Entire home network slows down due to Linksys WRT54GL

Question

This is the second one I'm trying, so it's either me or something else is up. When I connect any of my LAN devices directly to our cable modem, the speeds are perfect. No latency, no packet loss and we reach or cable providers advertised up/down Mbit/s capacity. As soon as I put a wireless router (Linksys WRT54GL) into the mix, everything just goes to crap. I mean I can honestly still surf the web, but speeds are completely impeded on, latency goes up.. I can barely break 50kb/s at times... I'm just running the stock firmware and everything. Anyone have suggestions on how to improve this experience?

Have you tried another router? Could be a faulty wireless router. Also, this would be better suited to superuser — Sam Cogan, Dec 16 '09 at 15:18
Friends don't let friends run stock firmware on their routers. — Ryan Bolger, Dec 16 '09 at 16:50

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 16 '09 at 15:17

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Is the router new or used. Because it may be broadcasting too much junk into the network. Check the settings of the router and see if you can maybe clean it up or do a factory flash, also maybe update the firmware to see what can be done to fix the issue. That may do it.

How are you tracking the traffic locally on your network?

answered Dec 16 '09 at 15:17

Rob

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I second the "upgrade firmware" idea. The time to market on these devices (and their updates) is so small, they can't perfect the firmware before it ships and they know the can update it in the field. – David Smith Dec 16 '09 at 15:22

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '09 at 15:42

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This sounds like a routing loop to me. Have you tried disabling wifi and only plugging in one device? Do you have a VPN configured on any of your machines?

Wireshark may help you...

answered Dec 16 '09 at 15:42

Russ

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:55

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DD-WRT worked wonders on my linksys router of the same type. If you are linuxy at all you might take a look at it. You have a prime model for the open-source firmware.

answered Dec 16 '09 at 16:55

oneodd1

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 16 '09 at 17:23

Does this slowdown happen immediately or after it has been up for a while? These routers are know to have problems with too-small NAT tables that get filled up when you have a lot of connections. You will almost certainly trigger this if you run bittorrent, but it can also be triggered by anything else that opens a lot of connections.

The best solution, if this is the case, is to install third-party firmware like Tomato or DD-WRT, or somehow limit the simultaneous connections your network generates

Entire home network slows down due to Linksys WRT54GL

4 Answers4