RT-AX86U - a huge speed difference between wifi and cable

[Shahin]

Hi,

I have a 1.5 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up fibre internet connection. I used a cat 6 cable to connect my modem (10 Gbps port) to Asus RT-AX86U (2.5 Gbps port); when I tested the internet speed in the router, everything looked great but unfortunately, even with a 160 Mhz (channel 60) connection right beside the router my download speed can't get even close to the gigabit speed. How can I improve the speed on my wireless devices?

More details:
During tests, no other devices were using the internet.
I have enabled WPA2/WPA3 encryption.
AiProtection is disabled.
QoS is disabled.
No AiMesh.
No VPN.
Version : 9.0.0.4.388_20477

 

[tallytr]

...no pro here but could be many things I'd say, nothing to do with your router but your client connecting to the router?
With those speeds you would still get plenty emails in no time though

 

[bbunge]

Could be that you are too close to the router. Sounds nuts but it could happen. Even so you do have plenty of bandwidth. Also use mostly default WIFI settings with Dual Band Smart Connect and try with just WPA2-Personal.

 

[Tech Junky]

Could be as simple as a loose antenna wire. Could be the channel you're using. Could be an advance setting in the WiFi adapter.

With an ax210 card I can get over a gig on the LAN and with an ax411 I consistently hit 1.5gbps. I have a 2.5gbps backhaul to my AP and the max after overhead would be something around 1.7gbps. So, being within 200mbps I'm fine with that. For awhile it seemed like the AP was SW capped at 1gbps no matter what I tried but, same settings and different WiFi card get different results.

 

[Shahin]

Could be that you are too close to the router. Sounds nuts but it could happen. Even so you do have plenty of bandwidth. Also use mostly default WIFI settings with Dual Band Smart Connect and try with just WPA2-Personal.

Switching back to the WPA2-Personal improved the speed; now, I can get 700+ Mbps down.

 

[Tech Junky]

Doesn't make sense the security protocol would make a speed difference. I've been using WPA3/SAE for awhile now but have notice with my streamer box it does after a period of time and requires manually reconnection to the network. Phone and laptop though don't have issues with it.

 

[Shahin]

Doesn't make sense the security protocol would make a speed difference. I've been using WPA3/SAE for awhile now but have notice with my streamer box it does after a period of time and requires manually reconnection to the network. Phone and laptop though don't have issues with it.

It doesn't make sense to me either, but it seems like it has an effect.

 

[eemj]

Could the limiting factor be your WIFI adapter on your computer?

 

[Shahin]

Could the limiting factor be your WIFI adapter on your computer?

I think it can't since my computer connected to the router via 2.4 Gbps downlink and 1.7 Gbps uplink speed. The adapter uses Wifi 6 160Mhz to establish communication.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Go to Administration > Privacy and make sure there are no options to "Withdraw". If there are then do so.

 

[eemj]

A lot of things affect WIFI speeds. Things such as MIMO (2x2, 3x3, 4x4), other traffic on the same channels from other nearby routers, speed at which your computer responds to half duplex of WIFI, distance from router, security features, number of devices, VPN, ... . If you are using DFS channels then is there radar interference nearby which causes the router to revert to non DFS? This is a good write up on WIFI 6 https://dongknows.com/wi-fi-6-explained/

I would have thought you would be doing better than 564 download. Mostly I would suspect the computer to be the issue. but no real firm facts on that.

 

[marmot]

I was just coming here to post a similar thread. Getting 900+ when wired to a mesh node, but only 100-200 on wifi - that's on a new M1 mac. Seeing similar wifi results on iPad pro and an intel mac. All the devices are ~10 feet from the router. Antennas are vertical. AIMesh with wired backhaul (4 RT-AX86U's - large house, three levels. Router basement central, first floor one on each end. Second floor central. Netspot shows SNR 63, -27 Signal, -86 Noise for the node I'm connected to. Verified 5ghz connection, Mac shows RSSI -29, Noise -91, TxRate 1200.

For both I'm using the direct speedtest.xfinitiy.com site to eliminate speedtests variance.

One thing that's odd - wifi explorer shows 80mhz channels on all four nodes, but netspot shows the main router as 80, and the mesh nodes as 160.

I upgraded my cable modem and service to 1200, so I reset the routers to factory over the weekend and rebuilt with a new SSID. Smart connect off. Same SSID for both 2 and 5 ghz.

Here's some config based on other threads I've seen here with suggestions:
Channel 149/80
TX Bursting Enabled (Disabled made it worse)
Airtime Fairness: Disabled
Multi-User MIMO Disabled
OFDMA MU-MIMO Disabled
ax/ac Beamforming Enabled
Universal Beamforming Disabled

There's no other networks in the area on 149.

Before the rebuild I got 400-500 on wifi, so I'm guessing I borked something when I did the rebuild, but I can't figure out what it might have been.

 

[eemj]

One thing I would try is to forget/delete the WIFI network on the Apple devices and re-establish them.

 

[marmot]

One thing I would try is to forget/delete the WIFI network on the Apple devices and re-establish them.

