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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 ...
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
Yeah, will upgrade the router one day but the prices Netgear charges these days are horrendous! In the meantime, my primary reason for trying to max out my PC is to speed up any download I do (either games or cloud syncing etc). Seeing the difference between my phone and PC download performance makes me think the problem is somewhere on my PC. The hunt continues!
TyBreaker wrote:
Seeing the difference between my phone and PC download performance
Are you running Ookla Speed Test directly on the phone using the Ookla 'app', or are you using the Orbi app feature, Internet Speed? The Orbi app is reporting the results of tests run on the router, not on the phone.