Need

Even without using wireless, OP will have to upgrade his old router because it has a LAN speed of 100Mbps max.

garykung

I did not realize WRT120N does not have gigabit ethernet. However, unless OP is data heavy, still there may be no point upgrading.

BigLar

When Spectrum upgraded their internet speed to 100 mbps a couple of years ago, I found the WRT120N and for some reason I thought it had gigabit ports. My experience with other "fast" ethernet connections (nominally 100 mbps) was that they never really could deliver their full rated speed. When I installed the WRT120, I could get speeds up to and sometimes exceeding the rated speed, which told me that the ports were pretty quick. Not sure why I assumed from that they were gigabit.

Also, I've seen wireless speed up to 150 mbps from that router, so I was pretty sure.

Actual tests with >100 mbps coming in (verified with direct connection to the modem) showed I was apparently mistake. Same test with the TP-Link showed a speed of over 200 and they are labelled as gigabit.

Yes, my current setup is adequate for my needs, but what the heck - they upgraded at no additional cost, so why not?

garykung

I would at least wait until WRT120N shows signs of decaying first, given its age.

gfunkdave

I'm not sure what you're saying. If you've plugged two devices into the router then you should get very close to line speed (1 Gbps) between them. If you're talking about wifi speeds to the internet, then of course you're going to be limited by the speed tier you pay for and the limits of wifi, which are myriad. Any quoted wifi speeds from the router manufacturer are theoretical max in a lab, not real world.

BigLar

The only devices I have plugged into the router are :

1. A printer that's sitting right next to it
2. A line to my daughter's bedroom (where her laptop is)
3. A line to my 24-port gigabit switch

All devices in the office are connected to each other via the switch, and I get very good speeds device-to-device (doesn't need the router). The RAID server is on an air-gapped gigabit switch which doesn't connect to the router, either. So, in general, the speed of the router ports is essentially irrelevant, except for internet download speeds.

And, no, I've never gotten anywhere near the theoretical speeds from any wi-fi setup I've where used it (work, coffee shop, etc.) I think I've used it a couple of times at home but I didn't pay much attention. The speed I'm talking about is the reported speed from the computer. For most of the (older) laptops, it shows up as 56 mbps. On some of the newer machines it may show up as 75 mbps or even (IIRC) 150 mmps. Of course, I've never actually had that kind of speed but, as (you?) noted above, massive data transfers are not in my normal MO, so who cares?

And, yeah - it's still chugging along nicely, so no real need to upgrade it; besides, there are a lot of settings I have to make (DHCP range, DNS IP, etc.) so I'm studying the manual for a bit. It also has a couple of USB ports and other capabilities that I probably don't need/use, but gotta make sure anyhow.

Besides, these days, "there's always tomorrow".

BigLar

Well, the router came equipped with DD-WRT firmware, so the OEM manual was pretty useless.

Test setup using one laptop to the router showed download speed >200 mbps, so that part of it is working fine. I'm not geeky enough to start tweaking the various settings, but I did find a couple of websites to walk me through most of what I have to do. I'm a little worried about IP clashes with my printers and the DHCP server in the router, but I'll address that when/if it arises. Also have to see how the USB ports get connected, for a NAS attachment.

Onward and upward! Beats sitting around watching re-runs of old TV shows I've missed.

gfunkdave

If your printers have static addresses, either set their addresses outside the DHCP pool or set the router's DHCP server to always give the printers the correct address.

BigLar

Well, sure. That's the first thing I tried to do. For some reason, the pages I see display what's there - they do not accept changes - i.e., you type stuff but it doesn't get accepted.

I'm sure there's a work around, but for now, everything is working; modem to router to switch to laptop, and 225 mbps download speed. Some of the other laptops aren't so good - maybe their "gigabit" is just advertising fluff, I dunno. At any rate, I'm no worse off than I was, and in some cases lots better, so I guess I'll just chip away at it as time permits.

"There's always tomorrow" (my new covid mantra )

TGarza

We have had no IP conflicts since discontinuing uVerse TV after moving all TV to streaming services. The uVerse wired Cisco box frequently grabbed an IP and would not release/renew the IP even following the reset instructions. We typically have 23 wireless devices connecting including garage door opener, video bell, cell phones, tablets, laptops etc with no IP conflicts. The only network anomaly is 1 of the 3 Roku devices connects using 2.4ghz instead of 5ghz. The device regardless of the distance to the WiFi router or mesh point prefers the 2.4ghz connection.

AT&T provides an easy to use app to identify the connected devices, IP and link rates. I used the app to identify the Cisco device with the IP conflict.