# Please Help Me With My Wireless Router (And Explain It Like I'm Five Years Old) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640 "2015-11-15T18:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/1 "2015-11-15T18:54:48Z")
I’m trying to (re-) download a World of Warcraft game client, and I’m getting excruciatingly slow speeds. As in, \< 50 kb/s I read that plugging your ethernet cable directly into your computer improves your speed, but I fear I’m doing something wrong. [Here is my wireless router](http://i66.tinypic.com/2ut6s95.jpg). When I plug the blue cord into my laptop, that should effectively channel all of my internet connection into my laptop, right? So why are my devices (iPhone and such) still picking up a WiFi signal and able to access the internet? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/2 "2015-11-15T19:09:40Z")
Did you turn off the wireless connection from your computer? That is, go to the “wireless” control function on your computer and turn it off. That’s the first thing I’d check, although I can’t guarantee that will fix your problem. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/3 "2015-11-15T19:11:09Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > When I plug the blue cord into my laptop, that should effectively channel all of my internet connection into my laptop, right? So why are my devices (iPhone and such) still picking up a WiFi signal and able to access the internet? Nope. The Internet bandwidth is shared across all interfaces - WiFi, Ethernet, and USB (if you have it). ---
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/4 "2015-11-15T19:24:40Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Nope. > The Internet bandwidth is shared across all interfaces - WiFi, Ethernet, and USB (if you have it). I think the OPs question is, if the cable is no longer plugged into his router, where is the WiFi signal that his phone, etc., is picking up originating from? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/5 "2015-11-15T19:24:41Z")
Check your modem speed to be sure the problem isn’t with the modem or your provider. To do this, bypass the router completely, and plug the ethernet cable that comes out of the modem directly into your computer. Go to [www.speedtest.net](http://www.speedtest.net) and run the test. It will tell you the download speed from your provider. Reconnect the router, and test again to see if the router is the problem. If it is the modem, call your provider and have them send a reset signal (if you lease it from them). If this doesn’t correct the problem, ask your provider to replace the modem . If it is your modem, replace it. If it is the router, go to the manufacturer and see if there is a firmware update. If there is no firmware update, reset the router to factory defaults and test again. If this doesn’t correct the problem, replace the router. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/6 "2015-11-15T19:31:10Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’m trying to (re-) download a World of Warcraft game client, and I’m getting excruciatingly slow speeds. As in, \< 50 kb/s > > I read that plugging your ethernet cable directly into your computer improves your speed, but I fear I’m doing something wrong. > > [Here is my wireless router](http://i66.tinypic.com/2ut6s95.jpg). > > When I plug the blue cord into my laptop, that should effectively channel all of my internet connection into my laptop, right? So why are my devices (iPhone and such) still picking up a WiFi signal and able to access the internet? If this is the router you have: [http://www.dqusa.com/images/simplefilemanager/551ac4135be3e1.06007041/QSG\_M505N\_R3-1\_V1\_7.pdf](http://www.dqusa.com/images/simplefilemanager/551ac4135be3e1.06007041/QSG_M505N_R3-1_V1_7.pdf) It’s both a modem and a router. The white telephone cord is actually how you get your internet. The blue cord just connects your computer to the router directly, bypassing WiFi. Corded ethernet is generally faster than WiFi, but you are still limited by your DSL speed. What you can do, however, is turn off WiFi on the router so that no other devices can share/steal your bandwidth. Or just leave the downloader on overnight. ETA: It works like this: Internet signal comes in through the white telephone cord to your modem/router. The modem/router interprets that signal and then rebroadcasts it over both WiFi and the corded Ethernet slots. In your setup, the modem and router are one unit, so you can’t “channel your whole connection” into your laptop without disabling all the other devices – either by disconnecting them all manually or jsut turning off WiFi in the modem/router config interface. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/7 "2015-11-15T19:56:20Z")
I presume the white cable on your router is power, and the blue cable is the ethernet cable that runs to a cable modem. What you did was unplug the blue cable from the router and plug it into your PC. If that’s true, then what you did is make it so your PC is the only device connected to the internet. However, if the router is still running, it’s still acting as the router for a wireless network. It doesn’t have a working internet connection, but other devices can still connect to it and talk to each other, they just won’t be able to go outside. For example, your phone could still print to a wireless printer through the router. “WiFi” is often used as shorthand for ‘wireless connection to the internet’, but it actually refers to the local wireless network whether or not it’s connected to the internet, and that’s probably what you’ve got running. If there isn’t a modem, then your setup is probably what Reply says. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/8 "2015-11-15T21:06:22Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I presume the white cable on your router is power, and the blue cable is the ethernet cable that runs to a cable modem. > > If there isn’t a modem, then your setup is probably what Reply says. Pretty sure the white cable is a phone cord… it’s too flat to be a power cord. If you look really carefully at the upper left, there’s a black power cord that blends into the background, which fits the PDF’s ports diagram. Plus, there’s a “DSL” light next to the power LED, which a non-modem would not have. Illustration: [![](https://i.imgur.com/nEaCxVz.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/nEaCxVz.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/9 "2015-11-16T00:51:17Z")
Another possibility is that the server you are d-loading ftom has limited bandwith or is heavily used by others’ d-loadings, etc. It might be advantageous in troubleshooting to do a ping test on the server’s IP - especially if the speedtest site shows higher speeds from different servers (you can choose from various servers all over the place, fwiw, with speedtest - highly recommended, IMHO). Long ping times will reduce speed rather noticeably, IME. Just a thought - are other sites loading slowly? Can you watch youtube video or such? If videos play smoothly and without any lengthy buffering, its probably not _your_ equipment, I’d bet. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-with-my-wireless-router-and-explain-it-like-im-five-years-old/737640/10 "2015-11-16T02:00:32Z")
\*When I plug the blue cord into my laptop, that should effectively channel all of my internet connection into my laptop, right? \* No. It just gives your laptop a faster connection to the router/modem than a wireless connection. Your laptop _should_ automatically prefer the wired connection to the wireless connection, but it may not, so as others have suggested, you should check to make sure your laptop is using the wired connection. _So why are my devices (iPhone and such) still picking up a WiFi signal and able to access the internet?_ Connecting the laptop with the cord doesn’t turn off the router’s WiFi - it’s not a one or the other situation - the router gives you both wired and WiFi connections at the same time, all the time. If you have other devices (or neighbors) accessing your WiFi, then the router will share your available bandwidth between the wired and WiFi connections, so you might want to turn off any WiFi connected devices while doing the bandwidth intensive download on the wired connection to the laptop.