Router Recommendations? (And possibly a problem I'm having)

[RagingShadow07]

I finished building a PC today out of spare parts (went and got an Athlon II X2 240 from CompUSA to finish it up) and networked my 2 PCs. I basically wanted the one I built for a backup/secondary/file server kind of thing, so I networked them.

Now, networking is pretty much the opposite of something I'm good at, so I'm turning to someone on here for advice:

First up, the problem I may (or may not) have: When I'm transferring bigger files across the network to the other PC, I've noticed that the internet slows to a C R A W L, and sometimes goes out altogether, momentarily. I'm not transferring through the internet, just the network, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Onto the second part, in which I need recommendations: I don't really do a lot of research on new routers, so I'm not sure what all the terms mean, exactly. I'd like something with Wireless N (Not sure if I need dual band or not since I'm not sure what it is) and it's GOT to have Gigabit Ethernet ports. Other than that, I can't think of anything it has to have. Signal strength isn't a big thing, but it needs to be able to not choke up when transferring big files (I'm actually, not sure if that's a router problem). Thanks for the help.

[Olle P]

Originally Posted by RagingShadow07

When I'm transferring bigger files across the network to the other PC, I've noticed that the internet slows to a C R A W L, and sometimes goes out altogether, momentarily. I'm not transferring through the internet, just the network, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

That's the expected behaviour of the Ethernet Protocol, possibly combined with "collisions" inside the computer.

When a unit wants to send a data packet it first checks if the line is free. If it is the data is transmitted immediately. If the line is busy there's an automatic delay a random (short) amount of time before next check to see if the line is free. This is repeated until the data packet is sent.

When you transfer a large file data packets flow almost continuously between the two computers involved. The sending computer sends the file and the receiving computer sends a confirmation of each packet received. This is sufficient to keep the line very busy.
Now you try to squeeze a smaller data stream to/from the Internet through that busy line. The result is that when a new packet arrive to the router and try to get in, it will most likely find the line occupied. So it will wait and check again to find the line still occupied, but now with another packet, and so on.

The least intrusive solution is to have different priority settings for regular file transfer and Internet browsing, which requires a more expensive router (and network cards?).
The cheap and simple solution is to simply not transfer large files while browsing the net.

Cheers
Olle

[RagingShadow07]

Any idea how much more of an expensive router we're talking, here? As in, would I need to get a $200 router or something? This is the router I've been looking at. Since I don't need dual-band (at least, I don't think), it should be perfect (I think).

Secondly, any idea what settings I'd need to change? Networking isn't something I'm knowledgeable with, so I don't know what half the router settings do.

Thanks for the explanation of what's happening, by the way!