In addition to what VivienM is indicating, knowing exactly what your devices can handle for data rates, you also need to know what your wifi environment is like. The only way to determine that is to load a wifi monitoring program such as inSSIDer. If you load this on a wireless laptop, that application will allow you to see where your network sits among all of the other routers nearby. When the columns are sorted by received power, by selecting the top column titles, you should see your network sitting at the top of the network listings. If it’s not, or if there is only maybe 10 dBm difference or less, between your network and the next one down the list, you will have potential receive problems with your wifi. There is also the issue of overlapping channels which you can see on the graphical display. If there is another router running nearby, overlapping your router channel with power levels that are close to yours, that will also present problems. If this is clear as mud and you need help sorting out what the application is telling you, post a screenshot somewhere if you can so that I can have a look at it and let you know what might help, if anything. Here’s the link to the last freebie version of the program which can display 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks, including a,b,g and n. Note that it can’t properly show 802.11 ac networks which run in the 5 Ghz region. A newer version is out which does that, and it is now a pay version:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html
Here are some additional notes to consider. I'm not sure if you are only using the CGN3 for router duties, but if you are there are a few things that you need to know and take into consideration.
There are two firmware versions for the CGN3 that might be in play here. V4.2.4.3 which might be loaded on a CGN3 if you just picked up from the Rogers store, and the recently released 4.2.4.5.
V4.2.4.3 has a firmware bug that throttles back any connected 10/100 Mb/s device or Fast Ethernet cable (100 Mb/s max) down to 35 Mb/s, no matter what your plan might be. If you look at the back of the CGN3 the connected port LED will either be amber which indicates that the port is running at 1 Gb/s, or green, indicating that its running at 100 Mb/s max. Those are the connected rates with the other device. If the LED is amber, there will not be any throttling occurring. If the port LED is green, the actual download data rate will be no higher than 35 Mb/s, despite the fact that the port itself is running at 100 Mb/s. The throttling is up beyond the port, and can’t be detected at the port level.
V4.2.4.5 which was recently released corrects the throttling problem so that a 100 Mb/s device will max out at 100 Mb/s. If you have a 60/10 plan for example, you should see in the neighborhood of 95 Mb/s as a peak download rate on a speedtest. If the CGN3s that you have are running on the previous version firmware, they should be updated very soon.
If you connect a follow on router, and then a pc after that and only end up with 100 Mb/s as a connected download rate at the pc, that indicates that either the router or pc has a 10/100 Mb/s port, or that one of the connecting Ethernet cables is only running at 100 Mb/s max. Possibly the cable is damaged or its not connecting properly at either port. Note that there will also be LEDs on the router which can be used to determine the data rates. The CGN3 is backwards from the industry standard, so, on a CGN3 to router connection running at 1 Gb/s you would see an amber LED on the CGN3 and green LED on the router. You can use the same idea to check the interconnect rate between the router and connected devices.
The maximum data rate that you will see on a wireless test from the CGN3 on a 5 Ghz network is around 200 Mb/s. The maximum on a 2.4 Ghz network is somewhere around 100 Mb/s. As I didn't use the 2.4 Ghz network on the CGN3, thats the result of a quick test. Note that the results on the 2.4 Ghz network is very dependent on the capability of the device that you are testing with and whether or not it can use channel bonding to run a 40 Mhz wide channel instead of a 20 Mhz channel. If you run a number of devices on the 2.4 Ghz network, be aware that the CGN3 is not certified to run mixed 20 Mhz / 40 Mhz wide networks. If you are running a dual antenna laptop which supports 40 Mhz wide channels and connecting at 300 Mb/s, you can expect something like 100 mb/s on a 2.4 Ghz network. If you connect another device to the network that only supports a 20 Mhz wide channel, the CGN3 will drop the connection bandwidth to 20 Mhz for all devices on the network, dropping the connection rate from 300 Mb/s to 144.4 Mb/s. Your data rate will probably drop down to something like 50 to 60 Mb/s. Most but not all routers are certified these days to run mixed 20 Mhz / 40 Mhz networks and will switch back and forth for the devices as required. The CGN3 will not switch, instead locking down to the slowest device on the network. So, if you are expecting higher data rates, you need to look at all of the devices that are running on the network and dig into the specs to understand just how fast they can really run. That is why VivienM is asking for a detailed list of the devices, to look at the specs in detail.
If you are using a third party router, just to prove that it is connected properly and that there are no issues with the cabling, run a speedtest with the CGN3 in Gateway mode and pc connected to the CGN3. Then reconfigure, with the CGN3 in Bridge mode, connected to the router, connected to the PC. You should see the same connected data rate at the pc in both cases. Once you are at that point, and you know that the network is running as fast as it should be via wired connections, you can then start testing with wireless devices. If you see less that optimal results, or less than you expect, at that point it is time to determine exactly what each device is capable of running at and if necessary, test each device individually, ensuring that there is no other wireless device powered and running on the network. At some point, without reading through all of the specs you would determine which device is causing slow network performance.
