Slower internet speeds when connected through my router?

[qwiksilvertrav]

I have a Belkin play N600 HD router with Xfininty Xtreme 400MB internet.

So when I plug my PC directly to the cable modem I get the 400MB. But when I plug it into the router ethernet (which I obviously want to do so this PC has access to my network storage etc) the speeds slows way down to 150MB.

The Belkin is up to date on the latest firmware etc and has all gigabit ports.

So what am I missing here? Is this router just not capable of those speeds?

Thanks

 

[SoNic67]

The internet port (WAN) on that router is not a Gigabit port. You have only a 4 port Gigabit switch, not a 5 port.
Actually I think that the WAN on that is only 100Mbps.
https://prod-www-origin.belkin.com/networking/manual/MAN_F7D8301_v1_8820-00701_Play_N600_N_HD_Router.pdf

You need a better router.

 

[qwiksilvertrav]

Any suggestions on a good replacement? I have several devices that I'd like directly connected (1 Drobo unit, 1 mybook unit, a network Yamaha receiver, printer and my main PC that I want hardwired) then several other wireless devices.

 

[bill001g]

Since you get more than 100mb it means that router must have gigabit lan and wan ports. The specs also say all the ports are gigabit.

There tends to not be as much review information on belkin because it is considered a "value" router so it is hard to say what performance levels should be expected. It is also a rather old router, the chipset it uses is from 2009 so no current tests.

The problem most people find when they get a internet connection that can run faster than say 200mbps is they discover how small the cpu in a router is. The CPU is doing the NAT translation between the internal IP addresses and the single WAN ip you get from the ISP. Even the fastest consumer grade routers on the market can only get say 350mbps.

To solve this problem the manufactures came up with a hardware accelerator that allows the NAT function to bypass the CPU chip. From what I can tell it is in almost every modern router. I don't know when they started doing this but testing sites show almost all fairly current routers can easily pass almost 1gbit of traffic wan-lan.

The big problem with this trick is only the NAT function was hardware accelerated. If you need to use other feature in the router like firewall rules or even simple stuff like utilization reporting the traffic must now go back via the cpu so this acceleration is no longer used and you are bottlenecked by the CPU again.

So first step is to wipe your router to factory and configure it with a very minimal configuration. Only set the Wifi passwords and do as little as you can to get it to connect to your ISP. If the router has a the NAT accelerator it should be enabled by default.

Otherwise I would look for a router that says it is ac1200 or ac1450. I would stay with better known brands. TPLINK tends to be a cheaper router that still performs like the better known vendors like asus or linksys. Be very careful to get models that have all gigabit ports.

You can look up models on this site. What you want to look for is wan-lan performance. Still almost everything they list nowdays can do 900+mbps.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/view

 

[SoNic67]

Beside the above suggestions, if you are renting the cable modem, you can usually buy your own combo cable modem/router, and save that rental fee, something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Certified-Xfinity-Spectrum/dp/B00ZUPOF7Y/

You just need to see what is "approved" by your cable provider, the above modem/router is supposedly OK for Xfinity 400Mbps, for other devices check here:
https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/
On that page click below on the "show more devices", because by default they show you only the monster good for Xfinity 1000Mbps, that is double in price, that is:
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Ultra-High-Compatible-Gig-speed/dp/B01I8KA48G/