Orbi Gigabit Speed

Question

Hey,I’m fairly technically inclined, but am an amateur when it comes to networking. I have an Orbi system and have had Bell Fibe 300/100 Internet. I was consistently getting about 140 to 180 MB’s throughout the house. A few days ago Bell gave me a complimentary upgrade to Fibe Gigabit service. However, I’m getting the same speeds from the Orbi. If I do a speed test at the Bell Homehub 3000, it’s showing 1000+ MB’s. However, a speed test at the Orbi is showing 468 MB’s and I’m getting exactly the same speeds wirelessly as before: 140 to 180 MB’s. I’ve tried the Orbi in both router mode and AP mode and there’s no difference. The wireless network on the Homehub is disabled.Any settings I should adjust? Or is this normal in that the Orbi can’t handle those speeds?

thebishop · Answer

Just a few observations:&nbsp;1. You should connect the Macbook Pro directly with ethernet to the homehub and measure with Ookla to get a comparable number with/without Orbi.&nbsp;2. The 1233Mbps you get seems to point out that the measurement from your homehub is flakey, unless you have 10GigE to your provider (and you said you had 300/100 - I would expect a 1GigE connection then, in which case 1233Mbps is just pointing to a flawed test from the homehub router, as it is not possible for you to get 1233Mbps on a 1GigE connection)3. I have never gotten close to 1000 on Ookla, it does not seem to handle more than a few 100 Mbps, even though I easily get 900+ on the local test server4. The cable should not matter much if you can see you get a 1Gig link, check with Network Utility on your mac when you connect and verify the Link Speed there.&nbsp;You need to have a robust testing scenario first before drawing any conclusions - the easiest one is point 1. above - measure with the laptop on a wired connection without involving Orbi, then redo the measurement by connecting cable into the Orbi as a hub, then finally measure with wifi form the laptop. Then you will get comparable numbers that will tell you what overhead the Orbi imposes. All measurements should use the same test service, that is Ookla or fast.com or similar to get comparable numbers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

thebishop · Answer

Which client device are you using to test? I have seen 425+ Mbit/s over wifi (Macbook Pro) - I seldom get more than 300 on iOS devices (which have worse antennas) unless being very close. I run with 1000Mbps from the internet provider.

thebishop · Answer

Also, what service are you using to test? It seems many available test services have a hard time keeping up.

For reference, I got 523Mbps downstream and 891Mbps upstream when testing with the Orbi app (that is, directly form the router without using wifi). When doing the same test (connected to the router with GigE) to a more reliable nearby test service, I would see around 900 Mbps both up and down. So what test software you use, and which device you use, matters a lot...

carric · Answer

Seeing exactly the same. Just read RIDICULOUS thread on how we can't set a separate SSID for 5Ghz vs 2.4Ghz... I have configured MANY routers this way (including oher Netgear equipment).

You can make things TOO simple, guys...

Frankly - I'm stunned that this was not put into the Orbi GUI (apparently you can do this via telnet - about to try)

When the XFinity tech tested speed directly connected to the cable model, we saw ~990Mb. The built in Ookla tester on the Orbi NEVER shows more than 450Mb (I retested today - 350Mb). Nothing else tested shows more bandwidth.

I started researching because my XBox is only getting about 50Mb, one test showed 54% packet loss, and I CAN'T TELL IF IT'S CONNECTED VIA 2.4 OR 5 GHZ [dammit]. Since I can't change the SSID's for 2.4 vs 5 gig, I can't lock it to one or the other.

Not overly thrilled atm...

shoeshineteeth · Answer

I’ve used both my iPhone and MacBook Pro and used the Ookla Speedtest to test speeds. I’ve also used the Orbi app to speed test through both the iPhone and MacBook.

Forum Discussion

Orbi Gigabit Speed

6 Replies