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Orbi AX with Gig Internet - Wi-Fi speeds cut in half
Was excited about putting in Orbi Ax so upgraded to Spectrum Gig internet, Wi-Fi speeds are less than half what is coming in via modem. Orbi app reports gig speed download (940) and the correct uploa...
Iphone 11 only supports 80hz wide channels. So its best case connection is 1200mbps. Reason why is a 2x2 antenna arrangement is going to hit max link speed of 2400mbps if its running in 160hz. a 2x2 in 80hz max links speed is going to be 1200mbps. That's link speed, throughput is average of 55% of link speed. Some devices do a bit better than this. so hitting 650mbps is within what you'd expect. Again, some devices can hit faster speed either through using 160hz, lower overhead, or 3x3 antenna arrangements.
The throughput speeds that the WiFi router manufacturers claim are the theoretical speeds and do not reflect what you'll actually see in real life. They are not even close.
On my Orbi RBK852 AX system, I typically see around 350-400 Mbps on my AC devices, but do a little better on my AX devices at around 550 Mbps where I normally use them. If I take my iPhone into the office where the router is just a couple of feet away, I can get 820 Mbps.
One thing to keep in mind though is that when performing a speed test, you want to try different servers as you will get differing results. My speed test app defaults to the nearest AT&T server as I have AT&T fiber. I get about 940 Mbps from the router itself, but from WiFi-connected devices I get around 350 Mbps. If I switch to a new HiPoint server in my area, I get 450 - 500 Mbps. It doesn't make any sense that my WiFi speed would vary depending on the server at the other end, but clearly this one server is capable of delivering more data to my clients. Perhaps the HiPoint server has a higher speed Internet connection or maybe it receives less traffic, but it's the only server that consistently gives me greater throughput at my devices.
The one thing that I am still trying to understand is why upload speeds are only about half of download speeds. My fiber connection is symmetric, so I get 1 Gbps both ways, yet my upload speeds at best are half my download speeds over WiFi. Go figure.
of course their claimed speeds are just pipe dreams; however, many folks post how they get near gig speeds with these things on wifi, so not sure if they are lying, or just quoted their "wired" speeds, instead of wifi speeds..
As far as upload speeds, I will say the Velop MX 10 wifi 6 gave me almost identical down and upload speeds; the orbi does not do that, so if asymetrical speeds are important to you, you might want to look elsewhere..
interesting point about trying different servers; I usually just use Cox servers or the closer ones to my house, but I'll try. your idea and see if there is any difference
thanks
I also tried the Velop AX system, but had somewhat slower speeds, ~50 Mbps or so, in general than the Orbi gave me. I also had regular bad behavior with the Velops. Everthing would indicate that all was well, but I would be unable to access the Internet for 2-20 mins, then suddenly it would start going through again. This would happen several times a day, and Linksys was clueless. This was on my second set, too. The first set I purchased wouldn't sync the satellites no matter what we did. So, they got exchanged, but as I said the second set had the wierd freezing issue, so I ended up returning them too.
Netgear isn't perfect, but so far I've had a pretty good experience with the Orbi AX system and similar to the Orbi AC system, no one else seems to be able to match Netgear's overall speed.