Thanks. I decided to wipe and resetup again, with just the basic tweaks, and did your suggestion. Now getting 500. Still only ~ 1/2 of wired.

Are my expectations off? Being 10-12' from the router with nothing in between, I was expecting better.

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @marmot.

With 4x RT-AX86Us, I suspect you have too much WiFi in your home. How many SqFt is it?

Test with as many different speed tests as you can. Some equipment prefers one over the other, but mostly, it will also keep you from panicking when your 'favorite' shows wonky numbers (as they sometimes do).

Also, note that having a WiFi monitoring program open will tank WiFi speeds too.

Having the same SSID for both bands is a good way to gamble which band actually gets used.

Power off all nodes. Test that you get the speeds expected from the main router.

Turn on one node (be sure you wait for it to be fully available, and check that you are connected to that node too) and test again. Be sure you are not in between the main router and the node.

Continue doing the above, turning on an additional node, ensuring you're further away from any other node(s) and the main router, and checking you're actually connected to the node you're testing too.

With a wired backhaul, I would test different locations for a single additional node. Sell the others, when you've found that magic spot to light up all areas with usable WiFi.

 

[marmot]

Welcome to the forums @marmot.

With 4x RT-AX86Us, I suspect you have too much WiFi in your home. How many SqFt is it?

Test with as many different speed tests as you can. Some equipment prefers one over the other, but mostly, it will also keep you from panicking when your 'favorite' shows wonky numbers (as they sometimes do).

Also, note that having a WiFi monitoring program open will tank WiFi speeds too.

Having the same SSID for both bands is a good way to gamble which band actually gets used.

Power off all nodes. Test that you get the speeds expected from the main router.

Turn on one node (be sure you wait for it to be fully available, and check that you are connected to that node too) and test again. Be sure you are not in between the main router and the node.

Continue doing the above, turning on an additional node, ensuring you're further away from any other node(s) and the main router, and checking you're actually connected to the node you're testing too.

With a wired backhaul, I would test different locations for a single additional node. Sell the others, when you've found that magic spot to light up all areas with usable WiFi.

Thanks much! - it's 4500 sq feet - a long rectangle with tall ceilings so it's in a diamond setup, and we have a number of cameras outside the house in the yard (we get wildlife) so the coverage area is actually much larger than the footprint of the house itself (closer to double).

third floor: center <-- this is the one I'm testing against, 10ish feet from the router.
second floor: end end
basement: center <- router and coax entrance to house)

There's at least 30-40' between each node, along with several walls or floors. I'd tried using only 2 and didn't get enough signal for the exterior camera.

Good tip on the monitoring hitting the speed tests. that definitely explains some of the variability I saw.

I've seen advice all over the place about same vs different SSID's for the bands. I may give that a try though the computer i'm testing from is always connected to 5ghz. Related question - will having a guest network add contention?

I went through your suggestion to turn on one node at a time, and it was ~450-500 consistent on download, even with all of them active. The clients are nicely distributed between the four nodes (fixing the antennas helped that a lot with the exterior cameras). Tested both with xfinity and 3 other speedtest destinations - found a couple of the latter that were reading only 200!

 

[eemj]

I agree with L&LD that you may have too many nodes. They may be interfering with each other.

As a test, use the router connected to the modem, change the SSIDs and test without any nodes (power them off) and using only your computer for both Ethernet and WIFI. Try different channels and band widths and other settings. Try a different computer as that may be the issue.

My network is a modem, router AC86U, and one extender with 25 or so WIFI devices and three Ethernet clients including a security DVR and VIOP phone system. I use a guest network for most of my devices as I do not want them having access to my main network and router. In my case, it has not affected my speed as I have only 300 service from xfinity and on my main 5Ghz I get around that and many times more from xfinity. On the 2.4 band for both main and guest, I get 60-90. I also use an extender to get some cameras in my detached garage and it gets 10-20. I would do better with the extender speed if I moved it closer to the router and used both main bands but I use just the 2.4 guest network so the extender has to transmit and backhaul on the 2.4 guest network. Do not want the cameras on the main network.

 

[marmot]

Thanks - did that. With 1 router it only connects to 2.4. With 2 and 3, I get about 200. With just the basement and 3rd floor I get 500 upstairs, but signal isn't enough out in the yard. It really does take 4 to get me to 500 everywhere.

But even 10' from the main router, with only that one active, it still caps out at 500. I must have non-wifi interference in the area. Channel 36 is so bad to be almost unusable. I'm about 11 miles from a pretty large GA airport, 30 from one large airforce base, and about 50 from another, so my best guess is that even without using the DFS channels, there's interference in the area.

 

[Tech Junky]

@marmot

Set the channel manually...........

Analyze the WIFI to pick the best channel with an app on your phone...........

for 160mhz pick something other than 36. For me I use 40 as it seems to give full bandwidth.

 

[marmot]

Yup, did that - set to 149/80. Tried UNII-1 channels, but they all have worse performance (1/2) of the UNII-3 band. A neighbor is already running 157/80, so I can't try that one, and i'm within 10-15 miles of a large GA airport, so know that the DFS channels will be a problem.