router boosts bandwidth, why?

[jakegday]

i have both cable and dsl high speed internet, i started with just cable, but right now i am taking advantage of a free dsl trial, both the cable and dsl speeds are "up to 7mbps" both of them, what ive been doing is trying both of them back and forth, different times of day, different websites, different bandwidth meters, what ive come up with is this,
with the cable modem hooked directly up to the comptuer, i can get about a 1.6-1.9mb connetion, it varies, with the dsl, i get a solid 2.6mb connection 24 hrs a day, no matter what, now when i go to use my router, i hook the router up to my dsl modem, and my comptuer up to the router, still, 2.6mb connection, but when i hooked my router up to my cable modem, and my computer up the router, i get a 6-7mb connection, which is more then twice as fast as ive ever gotten, it only does it with the cable modem and the router together, im basically just wondering WHY???

the cable modem is a toshiba pcx2200
the dsl modem is an actiontec gt701-wg
the cable providor is time warner cable, qwest for the dsl
the router is a linksys wrt54g,
the computer is an emahcines something or other, pentium 4 3.06ghz, 1gb ram, 160gb hd, windows xp media center edition

if you need anything else to help solve this mystery, just let me know, im VERY interested in figuring this out

 

[straightv6]

What are your NIC settings? 10/half 10/full 100/half 100/full...

 

[jakegday]

i dont know, how do i find this out?

 

[jakegday]

anyone? any ideas?

 

[straightv6]

Network connections
-Properties
-Configure
-Advanced Tab

You should be able to find it under one of the menus there.

 

[jakegday]

well im in my network connections tab, i dont see "properties" anywhere, but my "local area connection 3" is connected at 100mbps

 

[jakegday]

anyone?

 

[mikesgroovin]

Speed tests offer little to no detail....maybe enough to impress your friends or actually raise an eyebrow. Other than that....they are worthless.
Try running a tweak test that runs more of an analysis of your line rather than.... how fast can I upload/download. Its most likely something on the OS side that you can fix in the registry in order for the "Without router scenario" to work more efficiently.

 

[jakegday]

ive done more then just a couple bandwidth meter tests, there actually is a difference in download speed, without the router i can download a video from a website at about 250/kbs with the router at that same site, same time of day (just 2 minutes later) it downloads at about 600-650kbs
every tweak test i come across is a program you have to download, and pay for it to actually do something

 

[veg1992]

i thought it does, because it shares bandwidth btw each person using the router's internet