My connection seems faster without the router hooked up ???

[Johnny]

I re-aranged my desktop and have the router disconnected. I still have the windows firewall turned on - I did a port test at http://www.grc.com and it came up stealth, by the way - Anyway, My connection seems to be faster without the router hooked up. Can anyone explain this ?? I just find it odd to think that a hardware item like that could cause a slow down in connection speed ..

 

[Brad]

Yes, this can be expected behavior because the router has to inspect the packets in order to forward them in the proper direction.

 

[kcnychief]

You should do bandwidth tests with the router connected and without, that is the real way to gauge effectiveness.

Short of that, you could try another port on the router, flash/upgrade the firmware, etc.

 

[LeeJend]

The router can also slow down traffic if it is a "fancy one" with net nanny, bidirectional firewalls etc built in. If the bandwidth test shows the router is significantly slower then try enabling DMZ and disabling the "baggage functions". If the router is still slower it may just be a second rate brand or design (faster cpu's and memory cost extra money in any device).

A router is not really hardware anymore than your PC is. A router is a cpu, ram, nvm, boot programs and executables. The router has firmware (i.e. software) burnt into flash memory. The more functions in the firmware (or the crappier the coding techniques) the slower it runs.

There are actually after market firmwares offered for some routers to add features or correct bugs.