Old modem and router need to be replaced

[tezarin]

Hi all,

I have been with Comcast for years now, have been always wanted to switch to FIOS because the speed I get on a LAN is approx. 24/8. Then a couple days ago I found out since I am on their Performance plan with free Blast! upgrade, I should be experiencing a faster internet and the reason I do not right now is because I have a CM-100 modem and a Linksys WRT54g router!
So perhaps I need to invest in better equipment to be able to experience a faster internet!

I have two Inspiron 1505 laptops (bought years ago with Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless card), a 10 year old Dell desktop, one iPad 2 and one iPad 4. All with original wireless card no upgrade. The desktop is the only device connected via wire and we don't use that for streaming or anything major, All the other devices we use during peak hours to watch movies online.

Having said that, which modem and wireless router do you recommend I should I get? I just want to be able to surf and stream movie faster, no gaming.

Modem:
1) SB6141
2) SB6121
3) SB6183
4) SB6120
5) Zoom 5341J
6) Anything better?


Wireless router:
1) Netgear N600 (WNDR3700)
2) Netgear N750 (WNDR4300)
3) Netgear N900 (WNDR4500)
4) Cisco-Linksys E4200 v1
5) Cisco-Linksys EA4500
6) Cisco-Linksys EA3500
7) Anything better?

Thanks in advance

 

[bill001g]

It depends on your speed...and if you want to buy a modem better than you actually need.

The main difference between say the 6183 and the 6141 is the number of bonded data streams it can run. The 6183is 16 and the 6141 is 8.

I don't think comcast even uses the 16 stream variant yet so the 6183 and 6141 would run the same.

Still none of this I suspect really matters. The blast package is not even their highest package. They have 105 and 150. It is on these packages you MUST use the 6141 or better, the lower packages will work with the 6121. Now I have see things saying the 105 is now what they are calling blast so I don't know.

If money is not a concern then go with the sb6183 and if they ever offer 16 channels you will be ready and can run at 600m.


The routers are not going to be a huge difference. If the package you have is only going to be 50m then all those can run close to that speed. If you are talking 105m then likely none of them can run that fast...on wireless. You will need to go to 802.11ac devices....this means replacing the wireless in the end devices also. From your description of your systems even the n600 would likely be faster than anything you have.

 

[tezarin]

It depends on your speed...and if you want to buy a modem better than you actually need.

The main difference between say the 6183 and the 6141 is the number of bonded data streams it can run. The 6183is 16 and the 6141 is 8.

I don't think comcast even uses the 16 stream variant yet so the 6183 and 6141 would run the same.

Still none of this I suspect really matters. The blast package is not even their highest package. They have 105 and 150. It is on these packages you MUST use the 6141 or better, the lower packages will work with the 6121. Now I have see things saying the 105 is now what they are calling blast so I don't know.

If money is not a concern then go with the sb6183 and if they ever offer 16 channels you will be ready and can run at 600m.


The routers are not going to be a huge difference. If the package you have is only going to be 50m then all those can run close to that speed. If you are talking 105m then likely none of them can run that fast...on wireless. You will need to go to 802.11ac devices....this means replacing the wireless in the end devices also. From your description of your systems even the n600 would likely be faster than anything you have.

Thanks for your reply Bill. I think the blast upgrade provisioned speed would be only 50m: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/15643

But you're right, anything from that list would be much better that what I currently have. So among the brands above, which combo do you think will work best?

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

Nobody has a lot of complaints about arris/motorola modems other than price. I have always used motorola when I had cable with no issues.

Routers are hard to say there is not much difference between name brand units. It is personal preference mostly. The asus and tplink routers tend to have more advanced options since they are closer to third party firmware images that other vendors. But if you were to load third party images on any router that supports it then you are not going to find much difference.

The only ones I never buy anymore are linksys. When cisco thought forcing you to configure and store your configurations on a "cloud" server was a good idea I never even looked at linksys routers again. Who would ever think it was a good idea to store you encryption keys on a public server. They have now been sold to belkin so who knows. On this I have to admit I am biased but I am sure the security guys that make commercial cisco firewalls would never advocate storing your firewall configuration where a third party company can see them...even if they promise not to look.

