Relatively low wireless data rate with Netgear R7000

[ntv1000]

Hello folks,

I kindly ask for your advice.

I get "only" 23MB/s data rate over wireless with my Netgear R7000. I am testing with an external harddisk plugged into the USB 3.0 port of the R7000.

Here are a few numbers:
Harddisk -> computer: ~90 MB/s (just as reference)
Harddisk -> R7000 -> PC via LAN cable: constant 43 MB/s (on the the first day with the router I got a constant speed of 60 MB/s )
Harddisk -> R7000 ))) Asus USB AC56 in the same room -> PC: 20-23 MB/s

I don't think that the Asus adapter is the bottleneck, because I have 2 of them and if I use them simultaneously (with a second PC, also in the same room) I get these speeds:
disk -> usb 3.0 -> r7000 -> ...
... ))) asus ac56 -> usb 3.0 -> pc1: 12 MB/s
... ))) asus ac56 -> usb 3.0 -> pc2: 12 MB/s
That is almost exactly half the speed for each client, meaning the router is the bottleneck. (right?) Additionally this benchmark suggests that the adapter should be easily able to handle what I expect.

In this benchmark the reviewer gets at least 35 MB/s and up to 77 MB/s, which raises the question: Why are mine so low?
Then I stumbled over these benchmarks where they measured the speed per channel width (20/40/80 MHz) and they got 55 MB/s on 80 MHz and about 25 MB/s on 20 MHz, which is the data rate that I am getting. For me this seems now like my router is clearly not utilizing multiple channels, causing the data rate to be so low in comparison.

So to make it clear - these are my questions:

• Are my concerns justified or am I expecting too much? If I am expecting too much, how am I misinterpreting the benchmarks?
• Is my theory regarding the router only utilizing a single channel valid?
• Is it time to assume that the router is defect and RMA it?
• Am I missing/do I misunderstand something?
• Bonus question (not that important): Why can I not achieve a data rate of 60 MB/s over cable anymore?

I really appreciate any help.

 

[thiggins]

We measure router storage performance using a Gigabit Ethernet wired client.

To determine wireless throughput alone, measure between a wireless client and a Gigabit Ethernet connected PC.

What is the link rate reported by the ASUS adapter?

How are you measuring throughput?

 

[ntv1000]

To determine wireless throughput alone, measure between a wireless client and a Gigabit Ethernet connected PC.

I have it directly connected to the router via USB 3.0. As I see it it shouldn't make a difference.

What is the link rate reported by the ASUS adapter?

867 Mbit/s

How are you measuring throughput?

I access the harddisk through Netgear's readyshare. I copy a single 1 GB file from the harddisk to the internal SSD of the PC and measure the time it takes.

 

[roldogg]

The speed is directly related to the frequency of the signal. For example, the only way you can connect to the R7000 using wireless AC is using the 5Ghz band at 80Mhz, assuming that the wireless adapter in your computer can do the same. Also, what you mentioned about the speed being cut in half is exactly what's supposed to happen. Assuming you have a 50 Mbps internet speed, if you only had one device hooked up, you might be able to get close to that, assuming you're hard wired in and everything is working on the ptovider's end. If you connect a 2nd device, then your 50 Mbps is now being shared with someone, and if the 2nd device is exactly like the 1st, then it will cut the speed exactly in half. That's why a lot of people complain that their speed is much slower than what their Internet provider listed, but they might have a TV, a desktop, tablet, smartphone, etc all connected as well and each device is using some of that bandwidth. Going back to your wireless issue, in a perfect scenario, you live on a farm, have no neighbors for miles and the Internet is all you have. In this case, you should be able to maximize your wireless throughput using 80Mhz for your 5Ghz band and 40Mhz for your 2.4Ghz band. Now we're back in the real world and you have neighbors on either side who also have wireless netwotks. Since 40Mhz and 80Mhz both use up multiple channels to get the highest speed possible, one of your neighbors network might overlap with yours. Since most people have 2,4Ghz, I'm now starting to see more 5Ghz networks now as well, you might get better throughput if you choose 20Mhz for your 2.4Ghz band that you did on the farm because back at the farm you had no interference, unless the pigs hooked up their own network in the barn. The best thing to do is download an app called WiFi Analyzer. This will not only show you which channel is the best to pick, given that your neighbors have wireless networks, but it'll show you a channel graph of any wireless networks around you, how strong their signal is, and which channels their networks overlap, since they probably have theirs set to 40Mhz and 80Mhz as well. I wish there was an app that showed all activities, like cordless phones (some people still use them), microwaves, etc so you can get a complete picture. So, to end the longest post in history, as you add more devices to your network, things will slow down. If your network settings overlap with other's network settings, try changing the channel or the width. Depending on the scenario, you can sometimes get a faster speed using 20Mhz than 80Mhz (even though 80Mhz at 5Ghz is the only way to maximize your wireless speed) because choosing 20Mhz in a congested area will give you less interference.

