Preferred Price went up, downstream speed still same

What modem/router or gateway do you have?  Are you testing over WiFi or a wired connection?  An older DOCSIS 2 model will significantly limit your speed as will an older "g" router.  Let's start by telling us what hardware you are using.

Hi ExGreyFox,

Can you provide us with a little more detail? Are you getting these speeds hardwired to the modem or wireless? If wireless, have you tried connecting directly to the modem to see if there is any improvement? Are you noticing the slower speeds during a certain time of the day?

Thanks for getting back to me guys. My test was done through a wired connection from a Linksys WRT54GL router and then through a Dell PowerConnect 2816 Ethernet switch and into my PC.  Also my COX modem model # is  DSA301U. For the record my PC is the only device connected to the ethernet switch as well as no other wireless devices connected to the router. So my PC being the only device connected to my modem, there is nothing else eating up bandwidth. Technically I should now be getting 50 Mbps downstream should I not? 

I would try connecting directly to the DSA301U, AKA DPC3010, and doing a speedtest then. The WRT54GL is pretty long in the tooth, so is probably bottle necking your connection.

PS. Just out of curiosity, why do you have such a large 300$ switch but a smaller cheaper router? Do you do alot of networking inside your house?

Yep, connected my PC straight to the modem and I'm cursing at 50Mbps. So how would I go about figuring out what the theoretical maximum bandwidth of the WRT54GL is from  its specification? Also, If I were to upgrade to this router would this let my wired connection  cruise at 50Mbps? http://www.linksys.com/en-eu/products/routers/WRT1900AC

ExGreyFox said:
So how would I go about figuring out what the theoretical maximum bandwidth of the WRT54G

Alot of it will depend on  the firmware, but about 35Mbps seems about average for that model.

ExGreyFox said:
If I were to upgrade to this router would this let my wired connection  cruise at 50Mbps? http://www.linksys.com/en-eu/products/routers/WRT1900AC

It would definitely remove the router as the bottleneck, but thats a very expensive router and doesn't have full dd-WRT support. If you have that kind of money take a look at the RT-AC66U 

Thank you tons for your help Health Edge.

DD-WRT support is only if I want to use third party firmware correct?

I read around the forums and theoretically my old Linksys can do around 54Mbps per port but that is only a theoretical value that is only true in a perfect environment. I see that the WRT1900AC has 4 wired Gigabit ports that are supposed to do 1000 Mbps where as my older model is 10/100 at 100Mbps. So that being said, is it the hardware of my older model that is keeping it from delivering 50Mbps down the cable for me? And if I were to switch to the WRT1900AC am I guaranteed to be up near 50Mbps? I am kind of dead set on that WRT1900AC. I've been using my old WRT54GL since mid 2000's and it has not failed me. That's part of the reason why I want to stick with that line. 

+1 on Health Edge's recommendation of an ASUS router.  Depending on when it was made, Linksys was independent or owned by Cisco.  Cisco bought Linksys in 2003.  Now Linksys is owned by Belkin, they bought it from Cisco in March 2013.  So you are not getting the legacy Linksys, not even the same company who made your WRT54GL.  Read the reviews on sites like newegg, mixed at very best.  There are other routers in that price range, keep an open mind.  The biggest complaint I have seen is the difficulty in setting up the Linksys.  Reviews say it's not for a network novice.

I think you answered the 1st question for yourself ... if you are getting 50Mbps bypassing the old router, the router is your bpottleneck.  There are no guaranties in this business but yes, if everything is setup correctly the WRT1900AC should be capable of delivering much more than 50Mbps.

Thanks sir. 

Here are examples of the user interface, what you see and use to configure the router, looks and functions.

WRT1900AC emulator 
RT-AC3200 emulator

Wow this is really useful! Thank you HE! 

Yeah with my current router I'm getting anywhere between 15-25 Mbps. Also forgot to mention that I've got 30 ft of CAT 5  between my PC and the Dell ethernet switch and another 5 or so ft between the switch and my PC. But going straight from the router to the PC and bypassing the switch yields the same speed as when I have the switch and 5 extra ft of cat 5 in place. I know I'm definitely getting a good chunk of attenuation on of my bandwidth from that 30ft CAT 5 insertion loss for sure.