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Limited download speed on Netgear Orbi AC3000 RBK50v2
Hi folks, I have a Netgear Orbi AC3000 RBK50v2 system with one router and one satellite which has been working fine with my TPG 100Mbps Internet plan. My wifi-connected PC routinely showed 100+Mbps ...
TyBreaker wrote:
My wifi-connected PC is an Intel NUC 12 Extreme which supports gigabit wifi so I'm puzzled as to why I'm only getting around 200Mmps when the router gets 640Mbps.
If I read the specifications correctly, this Intel product contains an Intel WiFi 6E 211 module (page 32)
However, the Orbi RBR50/RBS50 product (from 2016) is a WiFi5 device. (i.e. it does not support WiFi6 or WiFi6E.) These WiFi standards came on the market long after this product was designed and all the major WiFi vendors (including Netgear) introduced new products which support them. There are even products out now that support WiFi7. Older products cannot be updated to the new standards because they are built around WiFi chips that are WiFi5.
If located within a foot or two of the router, a WiFi device can achieve a speed of over 300Mbps. At a distance of 10-12 ft, considerably less. At 25-30 ft. not so great.
The only practical way to get greater speed to the PC is to connect it with an Ethernet cable.
Hi CrimpOn, thanks for responding! I acknowledge the different wifi standards between my PC and my router, though the newer standard is backward compatible so should allow the older standard to achieve its maximum speed? Wifi5 still allows nearly 7Gbps apparently, though the Orbi doco seems to indicate 3000 max.
I may not be completely across the maximums but I was expecting to receive close to what the router can deliver and it's receiving approx 640Mbps.
Yes, the new PC WiFi adapter is "backward compatible". After detecting that the Orbi does not support the 6GHz frequency band (WiFi6E) and does not support WiFi6 (802.11ax), the adapter will connect to the Orbi 5GHz band using WiFi5 (802.11ac). It might be worth doing a bit of internet search with terms such as "realistic connection speed for WiFi5".
When companies market their WiFi systems, they seem to enjoy adding together all the theoretical WiFi link speeds to arrive at some "magic number". For the RBK50, the maximum theoretical Link Rate for 2.4G is 400Mbps, for user 5G is 833Mbps, and the backhaul 5G WiFi link is 1,733Mbps. (400+833+1,733 = 2.999Mbps) So, Netgear markets this system as AC3000. Wow! (Not just Netgear. Every vendor does similar arithmetic.) Never mind that the WiFi backhaul connects the router and satellites and is not available for user connections. Never mind that those theoretical maximums are conceptual calculations rather than "real world" observations.
p.s. This is not to say that having more internet download speed than can be used by a single WiFi5 connected client is a "bad thing". The additional capacity can be used by devices connected at 2.4G or Ethernet and can be used by devices connected to the satellite (WiFi or Ethernet). Of course, both the router and satellite use the same 2.4G and 5G WiFi channels. Generally, only one WiFi device can transmit on a channel at any given instant. So the primary beneficiaries of extra download capacity will be Ethernet connected devices.
I sometimes wonder what I would do with "more speed". Streaming a 4K video consumes about 25Mbps. So, my current 490Mbps Spectrum cable internet would allow me to keep 10 televisions streaming at once, plus surf the web, do email, etc. Oops, we only have 2 televisions.
If getting maximum performance from that new Intel PC is a serious issue, then it's time for a "fork lift upgrade" by replacing the existing Orbi WiFi with something newer.
https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-mesh-wifi-system-130028701.html