Win7 Homegroup - Would a new router help transfer speed?

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#80549 1-Apr-2011 09:24

I'm not the smartest cookie in the Jar so pls bear with me.
I've just started playing with Win7 Homegroup, we currently have two Laptops in the group using an old Xtra-supplied D-Link G604T wireless which for us has performed very reliably despite other opinions I have come across.

Would updating the router help improve the performance of the network, watching video is a little painful.

If so, any recommendations as to what to look for in a new router?

freitasm

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#454049 1-Apr-2011 09:27

It depends on how your network is bein used. If you have two PCs connected to the router and one of them is doing some heavy transfer, the router may get overloaded - cheaper ones can't always handle too many connections and packets.

If you just want things to flow faster internally check that both your PCs have gigabit ethernet adapters. If they have, perhaps adding a gigabit switch would make internal LAN traffic faster...

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Oldhat

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#454067 1-Apr-2011 09:46

As freitasm mentioned, a gigabit ethernet would definitely improve the file transfers for the internal network. If you are looking at wireless communication there are more capable routers than the dlink dsl604 available now.

You could possibly look at upgrading the dlink to a router that has gigabit ethernet ports and supports n300 for the wireless.

freitasm

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#454070 1-Apr-2011 09:49

A gigabit router with wireless N will be a bit more expensive than just a gigabit switch. If your problem is not external traffic, the switch is ideal.

Having said that, the DLink router is the very low end of the performance, really.

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timmmay

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#454083 1-Apr-2011 10:18

Are you talking about watching video from PC to PC, or from youtube or similar website?

Is it slow when you're plugged into the network, or just over wireless?

Piscator

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#454096 1-Apr-2011 10:38

Thanks for the responses.

Some clarification.

All connections are wireless so I assume getting gigabit ethernet won't make any difference.

The issue I noticed last night was PC to PC video transfer, our general download speed is okish but nothing startling.

So going wireless N300 would help?

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#454097 1-Apr-2011 10:40

Any wireless N router will speed you up heaps. Check the various threads for recommendations of wireless routers, TP Link seem to have a good name around here.

cldlr76

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Ultimate Geek

#454353 1-Apr-2011 20:30

It will also depend on your network cards. if they are only b/g then you won't get the full benefit of N

Piscator

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#454890 3-Apr-2011 19:30

I have purchased a netger n300 Wireless gigabit ADSL2+ modem router, model DGN3500. really didn't investigate it too much except it seemed to be an all in one box solution which sounded simpler for me and so far it has been relatively straight forward.

A few more questions because i really don't understand the finer details.

What speeds should I expect files to transfer at from laptop to laptop, both running Win7 and how do i check it. One laptop has connected to the network @ 130Mbps the other @ 150?

I set the router WAN mode settings to run @ 270Mbps from the drop down box (any reason why 300 wasn't available as it states on the box "up to 300Mbps ")

I have also connected a usb HDD to the router, would transfer speeds be any different if I connect to routers gigabit ethernet (laptop has a gigabit ethernet card) or if I connect the USb HDD directly to the laptop? I'm assuming both the above will be quicker than transfering via the WAN.

Any suggestions as to the best way I should set up the home network would be greatly appreciated, my thoughts are to store all media on the USB HDD and share it all from there, will this work with itunes, one source of music with multiple laptops using it?

thanks

richms

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#454947 4-Apr-2011 00:13

5-6MB/sec is what I would expect wireless to wired, and less than that wireless to wireless.

My experiance with sharing from a router that allowed for sharing was just frustrating and the DSL connection going to crap when moving lots of stuff on or off the drive. CPU in those things is hardly fast. Perhaps look at a separate ethernet NAS for the USB drive so you are not chewing up router CPU looking after a couple of terabytes of drive with a quarter million files on it etc

Richard rich.ms