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306Orbi's avatar
Jun 04, 2022
Solved

ORBI 963 - Best Way For Wifi

I have a Comcast Xb8 Modem inn Bridge Mode Connected to my ORBI 963E Router.

The internet speed ORBI App Speed test shows is anywhere from 1375 to 1425 MBPS for download and around 42MBPS Upload.

The Router is connected to a Araknis Gigabit Switch - when I run a speed test on the Switch it shows speeds never above 940 MBPS - So I am losing almost 500 MBPS between the Router and the Switch.

I have Three Satellites connected to the ORBI963E.

I dont have any 6E radio devices 'Yet'...

But my iPhone 13 Pro Max when close to a Satellite shows upto 1 Gigs on Speedtest the Mac book air never shows above 600 MBPS.

Question... Looks like the internet speed being delivered by Comcast to ORBI Router is fantastic unto 1425 MBPS and always above 1350 MBPS. My House has Cat 5E cabling and my switches such as Araknis Switch is rated 1 Gig.

Would it be better (achieve better speeds) to remove the wired ethernet cables from the Router to the Satellites? Especially as Comcast keeps bumping up the Internet Speed now at 1.4 GBPS and as it moves to 2 GBPS?

I did run a test to keep my iPhone 13 Pro Max close to my ORBI Router (which shows incoming internet speed from Comcast at 1.4 MBPS) but the speed is not much different when I keep it close to the wired satellites.

This question relates to ISP (Comcast) as speeds exceeding above the rated speed of the switches and ethernet wiring - will it be more effective to go wireless than wired.

Would love to hear from others....

 

 

  • Sadly its something to test because the wireless backhaul is going to be different for everyone because everyone's home/neighborhood is different. 5ghz speeds drop off quickly with distance and interference. So disconnecting the wired backhaul and actually testing your speeds wired into the satellite is going to give you the most real world performance data versus us just guessing if it'll be faster or not. 

    I have a very similar setup and bought a cheap (ish) 2.5gig 8x port switch just for my wired backhaul between the router/satellites. This allows my satellites to have the same full 1.4gig speeds from xfinity. 

    Only caveat with this is that it isn't usually the satellites that are the bottleneck but the actual device you're testing on. Most of my wireless devices can't max out my speeds over wireless. Only a few can (my intel AX210 cards) and they have to be either close to the router or the satellite to do so. 

8 Replies

  • Sadly its something to test because the wireless backhaul is going to be different for everyone because everyone's home/neighborhood is different. 5ghz speeds drop off quickly with distance and interference. So disconnecting the wired backhaul and actually testing your speeds wired into the satellite is going to give you the most real world performance data versus us just guessing if it'll be faster or not. 

    I have a very similar setup and bought a cheap (ish) 2.5gig 8x port switch just for my wired backhaul between the router/satellites. This allows my satellites to have the same full 1.4gig speeds from xfinity. 

    Only caveat with this is that it isn't usually the satellites that are the bottleneck but the actual device you're testing on. Most of my wireless devices can't max out my speeds over wireless. Only a few can (my intel AX210 cards) and they have to be either close to the router or the satellite to do so. 

    • 306Orbi's avatar
      306Orbi
      Star

      That is a awesome idea ... to use a 2.5 GBPS Switch just for the Satellites Backhaul... 

      The next bottleneck is my wiring CAT 5E (long runs) which may have a limitation of how fast it can deliver data ... but you are right... need to test and find out.

      And then not having 6E (or even 6) radios on my devices.

      I am hoping the new Mac Air will have 6E, we will know next week if Apple announces it.

      In the long term - my ethernet cabling will become the bottleneck... that's for sure.

      • plemans's avatar
        plemans
        Guru

        My home is cat 5E and managed to work with 2.5g. Just make sure your ends are terminated with high quality connectors. 

        I'd try using the wireless backhaul first and see how well it works. It might saturate your connections fine for the time being. Especially since multigig switches are coming down in prices.