Your signal, while a little high.. shouldnt be your issue on the speed.
Those download speeds.. are on WIRED? (not wireless?)
And how/where are you are you doing the speedtest?
@roxyberian, it looks like you might have a problem with an Ethernet cable, or, you are using a Fast Ethernet cable which only allows 100 Mb/s max. The term “Fast Ethernet” may have been applicable a few years ago, but now, its just run of the mill, personal opinion. In any event, the +190 Mb/s speeds that you saw when you connected directly to the CGN3 should also be seen when you connect CGN3 to RT-AC68U to pc. If you don’t see that +190 Mb/s, you have some type of cabling issue. You might want to consider buying a couple of Cat-6 ethernet cables and replacing the cables that you are currently using. If you look at the back of the CGN3, the connected port LED should be amber if it is connecting at 1 Gb/s, and green if its connecting at 100mb/s. If it is amber, then the port is running at 1 Gb/s with the other connected port and you will be getting +190 Mb/s into the AC68U. If its green, the most that you would see going into the router is 100 Mb/s. That would slow down all data transfer into and out of the AC68U. If the CGN3 port is amber, and you only see less than 100 Mb/s at the pc, which is connecting through the AC68U, then the Ethernet cable between the AC68U and pc is slowing down the data transfer between the AC68U and the pc and you should replace that cable with a new CAT6 cable. The fact that you can get +190 mb/s on a direct connection to the CGN3 means that one of those cables is ok. It should be a small matter of sorting out the issue with the other cable.
Are you running a 2.4 or a 5 Ghz network? That will make a huge difference, depending on the level of interference caused by neighboring wireless routers. I run the same AC68U on a 5 Ghz network, with a 250/20 service and I see 330/22 Mb/s for max speeds on wired speedtests through the AC68U and also see +300 / 21 Mb/s on a wireless speedtest. That wireless test was run from from the second floor, with the AC68U located on the main floor of our home. If I ran the test with the laptop located closer to the AC68U, i'd probably see the same 330/22 Mb/s. Note that the wireless results will really depend on the wireless adapter in the laptop.
You should be seeing much higher wireless results, but I would need to know the wireless adapter model number to determine what it can run at and whether you are running a 2.4 or 5 Ghz network. Can you provide the exact model of the laptop, and drill down to the Control Panel…..Device manager….Network Adapters and copy the model numbers of the Ethernet and wireless adapter and paste them into this thread. With those model numbers it should be easy to look up the data rates permitted by both the Ethernet and wireless adapters.
If you post the toshiba model, we can maybe take a look at what it has in it.. if it may be the limiting factor.
@lethalsniper, just advise the tech that you are seeing the same results for speedtests, no matter what level of service you are on, 150/15 or 250/20. It might be a matter of the physical installation which is capping the results. You have a higher signal level, with decent signal to noise ratios. But, the signal to noise ratios are relative. If you get the same ratio as your signal power is increasing, that is telling you that the noise levels is also increasing, so, somewhere in the building the cable is in a noisy environment. If the cabling is running through a confined area, with all of the other cables, those cables could be subjected to cross-talk from other cables. Your cable is carrying the signal that you want, all of the other cables which might be travelling alongside your cable is subjecting it to noise, which is someone elses cable signals. The cables are shielded with layers of aluminum foil and braiding, but, even that is only effective to a point. As I indicated earlier, apartments are a challange, and that might be one reason why. You might just be at the limit of performance of the building cable system. If the tech can't do anything to improve the situation, you are going to have to be satisfied with the status quo.
I run both networks without any problems. Are you connecting the laptop via the 2.4 or 5 Ghz network? Note that the networks should have distinct names so that you know exactly which network you are connecting to. If you use the same name, there is a possibility that both networks will not be presented in the networks available list, and with just a single name present, the device may connect to the wrong network. Ideally it would choose the best network that is available and roam between the two as required, but I think that the vast majority of devices will not do that.
With the laptop running and connected via wireless, can you navigate to Control Panel......Device Manager.....Network Adapters and copy the name or title for the Wireless Network Adapter. It should read something like "Qualcom Atheros ARxxxxxxx Wireless Network Adapter". The specs only give a generic model "Atheros 802.11 b/g/n Wireless Lan + Bluetooth. There are numerous Atheros Wireless Adapters, so what is included in the spec doesn't say very much. The only question at this point is whether or not it supports 5 Ghz networks.
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