High Speed Internet Can Your Router Keep Up Anymore In the area I live, Charter Communications is the cable Internet provider. KV5CyiCuI/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Speed Up Your Internet Connection' title='Speed Up Your Internet Connection' />At the beginning of the year, Charter publicized an increase in standard residential service bandwidth from 3. Mbps with no increase in price. That was very cool. Then sometime in the summer, they quietly increased the residential bandwidth to 1. Mbps Again, very cool. Just a few years ago 1. Mbps was an expensive option reserved only for businesses that were willing to shell out for it. Now it is standard speed for home cable Internet users. Speaking of businesses, Charter has also increased their business Internet offerings to include 1. Mbps options. Thats some fast InternetBroadband Speed Guide. Read our guide to broadband speeds to develop your understanding to ensure you are getting what you are paying for from your internet provider. Internet access is ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, mobile devices and to access services. Test your Internet Connection Speed with our Internet Speed Test tool. Determine whether your high speed internet service provider is providing the bandwidth you are. Test your Internet connection bandwidth to locations around the world with this interactive broadband speed test from Ookla. TCP.Optimizer.png' alt='Speed Up Your Internet Connection' title='Speed Up Your Internet Connection' />However, what Ive discovered is that many routers in use today can not keep up with these higher speeds. There are two main bottlenecks to be aware of. As most residential and small business routers include wireless networking, that is the first bottleneck Ill talk about. Many wireless routers still in operation only support a maximum wireless bandwidth of 5. Mbps. That bandwidth decreases as you get further away from the router, so it should be obvious that routers like these will severely hamper wireless users from utilizing their full bandwidth if they are Charter subscribers. It would seem the simple answer would be to buy a newer wireless router that supports higher bandwidths. While that answer is true, this brings up the second bottleneck. Many routers being sold today only support 1. Mbps on their wired Ethernet ports. Since wireless routers must connect to a cable modem through a wired port, the throughput of the wired port can become another bottleneck. For residential users, 1. Fps Creator Full Version Windows 7 here. Mbps wired Ethernet ports were more than adequate in the beginning of the year when speeds topped out at 3. Mbps or even later in the year at 6. Mbps. Even most business users were probably well served by a router with 1. Mbps Ethernet. But now with 1. Mbps becoming the baseline for Internet speed, it isnt enough to buy a router that only has 1. Mbps wired Ethernet ports. It is also important to note that whatever speed a port is rated at, it is a theoretical maximum. So even if you have a router with 1. Mbps ports, most likely you will only see around 9. Mbps of real world throughput. One confusing issue for would be router purchasers is that many wireless routers with 1. Mbps Ethernet ports may support faster wireless speeds. So, for example, a router may be advertised as supporting 3. Mbps wireless speeds. However, if its wired ports are only 1. Mbps Ethernet, then the 3. Mbps will throttle down to the 1. Mbps on the wired port to the Internet. Which as I mentioned above, would likely max out at around 9. Mbps in real world bandwidth. Dosbox Error This Program Requires Microsoft Windows here. The other confusing aspect is that 1. Mbps Ethernet is called Fast Ethernet. It would seem that fast would be adequate, rightOf course, as Ive described so far, 1. Mbps is no longer truly fast. The next step up from 1. Mbps Ethernet is 1. Mbps Ethernet, also known more commonly as gigabit Ethernet. This is what users should look for when buying a router to support the new generation of high speed Internet services. Specifically, buyers should make sure that the Internet or WAN port supports gigabit speeds, however it is rare anymore to see a router that supports gigabit on the other ports but not the Internet port. Additionally, I recommend wireless routers that support simultaneous dual band wireless frequencies. This allows the router to simultaneously support older devices that can only use the legacy 2. Ghz Wi Fi band while also allowing newer devices to take full advantage of the more recent 5. Ghz Wi Fi band. Newer wireless routers can support wireless throughputs of up to 4. Mbps, which when combined with a gigabit Ethernet port to the Internet, should allow use of all the bandwidth provided by todays high speed cable Internet service, even up to 2. Mbps. If you have questions about your Internet speed or the best router to purchase for your needs, please feel free to use my new Question Answer section of my web site. I have recently replaced many of my clients routers and the speed difference has been significant.