Slow internet in shared accomodation

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2006
Posts
3,900
Location
Swindon
Hi, I recently moved into a shared house and the internet is provided. I am finding it just about useless though. MSN won't work, forget trying to watch anything on YouTube and even thumbnail pictures take some time to load.

I have noticed that the wireless router is 22Mbs and 802.11b type rather than the 54G type I have at home, I've been told its quite a few years old as you'd expect. I believe from that it is a Virgin cable internet service. Would you expect this old wireless router to cause the internet to be so slow? My wireless monitor shows a speed fixed at 11Mbps and connection quality good to very good typically. Other people in the house arn't experiencing quite the same level of slowness is all that makes me question it. I want to be sure it is the router so I can hopefully arrange to replace it myself :) .

How slow a broadband is it possible to buy anyhow? We have BT at home and 3 machines using it at once with high bandwidth much of the time and I never have any problems. My wireless adapter is Linksys PCI btw.
 
linksys WRT54GL and install Tomato firmware on it, then clear nv ram, then set it up.

also, double check no-one is hammering torrents or anything...
 
802.11b's good to 11Mbps, but in real terms you'll get around half that. Unless there's some major issue it should still be usable for browsing though - try using a cable to connect to the router?
 
Probably just a low end package, we're currently wearing out the previous tenants min 12 month contract on virgin phone, tv and internet (internet is 2 meg) and between 4 it's next to useless - constant caps which we hit even if just doing our normal stuff - remote access, vpn, voip, gaming
 
Thanks for the replies! I am right next to the router now and the wireless is working as you'd expet, not amazingly quick, but ok for browsing. Signal shows as excellent now as opposed to good, this seems to make a tremendous difference whereas on my one at home it is still quite useable with only "good" signal. This connection is useless upstairs where I get only good signal.

The reason i'm right next to it is so I could try a patch connection. This has not worked. After downloading the driver via wireless (took about 20mins for 3mb) and installing it all I can get is "limited or no connectivity" with the cable. I have no idea why this would be, I've tried every setting I can think of on my PC. I cannot access the router itself either via cable or wireless (192.168.1.1), just shows:

"Failed to Connect. The connection was refused when attempting to contact 192.168.1.1.
Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection"

Does the WRT54GL have especially strong signal?, although it shouldn't be a big issue with 54G as it is not on mine at home. Will the WRT54GC be good enough? I don't want to spend a lot if possible! Also limited space on the shelf for it to fit on, would need to be stood vertically. How would you get the Tomato firmware onto it, it might be too complicated for me?

The router here is D-Link DI-614+ if that helps :)
 
The WRT54GC and WRT54GL are about the same price and AFAIK the WRT54GC won't take any third party firmware. The firmware upgrade is the same as any other, you just upload a file through the web interface.
 
Just turn the modem off, connect up as normal with a patch lead, enable dhcp and then turn the modem on. If it works quicker then the issue is the router or the other people using the router. If it's no better then it's the connection.
 
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