[SOLVED] Best Modem for a Belkin Wireless-N Router?

[Ownaholic]

Okay so recently I've bought a Belkin N-Wireless Router to replace my lightning-shocked Linksys. (It was horrible anyway)
I'm still receiving 1000ms+ pings on my new router as well, however when I hardwired to my modem, my ms is perfectly fine. Therefore, that out rules my ISP.
Now I've had horrible internet problems for years, and I'm a very hard gamer online, and all along I've blamed RCN, but apparently I can't do that anymore despite all their screw-ups. The stagnant problem is something more, and it isn't my router.

I performed two speed tests (a traceroute and a speedtest) with both the router plugged in and wireless, and hardwired, and the wireless produced 1000+ ms while the hardwired dropped down to 11ms tops.

I've narrowed the problem down with a Belkin support tech to the fact that my Router (as well as the last one) is slightly too advanced for my current Modem: Toshiba PCX2500. This only supports DOCSIS 1.1; this is outdated right?

I'm renting the modem from my ISP, but I'm going to buy another modem so I don't have to pay the monthly fee, and so I can fix this lagging nonsense all the time.

What modem should I buy? What do you guys recommend?
Should I just upgrade to the Toshiba PCX2600 instead? That has a 2.0 DOCSIS. Or, should I shoot for the top and get a modem with 3.0 DOCSIS?
Is the DOCSIS outdate even a problem, or is it something else?

Mainly, which modem would solve my lagging problem (mainly for videogames like Ragnarok Online), and which modem is the best match for a Belkin N-Wireless Router?

*edit*
And on a side note, it is not my computer; because I'm packing a 4gig RAM, 2.5 Duo Core Processor, with a 6-grade graphics card and tons of memory on a XPS M1530 laptop running on Vista.

[johnwill]

I really doubt that the DOCSIS 1.1 modem is the issue here, since you don't have the issue wired directly to the modem.

Quite frankly, I'm unimpressed with Belkin's routers, so that wouldn't have been my choice.

I'd like to see the results of this test connected directly to the modem, then again with a hard wired connection to the router.


Register at DSLReports and run their Line Quality Tests. It's best to run this test with a direct wired connection to eliminate any wireless issues from the results. It's useful many times to run this test several times, and we'd like to see each of the results. Post the results link from the top of the test display page for each test run here.

The link to post is near the top of the page and looks like:

If you wish to post this result to a forum, please copy/paste this URL
http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2357195 <- sample only, yours will obviously be different!
and your IP will be disguised.

Copy/paste that link here.

Note: You will have to enable PING (ICMP) request response either in your router (if you have one), or in your computer's firewall for direct modem connections. This is very important to get the most important part of the test to run.

[Ownaholic]

Well, it was the best one at the store at the time so I picked it up.

Also, there's a friend that lives down the street from me who uses the same router that I used to have, has the same OS on a laptop like mine, connects wirelessly, and has the same ISP, plays the same game, etc. The only difference is that he has a different modem than I do. (Unsure of the type, I just told him my model # and company name and he said his was different) My point being, he doesn't have any of these problems. And I still had these problems when I had the same router, so it isn't that...

As for the Line Quality Tests, these are my results:

Modem Hardwire: http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2498746

Now, this is EXTREMELY interesting...Last night, I was able to connect to my router through a hardwire, however tonight, it seems as though it is not working at all. I disabled my wireless connection on my laptop, took down all firewalls on both the router and the computer, hooked everything up the same way I did last night (perhaps I didn't turn off my wireless switch last night), but tonight it isn't even picking up a connection when hardwired to the router with the router hardwired to the modem. I had to turn on my wireless connection just to post this; AND I even reset the router to factory settings and it still didn't help. Reset the computer and power cycled about 3 times as well, still no luck.

This is looking more and more like a compatibility problem between my router and my computer...

Either way, here are the Line results for the "Wired-But-Still-Wireless-To-Router" test:
http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2498765

And if it helps, here are the results of a traceroute I saved last night when I traced to google.com to test the ping levels when I was hardwired to the router. (I think I actually did have the wireless turned off, so I have no idea why it isn't working now):
I also got rid of my IPs for all the entries:
________________________________
Tracing route to google.com []
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms . []
2 192 ms 93 ms 18 ms bdl1.eas-ubr1.atw-eas.pa.cable.rcn.net []
3 11 ms 11 ms 22 ms vl4.aggr1.phdl.pa.rcn.net []
4 98 ms 18 ms 12 ms ge4-0.core2.phdl.pa.rcn.net []
5 185 ms 62 ms 15 ms pos6-0.core3.nyw.ny.rcn.net []
6 279 ms 83 ms 101 ms ge6-2.core4.nyw.ny.rcn.net []
7 268 ms 190 ms 179 ms tge2-1.border1.nyw.ny.rcn.net []
8 76 ms 16 ms 120 ms
9 88 ms 272 ms 30 ms
10 189 ms 44 ms 39 ms
11 242 ms 199 ms 234 ms
12 221 ms 93 ms 213 ms
13 276 ms 281 ms 111 ms
14 225 ms 113 ms 234 ms
15 236 ms 291 ms 256 ms
16 108 ms 275 ms 274 ms cg-in-f100.google.com []

Trace complete.
____________________________

This is the best I can give you right now for the hardwiring to the Router, and I'm pretty sure I had wireless disabled at the time.

The weird thing is, I remember comparing the results last night with traceroutes, and the hardwiring to the modem and hardwiring to the router were closer; the modem had 11ms, and the router had about 200-300 as you can see. HOWEVER, when I did a traceroute completely wireless, I received pings as high as 1100+ms, and this is what I deal with on a daily basis.

So yeah, I'm starting to see a pattern through these tests and the ones I did last night, which is that the wireless is the only thing having a problem. In that case, wouldn't my laptop be the culprit? I have a Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card installed inside the laptop.

Thanks for your time, I hope you can figure out the problem. =/

[johnwill]

Well, I think I'd go for my standard round of fixes, starting with the router and also the wireless drivers.


Some things you can try here.

1. For wireless connections, change the channel on the router, I like channels 1, 6, and 11 in the US.
2. For wireless connections, try moving either the wireless router/AP or the wireless computer. Even a couple of feet will sometimes make a big difference.
3. Update the firmware to the latest version available on the manufacturer's site.
4. Reset the router to factory defaults and reconfigure.
5. Update the network drivers (wired and wireless) on your computer to the latest available.

Many times these measures will resolve a lot of intermittent issues.

[Ownaholic]

I actually am starting to think that it's Belkin again...And it appears that I'm not the only one. You said right off the bat that you disliked Belkin, another person on a different forum said the same, even my father today said Linksys and D-Link are usually the ones everybody goes with.
I never tried playing this game on this laptop with my old router; so perhaps my old router wasn't as bad as this...

I'm going to do some experiments with my friend...If he comes over and experiences the same problems, then it's the router. If he doesn't, it's my wireless card.
If this is the case, then I'll try returning the router; as I have the box and receipt and it's only been about two weeks.

What type of router would you recommend with my given computer specs and wireless card? (Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card)

[Ownaholic]

Well I figured out the problem...

Turns out, the Belkin Router was the issue the WHOLE TIME. (You were right!)
I exchanged it for a Linksys WRT54GS today, and without even configuring it, it was already faster.

So for the record, DO NOT BUY A BELKIN N-WIRELESS ROUTER IF YOU HAVE A VISTA LAPTOP...and play videogames.

Thank you all a bunch for your help.

[johnwill]

Belkin strikes again.