Help: Extending Wireless Signal - Slowness

[salieri]

Setup:

Main Router = AC68U (First Floor)
Current Extender = TP-LINK AC750 Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender (Second Floor)
Specs on Extender = http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-10_RE200.html#specifications

Device for testing scenario = iPad (5 / 2.4 GHZ wireless N radio)

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I bought the extender almost a year ago when my Internet speed was 5 up / 25 down. It covered the upstairs fine and has about an 80% signal 2.4GHZ and 72% at 5GHZ. Both bands are on clean channels (11 and 157 respectively) after checking the other wireless networks within my vicinity.

Recently my Internet was upgraded to 20 up / 230 down (megabits) and I noticed I'm not getting my iPad anywhere near those speeds through the Extender. If the device is on the 5GHZ band it peaks at about 80Mb, and at 2.4GHZ it peaks at about 25Mb. If I connect the iPad directly to my router, I get the full 20Mb up / 230Mb down.

What am I missing here that is causing such a performance loss on the extender? As noted above, there is a link to the extender specs.

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Questions:

1) Why is this TP-LINK so slow? It has strong connections to my router and I've double checked the channels to make sure they're clean on both bands.

2) Do I need to buy a better extender? I was looking at the Asus AC66U and perhaps that would resolve things?

3) Has anyone had luck getting an extender to the speeds I want to utilize my new Internet bandwidth without wiring a cat5 cable from the router -> extender? (don't want to do this by the way). Can you recommend one?

Goal: I would like to use the full bandwidth my ISP has upgraded me to. How do I achieve this?

Thanks, and let me know if you need additional information. Appreciate the help.

 

[thiggins]

If I connect the iPad directly to my router, I get the full 20Mb up / 230Mb down.

That would be possible only on 5 GHz.

I think the extender is operating normally. This extender doesn't use the opposite band for connection back to the main router. So take whatever bandwidth you measure when connected directly to the main router and divide by 2. This is because it each packet must be retransmitted, taking twice the air time.

So if you're getting 230 Mbps on 5 GHz when connected directly to the main router, you'd get
115 Mbps best case. Since extender isn't getting full signal strength from the main router, extended throughput would drop. 80 Mbps isn't so bad.

Yes, you could try a newer extender, at least AC1200 class. But no guarantees. If the AC66U has an extender mode, that's another option.

 

[salieri]

That would be possible only on 5 GHz.

I think the extender is operating normally. This extender doesn't use the opposite band for connection back to the main router. So take whatever bandwidth you measure when connected directly to the main router and divide by 2. This is because it each packet must be retransmitted, taking twice the air time.

So if you're getting 230 Mbps on 5 GHz when connected directly to the main router, you'd get
115 Mbps best case. Since extender isn't getting full signal strength from the main router, extended throughput would drop. 80 Mbps isn't so bad.

Yes, you could try a newer extender, at least AC1200 class. But no guarantees. If the AC66U has an extender mode, that's another option.

Interesting, thanks for replying. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future when people's Internet connections exceed how fast their extenders transmit data. Wireless transmission speeds (especially with these extenders) seem to be greatly exaggerated and I doubt the average person buying them really understands this, or will, because the average household's Internet connection is below the threshold of what an extender can transmit. All this talk about "gigabit" Internet in the news seems silly to me (at this point in time anyway) since most households utilize wireless connections and won't get anywhere near that transmission rate. Add the fact they probably don't replace their routers (or their equipment with wireless radios) until there's a problem anyway.

Reading reviews on these extenders, I haven't seen anyone post bandwidth tests greater than 80Mb. I suppose the only thing I can do at this point is to buy one of the newer ones and try it out for myself. Even then I'm skeptical it will work and if it's worth the setup / tweaking hassle.