Network setup assistance needed


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I had a Netgear WGR-614 router that was capable of speeds up to 54Mbps. I recently upgraded my router to a Netgear WNDR 3400 N600. In all, I have 7 wireless devices. At any one point in time though, I have a printer, laptop, Roku player, and my desktop computer connected to the router. All devices operate in the 2.4Ghz band, even though the router can also suppprt 5GHz.

 

The internet speed I have is 20Mbps, and I get this speed when I run speedtest.net from my desktop (wired connection). When I run speedtest.net on my laptop, the speed I get is an average of 2-4Mbps. The speedtest peaks at 10 when it first starts and then drops to 2-4 for the remainder of the test.

 

The Roku player often loses the network connection and has difficulty reconnecting. Sometimes, it doesn't even see my network. Playing content on HBO has been difficult because it keeps stopping every five minutes to buffer content The Roku player isn't able to play content in HD.

 

I spoke with Best Buy computer personnel just to see what they would say, and they said something about how my Internet speed was getting cut in half. I have a router capable of 300Mbps but only 20 is going out. They recommended that I upgrade the Internet speed. The max speed available in my area right now is 50Mbps, but it will be getting upgraded to 100Mbps after the first of the year.

 

I don't know where I can relocate my router to where I can get a better signal, but the Roku is located in the front of my home and the router is located down the hall and in another room at the back of my home. I am considering upgrading my Internet speed, but I don't know if that is going to make a difference.

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If you can not even get 10 over wireless now, how is increasing internet going to help that?? Who exactly where you talking to at BB, the check out girl? Maybe the guy that checks your receipt when you leave?

you have this

20Mbps internet --- router --- 4mbps wireless

20Mbps internet --- same router --- 20Mbps wired

And they told you if you did this

50Mbps internet --- same router -- MAGIC Happens 50Mbps wireless???

I am at a loss to think anyone could suggest that??

So your now running N, are your clients 802.11n capable? What is the make and model of your roku? Your other devices wireless is somewhat new?

It means nothing to upgrade your router to N or even AC, if all your wireless clients are B or G only..

What settings are you running on wireless - 20mhz, 40 on your N channels. Are you running N only mode, or are you set to B/G/N or some combination? What security settings WPA2 with AES I would assume?

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Kind of sounds more like it could be do to low signal strength

 

How many walls/floors between the router and Roku? Are there devices that could interfere with your signal in between router & the Roku such as cordless telephone, a microwave or Xmas tree lights?

 

If this is the case there are a couple things you could do;

 

1) reposition the router

2) remove interference

3) purchase a range extender to install midway

 

I would also check into Budman's suggestions regarding router settings

 

Hope that helps :)

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If you can not even get 10 over wireless now, how is increasing internet going to help that?? Who exactly where you talking to at BB, the check out girl? Maybe the guy that checks your receipt when you leave?

you have this

20Mbps internet --- router --- 4mbps wireless

20Mbps internet --- same router --- 20Mbps wired

And they told you if you did this

50Mbps internet --- same router -- MAGIC Happens 50Mbps wireless???

I am at a loss to think anyone could suggest that??

So your now running N, are your clients 802.11n capable? What is the make and model of your roku? Your other devices wireless is somewhat new?

It means nothing to upgrade your router to N or even AC, if all your wireless clients are B or G only..

What settings are you running on wireless - 20mhz, 40 on your N channels. Are you running N only mode, or are you set to B/G/N or some combination? What security settings WPA2 with AES I would assume?

 

Don't knock the checkout girl.  They sometimes have great advice...plus they can be damn cute.

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I had a Netgear WGR-614 router that was capable of speeds up to 54Mbps. I recently upgraded my router to a Netgear WNDR 3400 N600. In all, I have 7 wireless devices. At any one point in time though, I have a printer, laptop, Roku player, and my desktop computer connected to the router. All devices operate in the 2.4Ghz band, even though the router can also suppprt 5GHz.

