New Cable Modem and Router Question

[linthat22]

Hey folks, I recently got a letter from Comcast saying that they're upping my download speed from 16Mbps to 22Mbps with bursts up to 30Mbps.

They mentioned I'd have to get a new modem, so I figured there's a new standard out which would require new equipment. Since I'd rather own my equipment rather than pay a fee to them I ordered a new modem last night (Motorola SURFboard SB6120).

My question lies in the new wireless router I ordered to take advantage of the speed increase (D-Link DIR-855). Is this router overkill from what I already have (D-Link DIR-615)?

The reason I ask, is that the old router was 10/100 where the new one is 10/100/1000 and our motherboards match the new router speeds. I figured we'd get more throughput. Also as far as wireless goes, I only use it for my PS3 and sometimes my wife's work laptop.

What ya'll say?

*edit* wife was happy that the router was cheaper than what she was expecting But way too damn overpriced if you ask me.

 

[Grall]

If you have more than one machine hooked up to the router, and more than one of those machines have a gigabit port, and you regularly copy large amounts of data between the machines, then it might be worth buying a new router. If you don't have any other PCs with gigabit ports (don't bother counting the PS3), or you don't shuffle around a lot of data then don't bother.

The DIR855 is - from what I understand - a very fast consumer-level router. There have been some firmware issues with that and other N-series wifi routers from DLink though, but I think that only applies to the wifi, and I think not all customers are affected by this anyway, I'm not sure. I don't have any DLink stuff anymore, I use the Netgear WNR3500 model, and I think it's great, and it was cheaper than DLink's higher-quality models like the 855 when I bought it.

The 3500 is very small desk footprint-wise and quite reliable, as long as it's rebooted once a quarter or so, lol. Small downside is it doesn't support dual-band N radios, you have to pick either 2.4GHz band or 5GHz band exclusively. But if you like me don't have any 5GHz N-stuff then that won't matter anyway.

I've piped about 80MB/s across it between my two local PCs using gigabit, so speedwise it keeps up pretty well I think. There's also a newer model out there using a 600MHz main CPU for even faster routing and lower pings and blah blah. Even so, you should only buy stuff you need, unless you're a geek like me who buy gadgets because he WANTS them, heh...

 

[Davros]

$250 wow
never mind serve files for that price I'd want it to serve me breakfast

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The reason I ask, is that the old router was 10/100 where the new one is 10/100/1000 and our motherboards match the new router speeds. I figured we'd get more throughput. Also as far as wireless goes, I only use it for my PS3 and sometimes my wife's work laptop.

What ya'll say?

*edit* wife was happy that the router was cheaper than what she was expecting But way too damn overpriced if you ask me.

You will only get more throughput transferring files between machines on the LAN at gigabit speeds. If your cable speed is limited to 30 mbit, then that's far less than the current router is capable of anyway (and you say that you only do minor stuff via wireless).

In short, you won't see any difference unless your current router is underpowered in the RAM/CPU area and can't process 30 mbit speeds properly, despite the (presumably) 100 mbit spec on the WAN port.

Personally, I'd check with the current router first, maybe load DD-WRT on it if it's capable, and see if you can use multiple connections and download managers to max out the line speed. If you can't, then test directly connected to the modem. If you can get full speeds through the modem, but not with the router in-line, then you need a new router. If you can get full speeds with the router in place, then you don't need a new one.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'd say yes the Dir-855 is probably overkill for most home users. I have a Dir-655 which is plenty fast enough for local area gigabit transfers.

The Dir-855 is slightly better at maximizing your wireless connection I believe, but the Dir-655 is pretty robust in that area also. One of the big networking review sites had a faceoff of a bunch of wireless-N routers a while back. And the Dir-655 was the best bang for the buck.

Not sure how the 615 compares to the 655 with regards to network traffic handling (655 does quite well with a lot of traffic).

Regards,
SB

 

[linthat22]

How funny. Well at least I know that even though it's overkill it'll work haha.

Thank you all again! Such a knowledgeable crew here as always.