I had one computer hooked up to a cable modem. The speed is lightning fast, which made me very happy. I recently got a laptop from work to bring home. I wanted to be able to share my internet connection and files. So I purchased a Belkin 4 port Router. I understand that when I hook the 2 computers to the router I would be sharing the internet speed between the 2 computers, if I try to access the internet at the same time. My question is if I power down or unplug one computer should I have the max speed provided by the cable modem? The reason I ask is because sometimes when one computer is unplugged my other computer goes extremely slow on the internet. I have to unplug it from the router and plug it directly to the cable modem, then it goes to lightning speeds. Does anyone know why the router would be taking away speed, if only one computer is on the net? One computer is Win XP Pro the other is Win Y2K Pro. Thank you, Please help, Me

Yes, you -should- have the maximum speed provided by the cable modem. There could be a lot of reason why the router would be slowing down the connection. It depends on how the network is set up though. When both computers are on, but you are only using one, do you get the max transfer rate? Also, are you using DHCP? What about NAT? Anything else?

When both are hooked up I do get good speed. Which is strange. I am not using a DHCP or NAT. All I have is what the cable company configured.