Difference in performance between Airport Extreme and R8500

[wombat2k]

Up to now, I was using an Airport Extreme (the tower version) in AP mode. My AP sits downstairs and my main machine, a Macbook Air, is upstairs. I spent some time moving the AP around and finally found a spot near the ceiling and I went from speeds of under 100mbps to 440mbps. Needless to say I was happy.

Unfortunately I started getting stability issues. My iPhone would constantly lose its connection. My iPad would do so occasionally as well. I started noticing connection issues with Mail and Hipchat on my Macbook Air as well, but using iperf I would consistently get 440mbps.

I was annoyed enough to go out and take advantage of a deal on a Netgear R8500. Set it as an AP and in the same location as the Airport and right away, I could see a difference. Using Wifi Explorer, I can see that the signal is definitely stronger and less bouncy. My iOS devices are very stable now. Same as my Macbook Air. However, the one thing I noticed is that I'm no longer able to get the same top speeds. I manage to get about 380mbps consistently. Mind you, at this point we're splitting hairs and I should just be happy with a more stable connection, but what can I say, I'm obsessed with squeezing every ounce of performance I can get from upstairs.

Another thing I noticed is using my Macbook Pro downstairs which was able to consistently get over 600mbps while nearby, but now I can barely go over 400mbps.

Any ideas what could be going on or any suggestions on how to improve it?

 

[wombat2k]

Just realized I posted in General Wireless when it might have made more sense in the Netgear forum. Sorry about that. If a moderator could get it moved, that would be great.

Further testing led me to discovery that there appears to be some throttling at 400mbps. Even my MBP sitting next to it is not able to hit anything faster than that. So basically I'm maxing out at 400mbps on a 2x2 and 3x3 wireless card, even when these devices are the only devices in the band.

So on one hand I have an R8500 with has a nice stable signal upstairs that my iDevices are able to handle, but a reduced speed overall, on the other hand, an Airport Extreme with fantastic speed, but moody signal.

 

[L&LD]

Try different channels. Move the location and orientation of the router slightly (about six inches each time) and test again.

Use short preamble and fixed channels (not auto).

 

[wombat2k]

On the R8500, channels on both 5ghz bands can't be set to auto (I was surprised), so I played with different channels to similar results. The lower channels are definitely better than the higher ones., but even sitting right next to the router won't allow me to break the 400mbps barrier. It's as if there is some kind of QOS. There is a QOS tab, but it appears to be grayed out and inaccessible.

 

[wombat2k]

Alright, after some more digging, I've seen references to the WAN port being capped at 400mbps. It's unclear whether this is by design or a bug. I do notice a phantom MAC address in my network which seems to be belong to the router, so it might be somehow related.

 

[bobsilver]

Is the issue you cant get internet speeds above 400mbs or local wifi speeds above 400mbs? The WAN port only affect your internet speeds. Few isps provide anything near that. I can confirm wifi speeds well above 400mbs from my R8500 in AP mode.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[wombat2k]

The problem is purely related to the WAN port and unrelated to wifi (I also tested with ethernet). Unfortunately it's been extremely difficult to get that message across since the person I spoke to at Netgear wasn't really able to understand the evidence I was presenting.

 

[bobsilver]

The problem is purely related to the WAN port and unrelated to wifi (I also tested with ethernet). Unfortunately it's been extremely difficult to get that message across since the person I spoke to at Netgear wasn't really able to understand the evidence I was presenting.

This is the response from Netgear Product Team regarding WAN througput

" the R8500 supports PPPoE over CTF, so the PPPoE throughput should measure over 900 Mbps, ie., max of 1 Gbps can be supported.


However if the user has enabled the traffic meter this will disable CTF, so would cause an impact to the LAN/WAN throughput, ie., could reduce the WAN throughput to approx. 400 Mbps to 450 Mbps.


With dynamic QoS enabled, this can also cause an impact to the LAN/WAN throughput, although CTF wouldn’t be disabled."

So with the following info I would be sure that QOS is off and traffic metering is off. See how that goes. But the above info was supported by 2 Netgear engineers so I have high confidence its accurate.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[wombat2k]

Thanks for checking this out. Unfortunately it's none of these. What's been most frustrating is I spent a fair amount of time troubleshooting the issue and if only I could speak to somebody at Netgear with a good understanding of networking, it would take no time at all to get this issue moving. Hope I didn't sound like I was implying you didn't know what you were talking about, I meant in the context of the ticket I opened.

 

[bobsilver]

Ive requested that Netgear Guy (from the Netgear sub forum) reach out to you.

Bob