 

[ntv1000]

There is no overlap on the 5GHz band in my area. I checked that with the WiFi Analyzer for Android and inSSIDer.

By the way: inSSIDer shows the router operating on only 2 channels (meaning 40Mhz bandwidth?), but the Asus software which came with the driver displays a bandwidth of 80 MHz. I also can't seem to find a settings in the entire webinterface of the R7000 to set the bandwidth.

This whole thing remains a mystery for me.

 

[roldogg]

Are you running the stock firmware on the R7000 or another firmware like DD-WRT?

 

[ntv1000]

I am running the stock firmware, but I tried kong's DD-WRT build too and the result was a maximum data rate of 13 MB/s - so I reverted back to stock.

 

[theveterans]

WiFi speed is too low for R7000 and USB AC56.

In contrast, the 32 GB el-cheapo Lexar USB 3.0 Flash drive attached on my WRT1900AC gets 50 MB/s transfer speed using the internal (mini-pcie) 802.11ac adapter on my laptop.



Try monitoring the CPU frequency, RAM use and temperature to see if the router is overheating

 

[Mordred]

I am running the stock firmware, but I tried kong's DD-WRT build too and the result was a maximum data rate of 13 MB/s - so I reverted back to stock.

LOL. that Asus adapter must be total crap. Even with a non AC adapter I get 20MB/s to the attached usb drive using dd-wrt. I'm using an Intel 6250.

 

[htismaqe]

I am running the stock firmware, but I tried kong's DD-WRT build too and the result was a maximum data rate of 13 MB/s - so I reverted back to stock.

If both firmwares are doing it, it points to the adapter being the issue. Do you have another client adapter you can test with?

 

[ntv1000]

If both firmwares are doing it, it points to the adapter being the issue. Do you have another client adapter you can test with?

Or it points to the router? Unfortunately I don't have another ac adapter, but at the moment I am leaning to replacing the Asus adapters anyway.

 

[htismaqe]

Or it points to the router? Unfortunately I don't have another ac adapter, but at the moment I am leaning to replacing the Asus adapters anyway.

Yes, it could point to a hardware issue on the router but pretty much rules out firmware being the issue.

More likely culprit is the adapter but you could try an RMA on the router and see if that works.

 

[theveterans]

Or it points to the router? Unfortunately I don't have another ac adapter, but at the moment I am leaning to replacing the Asus adapters anyway.

Get some cheap Edimax AC1200 adapters or Intel 7260AC and test. If those two still gives crap speeds, you just got a lemon router.

 

[ntv1000]

Alright, so I now have an Edimax EW-7822UAC and a Netgear A6200 instead of the Asus adapters.

These are the speeds:

Harddisk -> R7000 ))) Netgear A6200 in the same room -> PC: 28 MB/s (best one yet, maybe because of Beamforming?)
Harddisk -> R7000 ))) Edimax EW-7822UAC in the same room -> PC: 23 MB/s

Time to return the router?

