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Disappointing Wi-Fi Speeds on RBK852 - Arris BGW-210 Setup
Hi everyone, I just purchased a RBK852 thinking it would take more advantage of my AT&T gigabit internet connection. After several days of very extensive research of many different threads here in the Netgear community forums and elsewhere on the internet (AT&T's community forums, reddit, DSL Reports, etc.), I'm pretty frustrated and confused. I'm getting wired download speeds of 900+ mbps but my over-the-air Wi-Fi speeds are actually slower than the router that I replaced (a 3-year old Nighthawk X8 AC5000). The fastest Wi-Fi speeds I've been able to acheive are ~300 mbps while I routinely was able to see >400 mbps with my old Nighthawk router. My setup is as follows:
ATT GigaPower Fiber-->ONT-->BGW-210 RGW in IP Passthrough mode-->RBR850
The Arris BGW-210 is in IP passthrough bridge mode using a combination of procedures recommended by FURRYe38 and others in these posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/b1x5l6/how_to_properly_configure_the_arris_bgw210_for/
https://www.f0il.com/how-to-arris-bgw210-700-modem-router-with-netgear-xr500-router/
The RBK852 (Firmware: V3.2.16.22_1.4.9) is in Router Mode. I've tried putting the Orbi in AP Mode and leaving the Arris in router mode but that didn't help either. The one thing I haven't tried is removing the Arris BGW completely and using a "Dumb switch" method by spoofing MAC on the Orbi, which I'd like to avoid because it doesn't seem like a long-term solution.
Are there any advanced settings on the Orbi that can toggled on or off to improve my wireless performance? It doesn't make sense to me that a brand-new, state-of-the-art $700 mesh router is slower than the 3-year old Nighthawk X8 AC5000 it's replacing. I know it's unrealstic to expect my Wi-Fi speeds to equal my wired speeds but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something faster than the 300 mbps I'm getting. I would've expected that just swapping in the RBK852 without changing any settings at all on AT&T's Arris modem would result in higher speeds but that definitely hasn't been the case. I was getting >400mbps on the Nighthawk even when the Arris wasn't in IP Passthrough mode.
2 Replies
WIreless speeds depend on the connected devies design and support. My iphone 12 Max only sees just over 400Mpbs on Orbi AX. Due to the antenna configuration on the phone, 2x2, will not see anything much over 400-500Mpbs. Even on AX mode. My ASUS GT-AX11000 in wireless bridge mode does since it's a 4x4 designed router. It connects at 1800Mpbs most of the time.
Anskydude wrote:Hi everyone, I just purchased a RBK852 thinking it would take more advantage of my AT&T gigabit internet connection. After several days of very extensive research of many different threads here in the Netgear community forums and elsewhere on the internet (AT&T's community forums, reddit, DSL Reports, etc.), I'm pretty frustrated and confused. I'm getting wired download speeds of 900+ mbps but my over-the-air Wi-Fi speeds are actually slower than the router that I replaced (a 3-year old Nighthawk X8 AC5000). The fastest Wi-Fi speeds I've been able to acheive are ~300 mbps while I routinely was able to see >400 mbps with my old Nighthawk router.
Wireless has many obstacles, placement of router and satellites, interference from other wifi networks, cordless phones, appliances, walls, wiring, wifi channel settings, and router settings. Most of the time I find it due to placement and WiFi channel selection.
Try these settings:
In Advanced> Wireless Setings Enable AX mode
Also select the least busy channel for 2.4 Ghz, (mine is 1) and I usually use 48 for 5Ghz
In Advanced> Advanced Wireless Setings uncheck 20/40 coexistence, check enable WMM. I set my MTU size to 1500
