Router Boosted Speeds?

[Rodinski]

I bought a cheap little router that was on clearance.  I've been searching for a portable Wi-Fi router for a while but couldn't really afford one.  The school has LAN connections throughout the older buildings and I've been bringing a CAT6 cable with me for internet.  Using the direct line, I would get a crummy 4-7 mbps (yes, not even 1 meg).  The school throttles you to 18, max.  However, with this router I got, I'm not getting the full speeds out of the exact same port.  Is that normal?  If so, why?  I thought a direct LAN connection would have been best?  Over Wi-Fi and a direct line from the router I get the same speeds (lower latency obviously on the direct LAN) but I never knew the router would improve speeds this much?

[Lurick]

So before you got 4 to 7 Mbps and when you add the router into the mix you now get 18Mbps?

[Rodinski]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

So before you got 4 to 7 Mbps and when you add the router into the mix you now get 18Mbps?

Yup.  The school internet is all throttled to 18 mbps, but a direct LAN port to the wall would only give me 4-7 mbps.  Maybe it's in how they configured the LAN lines in the building?  It's old.

[Lurick]

Just now, Rodinski said:

Yup.  The school internet is all throttled to 18 mbps, but a direct LAN port to the wall would only give me 4-7 mbps.  Maybe it's in how they configured the LAN lines in the building?  It's old.

On your laptop, when you plug directly in, no router, go to the Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings > Right click on the wired adapter > Status

What does it say for "Speed:" ?

[Rodinski]

With router over wifi: 300 mbps.

 

Direct lan without router: 100 mbps.  But I just did a speed test and getting the same speeds.  Maybe they fix their servers or something.

 

That's...weird.  Just last week I was getting 4-7 since I've attended this place.

[Rodinski]

Ha, now I reconnected it and the speeds doubled for a short burst.

[Lurick]

13 hours ago, Rodinski said:

Ha, now I reconnected it and the speeds doubled for a short burst.

Interesting.

It sounds like the ports are limited to 100Mbps and they might have some old 802.11n access points for wireless or something with limited speed.