 

The internet speed I have is 20Mbps, and I get this speed when I run speedtest.net from my desktop (wired connection). When I run speedtest.net on my laptop, the speed I get is an average of 2-4Mbps. The speedtest peaks at 10 when it first starts and then drops to 2-4 for the remainder of the test.

 

The Roku player often loses the network connection and has difficulty reconnecting. Sometimes, it doesn't even see my network. Playing content on HBO has been difficult because it keeps stopping every five minutes to buffer content The Roku player isn't able to play content in HD.

 

I spoke with Best Buy computer personnel just to see what they would say, and they said something about how my Internet speed was getting cut in half. I have a router capable of 300Mbps but only 20 is going out. They recommended that I upgrade the Internet speed. The max speed available in my area right now is 50Mbps, but it will be getting upgraded to 100Mbps after the first of the year.

 

I don't know where I can relocate my router to where I can get a better signal, but the Roku is located in the front of my home and the router is located down the hall and in another room at the back of my home. I am considering upgrading my Internet speed, but I don't know if that is going to make a difference.

Was your old router able to push out ~15-20 Mbps on wireless?

 

On your new Netgear 3400 router under Advance Setting tab -> QOS uncheck WMM setting. That should fix your weak wireless connection.

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802.11g is quite capable of 20mbps, but its possible the router had an issue with nat/firewall and pushing that from wan to lan. I had an old 54g version 1 or something that could max out about 15Mbps from wan to lan. But could do say 22-23 peak over wireless to lan.

What outsome details it going to be difficult to pinpoint his issue - but I can tell you for sure that bumping his internet to 50 is not going to fix his wireless issue ;)

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All devices are b/g/n capable. I think the new router did help some, because I never got 4-7Mbps on a wireless speedtest.

 

I went to the computer department at Best Buy and spoke with someone there. I specifically mentioned that I had 20Mbps Internet, and I got that at the desktop. I mentioned I had a much slower connection on the wireless end, and I was having problems being able to stream content from the Roku (Roku 2 XS). Best Buy did in fact say that I could either get the N600 router OR upgrade my Internet. I think now that they were just saying that to get me to spend money, but another reason I think the new router helped is because I was able to stream HBO (but not high quality) whereas with the old router I couldn't stream HBO.

 

There are many other wireless networks in my area, but I can't really do anything about that. I suppose there could be interferance since the router is located down the hall and in another room, where it sits near the wireless printer. There are also two modems where the router is located -- one is a cable modem and the other is a modem for phone service. There is also a HVAC space on the way to where the router is located.

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Probably need to get better signal strength to the room that the roku is in.  I put a wireless access point in the same room as my roku.  It covers the 2nd floor of my house quite well where a single wireless router couldn't cover that area of the house that well.

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I changed the WMM setting and that actually made the connection worse.

 

Now I can't get over 2Mbps and Roku content plays in poor quality. I guess I need a range extender.

 

If I were to get a wireless access point, would something like this work?  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/powerline-500-802-11n-wireless-access-point/8941593.p?id=1218956063692&skuId=8941593&st=wireless%20access%20point&cp=1&lp=6

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Before changing the WMM settings, I got anywhere from 4-7Mbps where the Roku is. Now I'm getting 1-2Mbps. If I clear all the browser cache, cookies, and history, and then run a speed test, the result is a bit better.I was thinking that another part of the problem was all the devices operating in the same wireless band.

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That wasn't my question. It is even simpler than that....how many bars do you see in that room?  It is a 1-5 answer, or 1-3 depending on what wireless software you looking at. It will be in your sys tray. 

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from a windows 7 or 8 laptop in the same room as your roku.. Can you run the command or look at the interface via gui?

examples

post-14624-0-02856000-1386855739.png

post-14624-0-93736300-1386855498.png

The command line command will give us more info to work with.

Now this connection is crap, its a wireless card I have in my desktop but it doesn't even have antenna connected to it, and its under my desk, etc. But you can see its got great signal bars but only at 72 mbps for trans and recv

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Exactly!! My point..

