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optimizing network speed

Post Date: 2011-01-19
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BillS View Drop Down
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Posts: 90 		  Quote BillS Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: optimizing network speed
    Posted: 19 Jan 2011 at 5:08pm
My digital storm box is three years old this month.  I am wondering if I can improve the speed of my network connection.  When I play WoW, it takes quite a while (30-60 seconds) both for logging in and logging out of a character.

My order was 6096, and it says my NIC is:

Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)

I don't know if that is 10 mbs, 100 mbs, 10/100, or what?

I have Road Runner internet through Time Warner Cable, and I have an old cheap hub and switch (can get specs if they are helpful, but I am writing this from work).  Perhaps I should upgrade them to get better bandwidth?  If so, what speed should I be looking for?  Is that even the right question? Confused

Also, one day I hope to upgrade my aging ReplayTV DVRs, probably to TiVo Premiere, and I hope that I can get max performance copying programs from one unit to another, and concerned that I may need a better switch/router.

Thanks,
Bill

PS note: my network is wired.


Edited by BillS - 19 Jan 2011 at 5:11pm
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DST4ME View Drop Down
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Posts: 36758 		  Quote DST4ME Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 19 Jan 2011 at 5:32pm
Your speed will depend on your isp really, if your pc is not blocking anything, (it shouldn't).

when you do a speed test do you get close to the results that your isp claims you should have in speed?

also with these games, you are connecting to a server, what the upload speed of that server is and its ping, will play a big part in your speed, in short if everything is ok on your side but the server you are connecting to is slow at that time, you will get slow results.

Edited by DST4ME - 19 Jan 2011 at 5:33pm

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BillS View Drop Down
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Posts: 90 		  Quote BillS Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 19 Jan 2011 at 5:36pm
Thanks for responding.

I have not done a speed test.  Is there recommended tool I can download to do that?

I don't know if all WoW players experience the slow connection/disconnection - perhaps they do and it's because of the upload speed limit.  I will get more info on that.

Bill
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Posts: 36758 		  Quote DST4ME Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 19 Jan 2011 at 6:12pm
pic a server close to you to do the test

thats another thing that can effect internet speed, the distance from you and the server you connect to.

Edited by DST4ME - 19 Jan 2011 at 6:13pm

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BillS View Drop Down
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Posts: 90 		  Quote BillS Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 20 Jan 2011 at 8:54am
Thanks for the speedtest link.

My download is 8.90 Mb/s, and my upload is 0.98 Mb/s.  That corresponds to what Time Warner promised me (max of 10 Mb/s download).  I could pay $20/month extra and triple the speed.  Will have to think about it. [TW doesn't offer the speed upgrade in my area Cry]

My router is 10/100, but my ancient hub is 10base-T.  I think I need to upgrade the hub if I want my internal network to be faster than 10 Mb/s.  Make sense?

Thanks,
Bill

PS my topology looks like this

cable box -> hub -> router

Hub also goes to my two DVRs (they need real world IPs for some reason).
Router goes to two PCs.

So if the PCs ever wanted to talk to the DVRs at 100, I presume that I need the faster hub.  But since Time Warner downloads are maxed at 10, a faster hub won't help me there.


Edited by BillS - 20 Jan 2011 at 12:01pm
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Posts: 32 		  Quote h0gz17 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 20 Jan 2011 at 6:44pm
Move your hub to the other side of the router.  In effect, you're bottle-necking the packets being sent from the cable box (Internet) to everything else.  Also a router is designed to interpret the packets of information and send them where they need to go.  It should be the first place the packets of info travel to when hitting your network.  Also, I would invest in a new 10/100 switch/hub if your router does not have enough ports to support all your devices right now (Yes, theoretically your internet speed would not bottleneck on a 10mb network, but this is a real world situation).  A new 10/100 switch is very cheap and well worth the investment for a little extra piece of mind.  That is just my opinion though.
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BillS View Drop Down
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Posts: 90 		  Quote BillS Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2011 at 12:52pm
Thanks for responding.  I have the hub in front of the router for a reason (I sure hope I'm right Smile)  Time Warner provides me with three IP addresses.  My somewhat braindead ReplayTV DVRs don't network with each other when I put them on the router's subnet.  Tried for many hours with ReplayTV tech support.  So, I put the DVRs on the hub, before the router, and assign each one a real world IP.  The router gets the third real world IP, and everything works.

I am upgrading my hub to a 10/100.  A new Netgear is $99, so I am looking to win an auction for a cheap used one on ebay.  Even if the new hub doesn't help immediately, I can use it down the road if faster internet is ever offered in my town.

With a 10/100 hub, do you still think I'd be slowing down my home network noticeably by keeping the hub in front of the router?

Thanks again,
Bill


Edited by BillS - 21 Jan 2011 at 12:53pm
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