Any way to test the maximum port speed?

I have a Linksys x200 router. It has three Ethernet ports which are 10/100mb not gigabit.

Now if i have fttc 80mb i would like to know what is the maximum speed of the ports on the router, because i know the 10/100mb is theoretical.

I just want to know if my router will be able to give the maximum speed or will i need to get a new one.

Thanks

I presume what you really want to test is the speed at which the router can move data from its Ethernet WAN port to any one of the four switch ports?

Rather than moving data between two PC's connected to the LAN switch.

iPerf software is one way to test, another would be to find a review of the router where someone has tested the LAN throughput.

Personally I'd be very surprised if a router with just 10/100 LAN ports also was able to router traffic at around 80 Meg.. Not impossible, but usually routers with 80 Meg and above routing capability tend to have gigabit ethernet LAN switch ports

The 2wire 2700/2701 family actually work at 100Mb - various tests over time have shown 95Mbps and above.

I wanted to see if i had 80mb would my router be able to give me full speed that i can get.

So if the WAN port for the modem can receive the full speed, and if the ethernet port can give the full speed to the connected pc.

That iperf looks very confusing.

In reply to a post by Corbula:

I just want to know if my router will be able to give the maximum speed or will i need to get a new one.

Your question is if it can move data at 100megabit/sec from the WAN side to the LAN side. This is the routing function. Generally it depends on the CPU of the router as it has to process every packet and translate (NAT) the IP headers; and much more if you have firewall rules set up.

The 100megabit switch ports should be easily able to do the full 100megabit assuming the computers attached can send/receive at that speed as there is no real CPU involvement.

In reply to a post by Corbula:

I wanted to see if i had 80mb would my router be able to give me full speed that i can get.

So if the WAN port for the modem can receive the full speed, and if the ethernet port can give the full speed to the connected pc.

One way you could do this (depending on ISP) is connect your PC directly to the OpenReach VDSL modem with ethernet and set up a PPPoE connection with your username and password. (turn on a firewall in your operating system too!).

Then run a speedtest using as many sites as you can find.

Then reconnect your router, and get rid of the PPPoE settings in your operating system, and repeat the speed tests. See if the numbers match.

Oh, just to be clear i don't have fttc at the moment. I'm only on adsl 8mb.

In reply to a post by Corbula:

Oh, just to be clear i don't have fttc at the moment. I'm only on adsl 8mb.

Then if you have two fairly quick PCs you could set up a test where one PC is running an FTP or web server and you connect it to the WAN port on the router, and the other PC is connected to the LAN port and you time how long it takes to transfer a large file (say 1 gigabyte).

I have one PC, one old laptop and a netbook.

On 100Mbps ethernet you can easily get 80Mbps.

I have the sky provided router and it gets 97Mbps via ethernet doing transfers pc to pc. That's a 100Mbps ethernet.

& my fibre 80Mbps connection goes at full 80Mbps which amounts to around 9MB/s on a download

I even get full speeds using wireless and a macbook pro. My Wifi isn't full 300Mbps it's only 150Mbps (well 144).
So you should easily be ok!

That being said the Homehub (assuming BT) would also be fine! So don't worry. Homehub should also be ok via wifi under the right conditions and a wireless N wifi card that connects at around 150Mbps +

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 25-Aug-12 23:47:11)