But lets keep in mind wireless is Shared.. So I would suggest do your speed test, show your details. Then make sure every single wireless devices is OFF on your network. And do your tests again.

But for all we know your router talking to your device is only transmitting at some really low number?

G wireless is quite capable of 20Mbps -- normally you might only see 15 to 18.. But good wireless G is going to be 19 to 23 at the peak, etc.

But without some actual details, I agree for all we know his roku has 1 bar and is at a much lower rate. It could be something as stupid as his wireless antenna is loose on his router? Have you checked that? With all the other wireless off other than your 1 test laptop.. What speeds and bars do you get when say in same room as your router vs when your near your roku location?

What does your wireless landscape look like.. Can you run say http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ what else is on same channel as you?

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That wasn't my question. It is even simpler than that....how many bars do you see in that room?  It is a 1-5 answer, or 1-3 depending on what wireless software you looking at. It will be in your sys tray. 

4-5, but mostly 4.

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Here's a screenshot from the insider application.

 

post-155136-0-65894800-1386947477.jpg

 

 

There are anywhere from 2-4 overlapping channels. Roku support suggested picking channel 11 for the router, but I previously had it on auto. All the wireless networks near me seem to either be on 11 or 6.

 

I bought a range extender, but haven't connected it yet.

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I hooked up the range extender and connected my laptop to the new SSID created by the range extender. I am now getting 20Mbps on a wireless connection.

 

Now for the other problem --- it is not surprising to me that the Roku player locked up when I switched to the HDMI input for the Roku. After restarting it, it had no network connection. Now the Roku won't connect to my original network or the extended network.

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If you can not even get 10 over wireless now, how is increasing internet going to help that?? Who exactly where you talking to at BB, the check out girl? Maybe the guy that checks your receipt when you leave?

you have this

20Mbps internet --- router --- 4mbps wireless

20Mbps internet --- same router --- 20Mbps wired

And they told you if you did this

50Mbps internet --- same router -- MAGIC Happens 50Mbps wireless???

I am at a loss to think anyone could suggest that??

 

These people are trained in sales, not troubleshooting.  They're better equipped at selling you a toaster than giving you technical advice.

 

Just like if you want decent car advice, you don't talk to the guys in the dealer's showroom.  You talk to the mechanics working in the garage.

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"All the wireless networks near me seem to either be on 11 or 6."

Well then why are you not on 1? Why would you pick 11 if there are overlapping networks there? Did the person at BB tell to pick the channel number with the most networks on it as well? ;)

Range extenders will cut your bandwidth /2 use AP vs wireless range extenders/repeaters.

You don't show what the ssids are around you, make sure your SSID that you broadcast is UNIQUE to the others around.

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I hooked up the range extender and connected my laptop to the new SSID created by the range extender. I am now getting 20Mbps on a wireless connection.

Now for the other problem --- it is not surprising to me that the Roku player locked up when I switched to the HDMI input for the Roku. After restarting it, it had no network connection. Now the Roku won't connect to my original network or the extended network.

Try resetting the Roku.

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I got everything working now. As for the channel, I selected the channel to use. I'll have to try out other channels until I find the optimal one.

Should I take the range extender back and get an access point? What would the difference in speed be?

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The difference in speed with a extender/repeater is HALF of whatever your wireless would be without it. Since your repeating/retransmitting everything.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-howto/32276-how-we-test-wireless-extenders

Because most wireless extenders use a single radio to receive and then retransmit each data packet, bandwidth is cut in half vs. what you would see in the same location when connecting directly to the base router. So wireless extenders are best used to bring wireless to a location where your main router's signal is very weak or doesn't reach at all. Wireless extenders are not useful to increase throughput due to the 50% throughput reduction.

Now if all your doing with it it streaming from the internet and your internet is only 20Mbps - I doubt you should have a problem with N seeing 20Mbps.. But if what you want to do is move files around your network over wireless, wireless to wireless is by itself /2 to your bandwidth anyway.. So if your doing wireless to wireless transfers you get /2 if you then are going through the repeater you would see another /2

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