Wifi AC network speed slow due to windows seven

[jojolafrite]

[Solved] Wifi AC network speed slow due to windows seven

Hello everyone,

I have an issue during files transfer between my pc and a NAS since I decided to get an AC network.

According to what I read or found, I expected a transfer rate around 50 MB and today the max I can get is through FTP at 20MB. Through windows the best I had was during a full moon night with a rate of 16MB.

I really hope someone in your community can give me some solution as it drove me crazy.

Now I will try to give you the different detailed info about my configuration and the tests I already made.

Thanks in advance if you take time to read all the post.

Configuration:
Nas: it is a box provided by my ISP, its OS is based on customized linux.

PC: windows 7, I recently buy the asus pce-ac68 adapter (believing my old one based on the intel AC7260 chip was the root cause of my issue, obviously => Fail)

Router: asus RT-ac68u recently updated with the latest stock firmware. Since then the connection in AC is only possible on the Channel 36 (but due to my test I don't think it is the cause). I precise I am in France.

Environment: My PC is 22 feet far from the router (around 7 meters ). I am the only one broadcasting on the 5ghz band. I forced the 80MHZ. Wired connection is not possible permanently due to my apartment configuration and CPL neither due to my old electrical network.

Now the tests done:
- First I tried with a cable and the rate was around 30MB with windows explorer transfer (but I did not try to configure correctly my adapter and it seems seven requires it).

- I tried to measure the real network speed with some tests done with iPerf and after several tries, I obtain results between 55MB and 73MB (which is exactly what I expect). This test was done with the latest stock firmware of the router with the channel 36

- I changed lot of parameters, registry keys and so on in windows with notably:
Disable auto tuning
Disable receive-side scaling state
Remove RDC
Uncheck IPV6 for my pce ac68
Disable windows virtual miniport
Changing MTU settings
Try to disable Firewall and anti virus

So with all this modifications, I think about reinstalling windows on top of my existing install.
I tried to find some docs about the advanced settings (in adapter’s properties) of the asus pce ac68 but I found nothing describing each options. My card has the latest asus’ drivers available.

Could someone give me some ideas (the solution will be the best ) to finally reach the promised awesome rates?

Thanks a lot for your time by reading my post till there.

 

[Searay]

I wouldn't expect to see read/ write rates higher than a wired connection. Some test only test wireless throughput and won't show the NAS and or PC limitations. The wireless is only part of the puzzle, your hardware must be capable of those higher read/write speeds.

 

[thiggins]

What "awesome rates" do you expect? 50 - 80 MB/s is not bad at all.

 

[azazel1024]

Just to clarify, are those ~50-70MB/sec speeds wired to the router? Or wireless to the router? If they are wireless, you aren't going to get better than that. If wired, that is kind of slow, but a "custom" unknown NAS, that might not be expected if that is the target for transfers.

What is the setup beyond 7 meters distance to the router? Is it line of sight? Or are there walls in the way? if there are walls in the way, how many and of what construction? If they are brick walls and a couple of them, ~20MB/sec is decent performance, even over just 7 meters.

A bit lower link rate of 867Mbps max for my setup, but I have TP-Link Archer C8 and Intel 7260ac. At a distance of 7 meters with a single 2x4 wall in the way my performance is roughly 35MB/sec, let alone thicker/brick walls.

One other thing to note, I haven't tested Windows 7 with 11ac gear, but when I switched from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, using an "old" Intel 2230 card in my current laptop using an older Netgear 3500L, my performance went from ~16MB/sec to about 21MB/sec with NO change other than my operating system.

I'd take a wild guess that the network stack in Windows 8/8.1 does offer some improvements over Windows 7, at least with Wifi. So it is possible that changing up your OS might net an increase in performance too (same dated driver package was used for testing, obviously one for Win7 and one for Win8.1).

I just can't promise that as it is PURELY anecdotal.

 

[jojolafrite]

Thanks for your answers.
Sorry I think I wasn't clear enough.
@thiggins: that's exactly what I expect to have by just dragging and dropping files from my pc to my nas from my windows explorer.

@Searay: you are totally right, I need to go dig into tests with the wired connection and, shame on me, I was so focused on the wifi issue I didn't check the HDD characteristics. Nevertheless, I forgot to mention one test I did.

When I got the good rates with Iperf, I tried file transfer between the two PC I used (drag and drop 2GB file in windows explorer). both have SSD and one was connected through cable to the ac68U the other was connected through WIFI (PCE ac68) and I have rates between 10MB and 12MB max. I don't thinksome hardware can be the bottleneck here.
But definitly, I must check the HDD in the NAS provided by my ISP, it is a shame I forgot this .

@azazel1024: the 50~70MB was obtained with Iperf using the configuration I describe above. There is a thin wall between PC and router, I think in the same category of the one(s) you ignored. By checking the distance, I am closer than 7 meters to the router. About signal attenuation, I measured -40~42 db where my antenna is.
What you mention about the OS upgrade is exactly what I was worried about. And, while digging into the topic, there are so much thing to change to try to improve this speed in seven that I figured myself I was missing something.

Sorry for the unclear points and thanks a lot for your help!

 

[cheenachatze]

What is the connection speed that Windows 7 reports in the Network and Sharing Center? Is it higher than 300Mbps?

 

[stevech]

Mind your B's and b's

 

[jojolafrite]

yes the network speed is higher than 300Mbps, it varies between 1Gbps and 1,3 Gbps. and that's well in bits and not bytes

 

[cheenachatze]

yes the network speed is higher than 300Mbps, it varies between 1Gbps and 1,3 Gbps. and that's well in bits and not bytes

Your system connects at AC speeds, so that's a good sign. I don't know what the problem is with your setup, but I don't think it's Windows 7.

I have Asus RT-AC66 router, WD MyCloud NAS, and a laptop with Intel AC7260 running Windows 7. The laptop is two floors above the router. Windows reports connection speed around 520 Mbps. When I copy 1GB file I get about 28 MB/s. So I don't think there is inherent problem in Windows 7.

 

[stevech]

Your system connects at AC speeds, so that's a good sign. I don't know what the problem is with your setup, but I don't think it's Windows 7.

I have Asus RT-AC66 router, WD MyCloud NAS, and a laptop with Intel AC7260 running Windows 7. The laptop is two floors above the router. Windows reports connection speed around 520 Mbps. When I copy 1GB file I get about 28 MB/s. So I don't think there is inherent problem in Windows 7.

28MB/s is normal if you are transferring many small/mid-sized files.
MyCloud is likely slow compared to real NASes.

 

[jojolafrite]

I knew that seven is reallybad for file transfer and azazel1024 give us some clue changing OS can bring some improvements.
The fact that I have really good rates through iperf made me think about an issue with seven.
But Searay was true I discard too early the hardware track and must test this deeper.

In all cases thanks a lot for your help!

 

[jojolafrite]

Hello,

Just a word to give a root cause of my speed issue.

After some other tests, it was indeed the HDD of the NAS.

I must have done this tests before posting, my bad. Thanks a lot for your time and help.