 

[tezarin]

Bill,

Thanks much for your reply. OK I will pick a Motorola modem, what do you think about this router?
TP-LINK TL-WR841N Wireless N300 Home Router, 300Mpbs, IP QoS, WPS Button

Also, do you think i should but a Wireless-N adaptor as well? My laptops currently have Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless cards.

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

TPlink in general makes a good product for the price, i have not tried that model but I would assume it will work as well as other like it. When you take routers apart there are really only 2 or 3 companies that make the chips and router that have similar specs many times use exactly the same chips.

You almost have to replace the wireless cards to get any advantage. The new router will just run the old G protocol. 802.11n in addition to being faster tends to be more tolerant of interference than 802.11g.

 

[tezarin]

TPlink in general makes a good product for the price, i have not tried that model but I would assume it will work as well as other like it. When you take routers apart there are really only 2 or 3 companies that make the chips and router that have similar specs many times use exactly the same chips.

You almost have to replace the wireless cards to get any advantage. The new router will just run the old G protocol. 802.11n in addition to being faster tends to be more tolerant of interference than 802.11g.

Thanks Bill. I guess I have to decide between the followings routers:

1) Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wifi Router

2) ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router

3) TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Wireless N750 Dual Band Router, Gigabit, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5Ghz 450Mbps, 2 USB port, Wireless On/Off Switch

And now I know I should start researching the USB wireless N adapters 🙂

 

[bill001g]

Both your options 1 and 2 use broadcom bcm4706 cpu and bcm4331 radio chips. So the hardware is close to identical and you should get very similar performance.

You need to look more at the other feature the router has to offer to make you choice. Mostly it is going to be a look and feel thing in the menus.

You will not find a huge difference between name brand routers that claim similar speeds.

There are differences in how well the company that makes them provides support and fixes bugs but a lot of this is very subjective.

Really only you can decide which you like better.

 

[tezarin]

Great, thank you for your helpful replies 🙂

 

[tezarin]

Just to update everyone especially Bill, I ended up purchasing:

1) Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wifi Router
and
2) ARRIS / Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Retail Packaging - White

Both from Amazon and installed them. It has 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. My iPhone 6 plus and iPad 4 can both see and use the 5 Ghz. I have three questions:

1) My first question is if they see it and can use it, does it mean I'll be experiencing a faster internet while browsing the web with them? I currently have Comcast Blast! internet.

2) Second question is can an older laptop with an Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card connect to the 5 Ghz network?

3) And finally, while on the admin control panel of the router can I change "Up to 217mbps" to "Up to 450Mbps" on 2.4Ghz? Will it make the internet speed faster?

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

Without rereading this whole thread, I think the issue was you have 802.11g stuff before.

802.11g is very slow so you should see some improvement in your speeds. Using 5g just in itself is not going to make it faster it is just a difference frequency the encode of the data is still the same on 2.4g and 5g. There are many other factor that can make 2.4g or 5g perform better. In general 5g has less competition from neighbors but it also does not go as far in most houses.

I would avoid using that laptop if you can. It can use the 5g band because it run the old 802.11a. Unfortunately that will cause the router to go into a mode to support older stuff and slow everything down to a point. If you can you really want to have the router only run 802.11n.

It does not hurt to leave it set to the top but it will likely make no difference to get 450m the end device must have 3 antenna....you may not be able to see the antenna. Most things only have 2 antenna which will limit you to 300m.

 

[tezarin]

Thanks Bill.
So if I understand you correctly I can set up the old laptops to use the 2.4 Ghz and only use the 5 Ghz SSID with devices which support that. (iPad 4 and Dell E5540 maybe?)

 

[bill001g]

That would be a good idea but it would still run 802.11g on the 2.4g. It is better than 802.11b or 802.11a but it will still slow the other machines down but not as much.

 

[tezarin]

That would be a good idea but it would still run 802.11g on the 2.4g. It is better than 802.11b or 802.11a but it will still slow the other machines down but not as much.