Edit: measured again and got better speed with the Edimax adapter

 

[Razor512]

The A6200 is a USB 2.0 device so you are pretty much hitting the USB 2.0 interface limit.

Wifi traffic takes more CPU cycles than ethernet based traffic, so if you have a drive connected directly to the R7000, the storage access and wifi will fight over CPU resources, which will lower speeds. the linksys 1900AC has a faster CPU that is more designed around NAS use.

Also, try to stay about 10 feet from the router for good performance, the transmit power of the R7000 is good for improving range but causes receiver overload if you are very close to it. If you are running dd-wrt and can see the CPU usage over telnet, or in the web UI, then check if it is very high while transferring files.

 

[ntv1000]

Yes, I could be hitting the USB 2.0 cap, but I tried the simultaneous transmission to two PCs at the same time again and the transfer power was split in half (exactly 12.5 MB/s each). Here is a benchmark with 3 clients simultaneously and together they got about 40 MB/s, so when I use 2 clients I expect to get 20 MB/s each.

I will flash Kong's dd-wrt build again to check the CPU, but I am not really sure what the result will tell me, because if the CPU does not turn out to be the bottleneck there is something wrong with the router. On the other hand if the CPU turns out to be the bottleneck it would still mean that the router is at fault, since the matter of fact is that other people are getting better transfer speeds than me.

 

[ntv1000]

Okey, here is what I did now:

Installed latest Kong's dd-wrt build
Wireless Network Mode to "AC-Only"
Wireless Channel to 40
Channel Width to 80MHz
Extension Channel to "lower upper"
Optimize Multicast Traffic to Enable
Explicit Beamforming to Enable
Implicit Beamforming to Enable

Status page shows link rate of 866.5 Mbps (with the last 3 settings disables it would say only 173 Mbps)

Harddisk -> R7000 with dd-wrt ))) Netgear A6200 in the same room -> PC: 20-21 MB/s

"Wireless Packet Info" says no errors
~70% of the CPU is used while transferring
Temperatures while transferring are CPU 60.1 °C / WL0 48.00 °C / WL1 52.40 °C

Notes:

• inSSIDer claims that the 5GHz access point runs the N standard and uses only 2 channels (shown as 40+44). Keep in mind that I set the mode to "AC-Only" (the status page confirms that). Does anyone know what is going on here?
• I lack the knowledge to interpret these numbers, so it would be nice if someone could tell me if the CPU usage and temperatures are normal.

Thanks to all of you who tried to help me, but at the moment I think I am simply going to replace the router.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the 10 feet distance doesn't change anything for me.

 

[theveterans]

Notes:

• inSSIDer claims that the 5GHz access point runs the N standard and uses only 2 channels (shown as 40+44). Keep in mind that I set the mode to "AC-Only" (the status page confirms that). Does anyone know what is going on here?
  
  
  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the 10 feet distance doesn't change anything for me. [/QUOTE]
  
  You need the paid "Inssider 4" to see 80 MHz channels.
  
  Regardless, the router is still underperforming on any type of USB 802.11ac adapter. A replacement will surely tell what's going on.

 

[ntv1000]

Got a replacement, tested it, and got the same results. Feeling bad about returning it as "defect" now. To be honest I am becoming pretty tired of investigating this and I think I am just going to accept it. I mean 25 MB/s is still much faster than 3 MB/s with my old router. The plan was to buy a NAS, too, but I don't know if that would be a smart decision now.

Anyway, any further ideas? Again, I crossed out interference, because 1. the transfer rate is steady and does not fluctuate and 2. WiFi analyzer for Android does show my network as the only 5GHz network in the area.

 

[nick.riviera]

Are you sure you aren't just hitting the usb 2.0 transfer limit? In theory it's 400mbps but I never see it break 21MB/s in reality. I would bet money that if a bottleneck is stuck at 21MB/s it's USB related.