Do routers effect wired speed?

[M A J O R]

I'm moving this week and I'm getting NBN which is Australia's not so shit, but still shit broadband network.

 

I was thinking about how to get the most out of the connection and was looking into routers, do routers effect wired speed or just wireless? Or are they just to boost bandwidth? 

[Godlygamer23]

Routers affect both. If the router can only transfer 10MB/s, that applies universally.

[M A J O R]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Routers affect both. If the router can only transfer 10MB/s, that applies universally.

So I assume if I'm quoted a 25/5 connection, the stock router should be able to transfer at that speed. 

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, TiTANiTE said:

So I assume if I'm quoted a 25/5 connection, the stock router should be able to transfer at that speed. 

Most likely, yes.

[brwainer]

If you cannot achieve the quoted speeds with the provided hardware, there is an issue that you should address with them. In other words, yes what they give you should be fast enough for your WAN speeds, although if you want to access a wired LAN server by wireless or do in home game streaming (Steam, Nvidia) on wireless then it probably won't be good enough.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, brwainer said:

If you cannot achieve the quoted speeds with the provided hardware, there is an issue that you should address with them. In other words, yes what they give you should be fast enough for your WAN speeds, although if you want to access a wired LAN server by wireless or do in home game streaming (Steam, Nvidia) on wireless then it probably won't be good enough.

Not quite - depending on his NBN connection, they may not provide him a router. They'll give him the option of buying one though. I know the new ISP i'm switching to for NBN FTTP doesn't provide a router.

 

@OP - Yes, your router can have an effect on how faster your wired transfer speed is however not in the sense normally of download speed for a single connection. Better qualitiy routers are better suited to more concurrent connections and may have lower latency when processing requests for DNS lookup, ARP or other similar things.

[brwainer]

Just now, Windspeed36 said:

Not quite - depending on his NBN connection, they may not provide him a router. They'll give him the option of buying one though. I know the new ISP i'm switching to for NBN FTTP doesn't provide a router.

 

@OP - Yes, your router can have an effect on how faster your wired transfer speed is however not in the sense normally of download speed for a single connection. Better qualitiy routers are better suited to more concurrent connections and may have lower latency when processing requests for DNS lookup, ARP or other similar things.

Then things really are different in Australia. Nowadays in the US you have to specifically ask to rent or buy a modem without a router builtin.

[Guest]

Just now, brwainer said:

Then things really are different in Australia. Nowadays in the US you have to specifically ask to rent or buy a modem without a router builtin.

Yeah  - as I said it depends on the connection. If he's getting FTTP which is what I've got, he'll have a box on the wall with a fibre NTU that'll have a couple of RJ45 ports to plug a router into. He can then buy a router from the ISP or use whatever he's already got. Not too sure what the go is if he's getting FTTN or using NBN via WISP.

[brwainer]

1 minute ago, Windspeed36 said:

Yeah  - as I said it depends on the connection. If he's getting FTTP which is what I've got, he'll have a box on the wall with a fibre NTU that'll have a couple of RJ45 ports to plug a router into. He can then buy a router from the ISP or use whatever he's already got. Not too sure what the go is if he's getting FTTN or using NBN via WISP.

Verizon Fios and similar FTTH providers here are the same, unless you want Fios TV, in which case you have to use their "gateway" (which is actually a pretty decent router)

[Gumi Rokkaku]

Ya'll are making me jealous. I want fiber.
60 down/ 6 up for life I guess.

[brwainer]

3 minutes ago, Gumi Rokkaku said:

Ya'll are making me jealous. I want fiber.
60 down/ 6 up for life I guess.

I only have a 50 down 50 up plan. The benefit from fiber I'm getting is that a) it's very low latency, and b) all the hardware is basically brand new, versus DSL and Cable which might be using lines and equipment many decades old

[M A J O R]

On 2/4/2016 at 3:50 PM, Gumi Rokkaku said:

Ya'll are making me jealous. I want fiber.
60 down/ 6 up for life I guess.

Bro you have no idea. For my whole life up until now I've had a max of 2 down 0.5 up. I'm using a wireless 4G device (currently @ 1.1 down, and upload doesn't even reg) until I get a home connection in the new place. And if it turns out Telstra is trolling us about NBN I'll be on adsl2 with 5/0.5 :l Gotta love AUS. 

[M A J O R]

On 2/4/2016 at 3:50 PM, Gumi Rokkaku said:

Ya'll are making me jealous. I want fiber.
60 down/ 6 up for life I guess.

Bro you have no idea. For my whole life up until now I've had a max of 2 down 0.5 up. I'm using a wireless 4G device (currently @ 1.1 down, and upload doesn't even reg) until I get a home connection in the new place. And if it turns out Telstra is trolling us about NBN I'll be on adsl2 with 5/0.5 :l Gotta love AUS. 

[Trikein]

What a router can throughput from WAN to LAN is completely different then the throughput and performance from WLAN to PC. Another words your gateway may be enough to give you your ISP speed via wired, but the wireless may stink; low throughput, weak range, beamforming, wireless QOS, etc. Usually the gateways or routers ISP provide are made by the lowest bidder and made to be user friendly at the cost of performance and features. I would suggest contacting your ISP and see exactly what they provide.Then look at it's wireless capabilities and see if they fit your needs. If it's a N600 router, and all your devices are N600 and below,  you should be fine. But if you have modern devices and wireless adapters, then you probably are going to want a different device.

 

One thing a good router WON'T do is improve the speed you get from your ISP. The only thing a good router can do is get that speed to as many devices as possible. Well that and add features like throughput and latency QoS, cloud support, and gigabit LAN. Even if you can only get 25Mbps from your ISP to your computers, a gigabit LAN can allow you to transfer files between your computer a lot faster.