I guess I am confused now. These are my current devices:
1) Two Inspiron 1505 laptops
2) iPad 4
What is your recommended SSID for each? I have two SSID one for 2.4 Ghz and one for 5.

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

Just pick something unique and put a -5g on the one that is 5g or something so you can tell the difference.

I guess we got off track talking about the device you said could only support a,b,g. You want to avoid using this device since it will force the router to run in compatibility mode. You really want if possible to only run 802.11n devices. I would look into a usb 802.11n card even since they are inexpensive. Still its not like it disabled the network for your other device it just will run a little slower when the older device is actually sending and receiving data from the network.

 

[tezarin]

Thank you bill.

I have my desktop computer upstairs where the modem is. Modem is connected to the wall coax cable then from the modem to the router and router to the desktop. So although the desktop is not directly connected to the modem but I still get about 50 Mbps.

When I go downstairs (this is mostly where I use my laptops and iPad from), on my iPad connected to 5Ghz I get around 15 Mbps and 4 Mbps on my old laptop (a/b/g card).
The signal drops significantly when I go downstairs.

1) Do you think I should replace the router then? Could it be defected?
2) Buying USB n card? How much improvement we're talking here?
3) Have Comcast come and run the main cable to downstairs instead of upstairs. Is that free?

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

It is not uncommon to get a significance drop in the speed going though a floor. People post here all the time asking how to solve that issue.

It takes almost nothing to block the signal. Your microwave run on the same 2.4g frequency and runs at 1000 times the power and you can still see though the glass without getting fried by energy. I have seen paint that had metallic finish to it make the signal unusable just on the other side of the wall.

If you move the router downstairs then you will have problems upstairs.

The best solution is to run a ethernet cable downstairs and put in a second wireless device as a slave to the first. This is called a AP but any router will work with the proper setup. Most people unfortunately can not run a ethernet cable between the rooms so then you get into the creative solutions.

The most common way is to use the powerline network devices. The use your electical outlets to create a ethernet cable for you. You then put a AP on the remote location just as if you had a actual ethernet cable. Powerline devices work in most houses but the speed you get is depenant on the path and quality of the wire. Most people get 40-80m on the devices that claim to run 500m.

Another way to do this is to use coax tv cable if you happen to have it. This solution is called MoCA. It is more expensive than powerline but it is very similar you hook boxes to the coax and then plug ethernet into the boxes. You get what looks like a ethernet cable between the rooms.

After this you start looking at wireless repeaters but those just make things much more complex and do not work all that well so you do not want to even consider this unless you have no other options.

I would try to get a ethernet cable run. Some people run it on the outside of the house when they can't find a way to get it down the walls inside.

 

[tezarin]

Thanks again for your prompt answer.
I won't be spending much time upstairs anyway so might as well have comcast come and bring the main cable downstairs so I put my modem there and get a good connection but will definitely keep your advice in mind for near future.

I'm planning on replacing the Netgear 4500 N900 router with an
ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router. But since I still have an older laptop I would need to take your advice and get a USB wireless adapter for it. Now should I get a dual band like this: Linksys AE2500 Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Adapter
Or TP-LINK TL-WN725N Wireless N Nano USB Adapter 150Mbps?

Please bear in mind that I have a Comcast 105 speed

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

I would look into seeing if you could replace the internal nic card. Laptop have fairly large antenna mounted behind the screen which tends to be optimum placement.

That tiny tplink device is know to have issues. Sure it is nice and small and you can hardly see it but you also have tiny little antenna and you are almost putting them inside a metal box (ie case of the machine). When it comes to wireless bigger is generally always better. A USB with a 1ft long antenna will work better but tends to not be so good for carrying around. Even then USB is best placed remote from the machine on a usb extension cable to get it away from the computer. You are going to have to decide if the portability overrides the performance.

Still if you can replace the internal card you gain the advantage of good antenna and portability. Generally newer cards work in older laptops but if the laptop only has 1 antenna and the card can use 3 it will drop back to the 1 antenna speeds......you could I suppose get rally ambitious and put some more antenna behind the screen but you best be a expert at laptop disassemble