NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
MK62 - Connected Device Speed Slows over Time
I've had the Mk62 mesh system for a few months now, and while it has been reliable I've always had an issue with the speeds slowing down.
I have gigabit internet, and if I connect a device like my phone or laptop to the wifi within 10 feet or so of the main router and run a speed test on the device I'll typically see something in the 500-600 Mb/sec range. However, if I let a few days go by and then return with the device to the same spot and run the same speed test it will often be less than half the speed, around 150-200 Mb/sec. If I either reboot the router, or simply disconnect and reconnect the device in question to the wifi it always goes back to full speed again. This even happens on the satellite unit, although at a much slower rate likely because it's stationary in the house. It's plugged into my desktop with a cable and the other day I was seeing speed tests in that 150-200 Mb/sec range and power cycling the satellite fixed it (temporarily). The backhaul connectivity status always shows as fine, so I don't think this is a positioning issue.
It seems like something in the configuration gets bogged down over time as devices move about the house and get passed off to the satellite and back to the main router and so forth. I'm running the most recent firmware, which still hasn't addressed this. I have QOS and DDOS/port scan all disabled. I also use LAN address reservation for most of the devices in question, though that shouldn't matter. I live in a 2 story townhouse which is long and narrow, and the main router is at the front of the house on the main floor and the satellite at the back of the house on the top floor. If I run a speed test from the router via the Nighthawk app it's typically in the 750-900 Mb/sec range somewhere, which stays pretty consistent. The issue is that devices which connect to wifi seem to really slow down over time.
What do I do to fix this? Seems unacceptable for the price point of this system.
5 Replies
hi tostitobanditos - I have sent you a message. Please check your inbox.
Christian
I'm experiencing a similar issue, though it doesn't resolve by disconnecting and reconnecting the device to wifi. This evening I stood next to my MR60 router and used the Nighthawk app to test speed; I got 18 Mbps download. I turned off the wifi on the phone and turned it back on and retested, and got 18 Mbps again. I then rebooted the router; after the router was back up I tested again and got 752 Mbps. No other devices using the network at the time. Wired speeds through a switch to the router are similar; after the router has been up for a while, my connection speeds are about 18 Mbps. If I reboot the router, speeds improve to ~750 Mbps as they are right now. I expect speeds will be back down below 20 by tomorrow morning.
That sounds a bit different than what I've seen. I've never seen a drop that severe, and I've never seen slow speeds measured at the router. I think you have a different issue, and possibly a defective router.
My speeds measured at the router are always fine. What varies in my case is the speed of devices connected over wifi, and I believe it has to do with movement but I'm currently collecting data to test that. It seems that wifi devices which stay stationary, like my satellite for example, will maintain full speed for a relatively long time (though they will eventually slow down). However, I've seen my devices which move around the house like my phone or laptop degrade within a few hours of having their connection reset. I'll walk around the house with my phone for a bit, then sit down right in front of the router and run speed tests and get 160ish Mb/sec consistently. I turn wifi off and back on on my phone while sitting in the same spot and run another set of tests and it's consistently 500ish Mb/sec. Exactly the same with my laptop.
In any case, I have a support case open and I'm trying to gather some data for them over the weekend. Right now I decided to leave my laptop downstairs right in front of the router while carrying my phone around as normal to see if the laptop remains fast while stationary. That would at least confirm this has something to do with how the mesh network hands off devices to and from the satellite or how it routes traffic between them.
An update:
I was able to confirm through my testing that this seems to be triggered by movement, and likely how the mesh network hands things off between the satellite and main router.
I had previously run tests on both my phone and laptop which showed that their speed would degrade to around 30% of normal after just a few hours of movement around the house during use. I then ran an additional set of tests where I left the laptop stationary in my testing spot right in front of the primary router, and carried my phone around as normal. After more than a day of that my laptop was still at full speed while my phone had degraded as before. As always, simply disconnecting and reconnecting to wifi on affected devices will restore full speed.
So yeah, there looks to be some sort of bug in the firmware with how it moves devices around within the mesh network. Thankfully this is relatively minor given the speed of my connection and the fact that I'm not seeing disconnections or anything like that, but it's still annoying and I would like to see it resolved. Granted, I've also seen speed degrade in a similar way on my stationary devices (including the satellite), but only after a much longer time interval (days/weeks). So the issue may be a bit more complex than that. Anyways, I provided Netgear with my test results and feedback, so hopefully they can reproduce it and get to the bottom of it.
Update: The router has been up and connected since yesterday afternoon. I just tested speed with both the Nighthawk app and a browser window to speedtest.net; I got 16 Mbps. Turned off wifi and back on, let it start again. Again, 16 Mbps. Kids surfing but not streaming anything.
I think you're right, perhaps our issues are different. I'll start a new thread soon.
