GT-AX6000 - Can I make use of my new 2 gbps connection?

[blue_seather]

For the last 2 years I've been on a 1gbps fiber internet. My apartment was already pre-wired with an ethernet outlet in each room, the ISP's router/modem sits in a little drawer in the hallway with its router part turned off, my GT-AX6000 in the middle room (nothing connected to it) and all TVs and PCs throughout the apartment connected directly to the ISP's router through the apartment's wiring. Apart from one small 2.4ghz issue that the people in the forum were kind enough to help me out with, I've been very happy. I was getting about 800 mbps on 5ghz on my WiFi 6 devices throughout the whole apartment and about 950mbps on my PC's wired connection.

However, the ISP changed their plan to 2gbps for just $5 more and when I renewed my contract it felt like a no-brainer as my building apparently supported it. They came in and changed their modem to a new bulky Nokia one that apparently has 3 1GE ports and 1 2.5GE port. My PC is pretty old now so its LAN card is limited to 1gbps, so I connected my GT-AX6000 to the 2.5GE port, leaving everything else on a 1GE port. Now, whenever I run a speed test on my PC's wired connection and on a WiFi 6 wireless device simultaneously, they don't seem to throttle each other and take away from their respective bandwidths but, unfortunately, that's the only benefit I can see. My router still transmits up to 800 mbps and if I speed test two WiFi 6 clients at the same time, they both get ~400 mbps each at most, so they appear to be splitting that 800 mbps router bandwidth. I thought that going through the 2.5GE port on a 2.5GE-enabled router, I'd at least get a slight bump in speed, or at the very least, in a multiclient workload the total bandwidth would be larger, but apparently not.

Am I missing something? Is the only way that I make more use of that bandwidth upgrading my PC to one with a 2.5G LAN card, leaving the Asus router on the 1G port, or by investing in a new WiFi 7 router when I upgrade more of my wireless devices to WiFi 7 ones?

P.S. The 160mhz channel for 5ghz is enabled, if it matters.

 

[Tech9]

You’re just paying more for exactly the same Internet experience. Because many other ISP subscribers are in the same situation - no brainer for the ISP to take more money for about the same Internet traffic.

 

[bennor]

Can you make use of the new 2GB connection? Yes. But it will likely involve spending more money to upgrade your computer or it's networking hardware along with upgrading your WiFi devices if they don't support the top speed offered by the router's WiFi hardware assuming the GT-AX6000's WiFi supports above 1GB speed. And possible add a 2.5GB network switch into the mix as well. And even after spending more money upgrading your network hardware you may not see a quality improvement (beyond flashy speed test numbers) for your daily use.

 

[degrub]

The slowest device in the chain sets the speed. For wireless, that is often the client device. Everything else just buffers and twiddles their hypothetical thumbs.

Many web servers limit client connection bandwidth for obvious reasons. 100 Mbit/s is one number i have heard.

 

[Tech9]

My apartment was already pre-wired with an ethernet outlet in each room, the ISP's router/modem sits in a little drawer in the hallway with its router part turned off, my GT-AX6000 in the middle room (nothing connected to it) and all TVs and PCs throughout the apartment connected directly to the ISP's router through the apartment's wiring.

This is not a valid configuration network, by the way. The ISP modem/router has to be in Router Mode and your Asus router has to be in AP Mode. Otherwise you are risking exposed to Internet devices or running two networks (one in double NAT) for no good reason. The Router has to be where the ISP connection is; in other rooms you may have Access Points or other connected wired devices. Single AP like Omada EAP610/650 for around $100 may be enough for an apartment and devices connected to it will reach similar speeds.

 

[blue_seather]

Thank you for your replies and excuse my ignorance on the matter. To be honest, they gave me a pretty good deal with the whole thing costing $1 for the first 6 months so in reality it's even cheaper than before for this 2-year contract. It just bugs me that I see absolutely no benefit and I'd like to make at least some tiny use out of it, as little as it may be. We're two people working together in a home office and the 1 gbps connection has been a godsend. Also, on my PC, when I'm downloading/updating huge games, the 100+ mb/s download speeds are of great help when I'm in a pinch. I figure 200 mb/s would be even better in those rare scenarios, after I upgrade my PC to one with a 2.5G enabled motherboard in a few months.

Until then, I've just been wondering why my router caps at the exact same speeds as before. Sure, my client devices might not be able to handle more traffic on their own and that's perfectly fine, but why is not the total bandwidth that the router distributes across all devices not even 1 megabit more than before? A 2 gbps connection through a 2.5GE port over to my own router's 2.5GE port results in a shared bandwidth of no more than 800 mbps across all my wireless devices, just as it did before. I was thinking I was doing something wrong. I even tried to connect the Asus directly to the ISP's router, right next to it, with a quality CAT6 cable, so that I isolate the apartment's wiring out of the equation and it's the exact same story. Why does this router have a 2.5GE port if it's of no apparent use? Is it simply to out a 2.5 gigabit connection through the 2.5GE lan port that I'm not even using and nothing more that impacts the wireless connectivity? I must be missing something.

In regards to the network configuration, the ISP's router is a Nokia XS-2426G-B. Just like their previous 1 gigabit router, the WiFi signal is horrendous. Even next to the router, I get a maximum of 300 mbps and it dwindles the further I am from it. And it being installed inside of the wall, behind a plastic door, which in itself is behind the already chock-full hallway wardrobe, makes it so that I don't even get a signal on my 5ghz band throughout the whole apartment. To be fair, even if I wanted to place the Asus router in there, there'd be no space for it. My Asus being in the middle room, on the other hand, achieves 600-800 mbps throughout the whole apartment flawlessly, and I've disabled the router portion of the ISP's modem, so that I reduce the interference, or at least that's been my thought process.

P.S. Before getting the Asus I had ordered a 2-set Deco with a gigabit switch, placing each Deco in the furthest points in the apartment, connecting both via a wired backhaul via the apartment's wiring up to the switch which I placed next to the ISP's router in the hallway. My devices never managed to change the signal from one Deco to another automatically and I had to constantly manually restart the WiFi of my devices so that they pick up the closer better signal, which forfeit the point of a mesh system for me. And if I didn't do that, the further Deco, albeit refusing to drop the connection, would give me sub-100mbps speeds with horrible latency, which felt off. Ultimately, I returned them and got the Asus, which I've been very happy with. A 6E router never made sense for me, constantly switching the rooms that I work from, and it's too early for me to upgrade to WiFi 7 due to most of my devices not supporting it yet. Might you elaborate a bit on the AP configuration you're suggesting, as in my head that's a very similar scenario?

 

[Tech9]

I've disabled the router portion of the ISP's modem

In this case you can't have clients connected to the ISP device LAN ports unless the client is a Router. In some cases ISPs allow multiple IPs upstream with LAN ports on modem/routers still active and exposing the connected clients straights to Internet. You have to double check your configuration because by accident you may make someone else upstream as happy as you are. Your Asus router - when configured as Router it creates own network inaccessible from whatever is connected to the ISP modem/router. This may also create issues with UPnP and Port Forwarding if used or needed.