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Forum Discussion
APTECHTV
Apr 10, 2022Follower
CAX80 poor 80mhz WiFi 6 Performance, speed drops to below WiFi 5 speeds.
Recently upgraded from C7800. Tests are done using iPerf with the test server hooked up to the CAX80's 2.5GBaseT port.
- On 80mhz 2x2 WiFi 6 Clients A.K.A iPhones and iPad Pros 2020 or later, I can get 700-950mbps for a few hours but then have it drop to the same speed as WiFi 5 at 500-600mbps, or even dip to a humiliating 433mbps and 100mbps. Lattency/ping also suffers a lot, jitters to 300ms every few seconds. Did not experience any issue with those 2x2 80mhz WiFi 6 capable clients back when I had C7800 with WiFi 5, they were getting consistent 600mbps but now my speeds are worse using CAX80 so the clients were working as expected back when I had WiFi 5 C7800 but they just don't like CAX80. In fact sometimes it just flat out won't connect and require me to reset the device and "forget the SSID" to be able to re-connect again.
- On 80mhz 3x3 WiFi 5 Clients (2018 MacBook Pro 15") I get better speeds and most importantly reliability and consistency than 80mhz 2x2 WiFi 6 clients. Instead of getting speed that ranges from 100-950mbps, I get consistent 700-800mbps when connecting to CAX80, impressive for a WiFi 5 device. For some reason WiFi 5 80mhz (3x3) clients are doing better than WiFi 6 80mhz (2x2) clients... This doesn't make sense and I thought it was supposed to be the opposite!
- On 160mhz 2x2 WiFi 6 Clients (2021 HP Pavilion 15) The only time WiFi 6 has worked correctly with the CAX80, with a linkrate of 2402mbps, I get around 69% of that at 1600mbps, lowest speed is 970mbps...
Main takeaway: I have the mode selected to "4800mbps" I'm guessing that's the 160mhz mode, since when using WiFi anlyzer it shows that my SSID takes up double the width compared to other 5ghz AX SSIDs. Plus my channels 100-128 are all free, my neighbors are not using DFS but instead either around 30 or 150. Looks like CAX80 is causing problems with it's 160mhz antennas, there are a few theories I have:
- My 2x2 80mhz WiFi6 Devices spin the wheel and take turn having crappy speeds. Intrestly, they are all mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. After all, the WiFi devices where I don't have issues with are big 'ol 15 inch Laptops! (But the mobile devices were working as expected back when I had WiFi5, being able to keep speeds around 600mbps!)
- My 2x2 80mhz WiFi6 clients get confused when selecting sub-channels within the 160mhz pipe. Maybe that's why I sometimes get expected speeds and sometimes I don't, maybe is because of improper channel selection on the devices...
- The QAM receivers on my 80mhz devices gets confused when CAX80 is sending 160mhz type speeds. Maybe the CAX 80 thinks my 80mhz devices are 160mhz devices and push out really fast speeds, but my devices can't read that fast thus leading to packetloss and requiring the packets be resent.
- Power transmit mode does not match. I have the CAX80 power transmit set to 100% and that might be okay for 15 inch Laptops but maybe too much for phones and tablets?
- CAX80 sucks or the client sucks. Self explanatory
- Poor antenna placement on the CAX80. With there being very little information about the CAX80, we don't know where the antennas are and what best orientation should it be inIf anyone have any advice, please reply or DM via aptechtv2007@gmail.com or find me on reddit u/aptechtv
2 Replies
- olympos1625NETGEAR Employee Retired
Hi APTECHTV,
Thank you for reaching out. We are sorry for not being able to get back to you soon. We would like to endorse you to NETGEAR Level 2 support team for a callback. Please provide the following information:
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Oliver
Community Team