DIR-655 or PC as router

M

MustRotate

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
227
Hello folks.
Small networking issue: 20MBps connection,3clients.Router in case is a Linksys WRT54GL with DD-WRT v23 on it. Big problem: it limits the bandwidth for client at 4MBps(wired).
What router should I buy that removes the bandwidth limitation?
D-Link DIR655? Basically I need a real good wired router.
Would a second hand desktop PC(Dell Gx260:p4 2.2GHz,256MB ram and so on) be better for the task of routing?
I am thinking on that versus(DIR655 vs PC) because the PC would be cheaper.
To sum it up.I need:
-router with no bandwidth limitation(or above the 20MBps)
-should if possible have the option to limit bandwidth per IP/MAC/port e.g:2premium clients,1low bandwidth
-should be able to handle massive(150+) torrents from max 2clients
Very big thanks in advance for any advice.
 
The speed issue is probably related to the number of torrents being downloaded. A lot of consumer routers with stock firmware just cant handle that many connections effectively. For that reason, a PFsense box on an older PC could be a better option.

However, DD-WRT usually does a decent job with a lot of torrents so I doubt that the torrents are slowing you down on the WRT54GL. Have you tested to see if its only when torrents are going?
 
As the others pointed out, definitely something funky there. The WRT54GL is not the most powerful thing out there, but capable of well above 4 megs down.
 
Yes Torrents can crush a home grade router...but flashing with DD-WRT or Tomato only "marginally" help.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30437/55/

As seen on the conclusion chart on the last page of the review..DD-WRT only increases max simultaneous connections from 48 to 60.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30437/55/1/2/

Tests didn't show an appreciable speed increase either.

Those numbers pale on comparison to more current generation routers that can at least take simultaneous connections up into the hundreds.

And certainly not a grain of sand in the bucket compared to something more potent like a *nix router distro like PFSense...where you can start at 10,000.
 
Reasons why I think the router is the limiter:
-before and after speeds
-when trying to open the routers page I get very long wait times until the page loads(with the torrent client open)
-also when starting multiple very large torrents the speed goes up and down(e.g:1.5MBps to 0,when at 0 also no upload speed on any of the completed torrents)-single large torrents are fine,just when starting multiple the issue occurs
Is there a router that would better suit me(no wireless)?
Is the DIR-655 better than a PC(smaller power usage,lower implementation time but also lower routing capability)?
What software should I install on a PC? Is M0n0 ok?
 
IPCop/Smoothwall/Endian/m0n0wall/PFSense are all good ones to use.

I would stick with IPCop/Smoothwall/Endian as a first time user as I think they are the easiest to setup for a first time *nix router/firewall user.

Power usage is not a huge concern, most older PCs will not draw much power at all. My P3 800mhz Endian box with a 250w PSU draws about 20w.
 
Is there a possibility that with the DIR-655 I would reach its limits in routing the same like with the WRT54GL? Isnt there a cheaper,better version of the 655 and without the wireless part?
 
MustRotate said:
Is there a possibility that with the DIR-655 I would reach its limits in routing the same like with the WRT54GL? Isnt there a cheaper,better version of the 655 and without the wireless part?
Click to expand...

Yes...if your internet connection is faster than 257 megs...or your run stuff at home that taxes is beyond 200 concurrent connections.

They do have cheaper models, without wireless, but not better. "cheaper" and "better" often don't go in the same sentence. DLink makes 2x higher models which are faster than it though, but they're wireless also.
 
@YeOldeStonecat: I popped out the statistics window for utorrent and it shows 165connections.
 
I use PFsense, but I want to try Endian next.

Only complaints about PF sense:
1.)Will not resolve my website/domain. It puts me right to my PFsense log in page. The address resolves to internal resources.
2.) Ever since I upgraded to the latest version using the update function in PFsense, it has issues with port forwarding and traffic shaping rules.
 
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