Router speeds...

["Dr. Neal Krawetz" <hf () hackerfactor com>]

Hi folks,

Without any other forum to write to, I thought I would drop this note
here -- it's fun, but only vaguely security.

Background:
My primary home firewall died 2 days ago.
(Yes primary -- I like redundancy.)
It was a very dependable SMC Barricade 7004BR -- it was 5 years old.
It just rolled over.  Now it's just a brick that occasionally blinks.

Fortunately, today is the big "everything on sale" day, so I went
shopping.

I got a D-Link DI-604 (router/firewall, no wireless) and a
Linksys WRT54G wireless router (to replace my less-than-dependable
NetGear WGR614).  (Total cost for both: $50 after $25 in rebates.)


One thing I learned a long time ago was that my NetGear was slow.
I use the Speakeasy speed test to benchmark throughput over my
cable modem (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/).
For each benchmark, I directly connected the router's WAN to the cable modem.
  computer -> router -> cable modem -> Internet

The benchmark result:
  SMC Barricade: 5-6Mb download, 384k upload (capped by Comcast)
    (Benchmark from over the last few months -- before its untimely death.)

  NetGear: 1Mb download, if I am lucky.  NOTE: This is tested using the
    wired 4-port hub, not via wireless.  But wireless was about the same
    speed.  (This is with SPI turned off.  Cut the speed in half for SPI.)

And now I tested my new routers:
  D-Link:  7-8Mb download.  WOW!
  Linksys: 2-3Mb download via wired and wireless ports (what?!?)


So my question is, are all wireless routers slow?
I know that wireless is slower than wired, but why should having a
wireless router slow down the wired connection?
Do all vendors dumb down to the slowest common denominator?

                                        -Neal
--
Neal Krawetz, Ph.D.
Hacker Factor Solutions
http://www.hackerfactor.com/

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