredweston]

Most newerr routers have no issues with handling speed.

I used to think so too, until I compared speedtest results from my Netgear router against my m0n0wall firewall running on an old PC. The results surprised me, with m0n0wall I was seeing an improvement of almost 10%. Granted, at the time I had 10mbps service from Road Runner that actually ran closer to 12mbps. I guess routers were designed with 3-5mbps in mind, as that was probably the max speed any ISP offered when they designed the router.

Regardless, this doesn't apply here as he only has 4mbps service. If you aren't getting close to 4mbps, you should try again, early in the morning or late at night if possible. It's entirely possible the network is just loaded down with lots of users. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'd try a different network card and running from a LiveCD of some kind to ensure that your PC has no spyware and/or viruses when you run the test.

 

[wolfman140]

Well two things...A) I run the speed test from cable-modem to PC...4.8 Mbps is the cap. I bought a D-Link DM-202 ( 38 mbps downstream) and tested it, only 4.8 Mbps as well. UNFORTUNATELY, my D-link DIED a few minutes after it was connected. And I know it was the cable modem because my old one worked fine, and Timewarner couldn't pick up any signal from it.
So what ISP's allow more than 5 Mbps? I've only really seen Time Warner offering a service for like $60 a month or more for a 8 Mbps cap. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[fredweston]

Road Runner through Bright House offers 10/1 mbps for $60. In Central Florida they do anyway.