Wireless Router (Is this normal?)
 

I currently live in a rural area and get my internet access through DirectTV. Earlier this morning I hooked up a NetGear wireless router and noticed an immediate increase in the speed of my internet browsing (pages loaded faster, stuff downloads faster, etc.).

Is this normal? If not, is there anything I can do to keep it moving faster? I kinda like it this way.

That is weird. If anything, people experience the opposite of that!
One thing that comes to mind is that sometimes modems have connection problems and to fix it you just reset the connection - ie, unplug/replug the power to the modem. Maybe this happened when you plugged in your router?

Yeah, I don't understand what is going on. Maybe you're right; that unplugging the modem was the cause of all this awesomeness?

Maybe when installing it changed some setting(s) in the registry that improved things.