The IT Nerd

Now that I have Rogers Ignite Gigabit Internet in my home after having issues when I first got it, which required significant help from Rogers to get it working, I was reasonably happy.  Now, this is what I was getting from the Rogers supplied modem in terms of speed when plugged into the modem via Ethernet (which is always how you should test how fast your speed is):

The thing is, I run the Rogers modem in “bridge mode” which means that I disable it’s ability to act as a router and simply have it be a modem to my actual router which in my case is a Linksys Max Stream AC5400. And I wasn’t getting anywhere near this speed from the router. Before I get into what I had to do to fix that, let me stop here for a second and talk about how I got my Rogers modem (a Hitron CGNM-3552-ROG for the record) into “bridge mode”. The reason why I am not using the Rogers supplied modem to provide all Internet functions (meaning WiFi and home networking functions) for my condo is that I have my network setup perfectly and I didn’t want to change it. Another reason for doing this is that it makes my home network very secure. You see, Rogers can access the modem remotely for troubleshooting purposes (and only with your permission I might add). With this set up, they can only see your modem and they can’t see what’s beyond it which makes your home network very secure. Now let me be clear. I am not implying or saying that Rogers would ever do something nefarious. What I am saying is that I like my network to be secure as possible from everybody. That includes whomever provides my Internet services. In either case, it was in my best interests to run the supplied modem as just a modem rather than use it as router. Here’s how I did it: 

1. Plug in a laptop via Ethernet and set the Ethernet card to the IP address of 192.168.0.2.
2. Using the web browser of your choice, login to the router using the IP address of 192.168.0.1. The username is cusadmin and the password is the very secure password.
3. Click Basic at the top of the page. 
4. Set Residential Gateway function to Disabled 
5. At some point you’ll be prompted to reboot the modem. Do so.
6. Connect your router. Log into it and set it to use DHCP on the Internet or WAN port.

If you ever need to get to these settings inside the modem, simply use the browser of your choice to navigate to the IP address of 192.168.100.1 and log in using the credentials that I mentioned above. You do not need to connect directly to the modem to do this.

Now that’s it’s in bridge mode, let me talk about why you need to optimize your router to leverage gigabit Internet. The truth is, that most routers are not set up out of the box to leverage this sort of speed. So you’re likely leaving some speed on the table. In my case, I was getting maybe 400 Mbps via the Linksys router. That was pretty bad given that the Rogers Modem was putting out twice that speed. In the case of Linksys, you need to so several things to get your modem and router to play nice:

1. Log into your Linksys Router using the Linksys Smart WiFi webpage.
2. Turn Off Media Prioritization.
3. Go to Connectivity and then Internet Settings.
4. Click IPv6 and then Edit.
5. Ensure that IPv6 – Automatic is set to Disabled unless your ISP specifically requires it. Most do not require this setting to be on.

Please note that when you do step number 5, the router will reboot.

Now after doing all this tweaking, here’s the speed that I get from the Linksys AC5400 router when plugged into Ethernet:

Now that’s very close to what I was getting from the Rogers modem. Mission accomplished!

Now what I described should work for any Linksys router that uses Linksys Smart WiFi for configuration. Now if you don’t have a Linksys router, you can try enabling an option called Jumbo Frames as that will help to speed up the connection from the modem to the router. Linksys routers for whatever reasons either don’t support this feature or have it hidden someplace. I am not sure which but I suspect the former. However other routers do have this option buried someplace that if you dig around long enough, you’ll find it.

Do you have any other tips to optimize your router for Gigabit Internet? If so, please leave a comment and share your wisdom.

On Saturday, I was on The Greg Carrasco Show on Toronto’s AM640AM640 to talk about the Chrysler Pacifica. It was a very spirited discussion about this particular minivan and why you should put it on your shopping list. If you missed the show, here’s a link to the show. I was on the show in the first hour and a bit.

As an aside, I’ll be back on in a couple of weeks to talk about our Hyundai Tucson now that it’s a year old. Stay tuned for that!

And here’s the review of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Limited In case you missed it: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5