NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Nighthawk XR500 slow wifi speeds
My setup: Comcast GB internet> CM1000 > XR500>EX8000
So here’s my issue, when connected directly to Ethernet I’m pulling about 480Mbs down and 40 up. When connected to WiFi with QOS off I’m pulling 30-100 (varies wildly) down and 40ish up. When connecting a wired computer to the EX8000 I’m pulling 1-100(varies wildly) down and again about 40 up. My previous setup was two ASUS rt-87u which were linked to provide connection for the computer where I can’t hard wire it in. My speeds were typically somewhere around 200Mbs/40mbs both on the computer and WiFi devices.
Long story short I swapped out these routers to get better and faster speeds but I’ve seen vastly poorer WiFi speed on the xr500 and want to rule out something I’m doing. I’m running up to date firmware on all, looking for any advice you guys can give, I really like the overall performance while wired but I need the WiFi to perform to justify the purchases.
So here’s my issue, when connected directly to Ethernet I’m pulling about 480Mbs down and 40 up. When connected to WiFi with QOS off I’m pulling 30-100 (varies wildly) down and 40ish up. When connecting a wired computer to the EX8000 I’m pulling 1-100(varies wildly) down and again about 40 up. My previous setup was two ASUS rt-87u which were linked to provide connection for the computer where I can’t hard wire it in. My speeds were typically somewhere around 200Mbs/40mbs both on the computer and WiFi devices.
Long story short I swapped out these routers to get better and faster speeds but I’ve seen vastly poorer WiFi speed on the xr500 and want to rule out something I’m doing. I’m running up to date firmware on all, looking for any advice you guys can give, I really like the overall performance while wired but I need the WiFi to perform to justify the purchases.
12 Replies
Hi Frankie,
A few things could be causing this:
- Are any of the LEDs on your XR500 showing as amber/orange? This happens when you use an Ethernet cable that is limited to 100mbps. Regardless, it's probably a good idea to switch your cables if you have replacements (Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat7 are best)
- How are you testing speeds? If you use Wireless, then it's possible you are on the 2.4GHz band which is limited to around 70-100mbps in general. The XR500 uses a cool tool called 'Smart Connect' which will put you on 5GHz whenever your device needs it
- Do you use PPPoE to connect to the Internet? If yes, I recommend you enter those details on your modem instead of your XR500 as that can sometimes slow things down
- Hi Jack, thanks for the quick reply...
1- I’m using only cat 7 and all wired connections are working flawlessly. 480up/40 down, it should be higher but alas it’s Comcast’s issue.
2-I’ve disabled the smart connection feature since I couldn’t tell if it was on the 2.5 or 5 and on 5 ghz on a device I’ve registered over 600mbs I’m getting the 20-40mb/40 up. I’m not sure why the upload has been very consistent while the download has been all over the place
3- Comcast doesn’t use PPPOE
I also turned off 20/40 cohabitation on a prayer... didn’t do anything- Download a WiFi analyser to find the least congested channel and then change to that in settings, does that improve your speeds?
Exact same issue. I have the latest up to date firmware. I get a 1000 mbps when it is directly connected to the xr500 via ethernet but wifi holds steady at around 100 mbps on multiple wifi cards (all 5ghz). I placed my laptop in close proximity to the router to try and rule out network congestion. I tried different channels on the 5ghz. I turned on and off various wifi settings under wifi setup and advanced wireless (anything that was a wifi setting was a candidate for turning on and off). I turned QoS off. I did a factory reset. I'm at a complete loss on what to try so I'm going to attempt rolling back the firmware to older versions to see if that does anything. I have no idea how long this has been going since I upgraded my connection yesterday (was 100mbps...). If anything works, I'll reply back since this is the first link that comes up when I search 'xr500 wifi slow'. =)
The fact you're at 100mbps suggests you're using a CAT5 cable somewhere in your setup e.g. between the router and the modem. Do you have a CAT5e or CAT6 cable you can use instead?
Did you ever get this working.
Im having the same issues .
I have fiber 200/200 Mb when plugged direct i get full speeds while connected to wifi i get max 25mb Up and down on the 2G and even slower 15Mb on the 5G .
I have disabled QoS no geo filter tried reset new firmware
Nothing seems to fix this.
Beamforming should be enabled. MIMO/160Mhz disabled if you don't have any MIMO or 160Mhz supporting devices. Try setting manual channels, 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any un-used channels by neighbors on 5ghz.
Try setting WPA2 and AES only. Disable 20/40Mhz Coexistence.
Test with Smart Connect disabled and enabled.
Log into debug.htm and disable 802.11k (Fast Roaming) to see if this does anything.
Depending upon adapter used, you can see over 100Mb on 2.4Ghz. Max speeds on 5ghz would be around 400-500Mb, depending upon adapter used and it's support.
I'm currently working with NG support on a 2.4Ghz speed issue seen on the XR450:
