Do I need a new router?

[ipaq_101]

Alright I need some help and I hope someone here can help enlighten me.

The new wifi update hasn't helped with my wifi speeds. My Dell ultrabook, my wife's macbook pro, and my samsung galaxy s4 get around 16mbps via speedtest.net while my SP3 pro gets 3mbps dl and 1mbps up, I have a linksys e1500 router. I have no idea why the SP3 gets such a low dl speed.

What are your suggestions? I don't want to spend $200 on a new AC router as laptops 4 years old exceed the SP3 wifi dl speeds, but if I have to I guess I have no choice.

I have updated firmware and have no more options.

 

[ctitanic]

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the network driver.

 

[ctitanic]

BTW, are you using a Linksys router?

 

[ipaq_101]

BTW, are you using a Linksys router?

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the network driver and no change.

Yes I am using a linksys e1500 router.

 

[TGT]

I had the same Linksys E1500 router (2.4 GHz only) and the same problem as you (3 Mbps download speed). I changed the router from Mixed (B/G/N) mode to "B/G only" mode. That improved my speed to 29 Mbs download and was good workaround for me, even though it slowed my other laptops that were getting about 59 Mbps download before. I believe Microsoft is aware of the problem.

This week I upgraded my router to the Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 and now speedtest on the SP3 is giving me again 59 Mbps download and 29 Mbps upload. The Wifi adapter shows about 500 Mbps and I am about 40 ft from the router and on a different floor. I was copying some big ISO files to the NAS and getting 200 Mbps upload speed (about 22 MB per sec) and am very happy.

 

[ipaq_101]

I had the same Linksys E1500 router (2.4 GHz only) and the same problem as you (3 Mbps download speed). I changed the router from Mixed (B/G/N) mode to "B/G only" mode. That improved my speed to 29 Mbs download and was good workaround for me, even though it slowed my other laptops that were getting about 59 Mbps download before. I believe Microsoft is aware of the problem.

This week I upgraded my router to the Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 and now speedtest on the SP3 is giving me again 59 Mbps download and 29 Mbps upload. The Wifi adapter shows about 500 Mbps and I am about 40 ft from the router and on a different floor. I was copying some big ISO files to the NAS and getting 200 Mbps upload speed (about 22 MB per sec) and am very happy.

Thanks dude, I will give your workaround a shot. I live in Los Angeles where TWC tops out around 16Mbps for what I pay anyway.

I think it might me time to upgrade to a new router, I can't afford to drop $300 on it, but definitely something in the $100-$150 range. Any suggestions? All we really do at home is stream netflix, hulu, and sometimes movies from a network drive.

 

[jnjroach]

If you are willing to go a bit higher then $150 you can get the Netgear R7000 AC for $187 from Amazon, which means you can probably price match at Staples or BestBuy and get it even cheaper....

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Night...&qid=1405607507&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear+r7000

 

[ipaq_101]

If you are willing to go a bit higher then $150 you can get the Netgear R7000 AC for $187 from Amazon, which means you can probably price match at Staples or BestBuy and get it even cheaper....

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-AC1900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B00F0DD0I6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405607507&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear r7000

Yeah I will consider this one.....man since when did routers get so friggin expensive? I usually keep up with technology, but with routers I have been living in the dark ages all this time.

 

[jnjroach]

Well, when you look at the technology in these now, they are becoming much more akin to full business class devices...the R7000 uses a dual-core 1GHz CPU....

 

[ipaq_101]

I had the same Linksys E1500 router (2.4 GHz only) and the same problem as you (3 Mbps download speed). I changed the router from Mixed (B/G/N) mode to "B/G only" mode. That improved my speed to 29 Mbs download and was good workaround for me, even though it slowed my other laptops that were getting about 59 Mbps download before. I believe Microsoft is aware of the problem.

This week I upgraded my router to the Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 and now speedtest on the SP3 is giving me again 59 Mbps download and 29 Mbps upload. The Wifi adapter shows about 500 Mbps and I am about 40 ft from the router and on a different floor. I was copying some big ISO files to the NAS and getting 200 Mbps upload speed (about 22 MB per sec) and am very happy.

That did the trick, thanks for the tip. I can live with 16mbps for now, hopefully these new generation routers come down in price around christmas, I will pick one up then.

 

[ipaq_101]

Ok I couldn't resist, bought the netgear R7000, put the dd-wrt firmware on it and man has it been ridiculous. Netflix has no buffer, everything is snappy as hell.

wow!