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Forum Discussion
RBR850 - Poor download speeds on Wi-Fi
Hi guys, Having some serious issues with download speed when on Wi-Fi. Have 500/500 Internet link and when I use cable connected directly to router i get about that so just Wi-.Fi that's affected...
I agree that these speeds over WiFi are totally unexpected.
I would leave the RTS/CTS setting at 2347. RTS/CTS is a really complicated subject and Netgear has changed the default setting from one firmware release to another with no formal explanation. The way I read general explanations indicates that each device may have its own RTS/CTS setting. Thus, a very small value for the router would result in nearly every packet transmission using the RTS/CTS mechanism. This would cut into maximum download bandwidth quite a bit.
Would it be possible to find the reported Link Rate on these various devices for both transmit and receive?
(for example, my Android phone is now reporting Transmit link speed of 468Mbps and Receive link speed of 650Mbps.)
Thank you for the advice on RTS/CTS settings.
PC (Dell 7320) link rate: 1201/961 Mbps
Speedtest result: 74/444Mbps
Macbook Pro: link rate 867Mbps
Speedtest result: 45/398Mbps
Is there a way to see this on an iPhone?
Mickesj wrote:
PC (Dell 7320) link rate: 1201/961 Mbps
Speedtest result: 74/444Mbps
Macbook Pro: link rate 867Mbps
Speedtest result: 45/398Mbp
These connection link rates indicate that the PC is connected at WiFi6 (802.11ax) and the Macbook Pro is probably connected at WiFi5 (876Mbps). The product specifications would indicate the WiFi capabilities precisely.
I cannot conceive of anything that could cause the WiFi performance to be unbalanced this way. If the WiFi frequency is overloaded by nearby users, it would affect WiFi transmission regardless of 'direction'. Unless some other device on the network is absolutely hogging the download link at the precise time these tests are run, I just don't get it.
Really really strange..
Shut down everything in the entire house that has a radio transmitter (alarm, yale doorman locks, camera-hub, xiaomi robots, apple-tv's, google home, automated lightning, washing machine etc etc) and both RBSs so that only my PC was connected.
Did a hardware reset and tested after that (my PC being only connected device) -> no change.
Downgraded RBR to V4.6.14.3_2.3.12 -> no change.
Connection via cable to router gives full speed up/dwn in all tests.
You think it might be that the router-hw is broken?
I would think that broken hardware would reduce performance in both directions. I can think of only one other possibility, and have no idea how to investigate it: Military/Weather Radar.
Radio use is regulated in every part of the globe. In the US, the FCC controls which frequencies are available. In Europe, it appears to be some sort of group effort. See the footnotes for Europe in this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_(802.11a/h/n/ac/ax)
WiFi routers achieve impressive speed using two techniques:
- Combining frequencies into a larger bandwidth
- Using complicated modulation so that each chunk of data can represent more information.
WiFi5 (802.11ac) uses 256QAM (2^8 = 256) meaning 8 bits of data per radio symbol
WiFi6 (802.11ax) uses 1024QAM (2^10 = 1024) meaning 10 bits of data per symbol, an increase of 25%
See, for example:
https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/1024-QAM/thread/667282457449349121-667213871523442688
In the US, the 5G frequency band from 5170 to 5280 GHz (channels 36 through 48) are "available" and the Orbi 850 uses these frequencies for user WiFi connections.
In Europe, this frequency band is not completely available. As footnotes 1 and 2 indicate, the WiFi system must take steps to avoid interfering with military and weather radar systems. (indoor use only. reduce power. "mitigate" - whatever THAT means).
My hypothesis is that the Orbi router has detected radar using part of the radio frequency and is not using all of the channels to transmit information, but the user devices (PC, Macbook, PS5) are just blasting away on all frequencies and thus achieve higher bandwidth.
But, geez, how to validate/reject this hypothesis? I suggest:
- Perhaps there are user forums in Sweden that might discuss WiFi and radar issues?
- Download WiFi Info View (free for Windows from Nirsoft https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html )
Use the Advanced Settings to capture only the 5G channel from your own SSID (otherwise it captures every WiFi system in the neighborhood) and look at the details about which frequencies it is using.