NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Wireless signal on a hard wired Orbi satellite
Do the Orbi satellites still produce a wireless signal if you hardwire them to your Orbi router? Currently using the RBK853 with two satellites. If it does produce a wireless signal while hard wired ...
If that's the case, Does that increase the speed I should be getting? Getting somewhere around 400mbps WiFi signal on other side of house so wondering if hardwiring it will increase its WiFi speed.
Magician1979 wrote:If that's the case, Does that increase the speed I should be getting? Getting somewhere around 400mbps WiFi signal on other side of house so wondering if hardwiring it will increase its WiFi speed.
Ethernet backhaul will almost always produce greater througput than WiFi backhaul, even the "wonderful" WiFi6 backhaul.
The main issue is that ethernet is a full duplex connection, where data can flow simultaneously in both directions at almost full speed.
WiFi is a "one radio broadcasts at a time" system, while the others back off and wait until the channel is free. So, if one satellite broadcasts packets to anywhere (the router or another satellite), those other two go silent until it is finished. There are also regular "management" frames sent to maintain the WiFi link, which eat into capacity. My guess is that for most systems, a huge percentage of data is flowing from the router to satellites (internet streaming, for example).
There are tools that can be used to measure network throughput. iPerf3, for example, will send packets from one computer to another as fast as can be done. I regularly measure over 950mb/sec between computers connected directly to the Orbi router over gigabit ethernet links. If multiple tests were going on at the same time over the WiFi backhaul, that might give an idea of how much capacity the backhaul link has.
The User Facing WiFi signal is also a function of the actual device and how close it is to the Orbi unit. 2.4 WiFi "tops out" at a link rate of 400mb.