EX6130-100FRS quite slow, even close to the router

Hoi, plemans.

Thanks a lot for your help and advices. I took them one by one, below, with some results.

sounds like something is a little wonky. its a highly technical term. Smiley Happy

could things you could try.

1. A little more distance from extender to router

OK, extender moved to the staircase, 10 meters from the router, with light obstacles.

Laptop somewhere between the router and extender.

Speedtest, without extender (laptop to router): Google fiber says: 386Mbs
With extender, 2ghz: Google fiber says: 24.7 Mbs
With extender, 5ghz: Google fiber says: 19.1 Mbs

--> Negative

2. hardwire into your extender with the ethernet port for speedtesting. it'll help determine if its an issue with the backhaul (router-extender) or with devices talking to the extender.

Ok, it is AP mode as I understand the doc.
Hardwired the extender to the router with a 2m CAT 5E eth cable.
Router specs says all eth ports are autoneg up to 1GBps. I have no way here to check what if the effective eth negotiated speed between the extender and the router is 1G or 100m here, but still, results are better.

Direct laptop--> router: 320
5ghz: 74 Mbs. (Repeater wired to the router, Laptop 4m far)
2ghz: 78 Mbs (Repeater wired to the router, Laptop 4m far)
2ghz: 92 Mbs (Repeater wired to the router, Laptop 50cm far)

--> Better

3. Extenders are sensitive to wifi interference. try changing channels to see if it helps with interference.

No success here, with various random choices.

4. Band you're testing on makes a big difference too. The 2.4ghz is much lower bandwidth but penetrates objects better. the 5ghz is going to be much faster but struggle with penetration and distance. Make sure you know which band you're using for the speedtesting.

I cant connect to the repeater's 5ghz_ext. Shows a question mark on OSX tray icon. I didnt dig this topic or look for specific error.

5. Fastlane. I think this device has the option of being configured with fastlane. have you used it or is it turned on? if so and the 2.4ghz is being used for the backhaul, thats going to severely slow you're speeds.

Ok Fastlane, with 5ghz on the backend.

5ghz wasn’t enabled on the router. Actually yes, but some kind of 5+2 ghz multiplexing option on the router, not sure to understand. Disabled the option, so the router offers both.

5Gz to ext_5gz repeating doesn’t work. (The laptop refuses to connect with an unspecified error, didn’t dig)

So, fastlane. Enabled.

Setup: Router — >(5ghz) —> Extender — (2ghz) ——> Laptop
Speedtest at 97 Mbs. Good enough for me.

--> Good

6. What router are you testing with? You can have the fastest extender but if its the router thats limiting the speeds, then it'll be the issue.

The mighty BBox sensation NG+ , provided by French ISP Bouygues Telecom. Wikipedia product sheet says that the chip is a Broadcom BCM63168.

I'd start with what I recommended and I'd also look at your router a bit. Potentially the router could be limiting or utilizing a form of QoS to limit speeds.

Since the original setup (laptop --> router) achieves 300MBs+, I dont see how it would apply. In my (few) understanding, a wifi extender, seen from the router point of view, is undifferentiable from any other wifi station, so no reason for specific QOS to be applied.

I looked in the router admin gui, the only Qos related item is a "Gaming mode" option. This seems undocumented. ISP's forum states that it is a mechanism that reduces latency by doing less error correction. Like fastpath in vdsl. Maybe applicable to copper interface only, not so clear. Anyway, this option is disabled here.

-----

So, best setup here is Fastlane, around 100mbps down speed on the end station with all devices in the same room.

Question: Are there some people here that have better perf with the same extender, or is it a nice example of the diff between marketing theoretical specs and the reality?

Thx again

JHO