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R8000 2.4Ghz connection really slow, 5GHz super fast
Hello,
I have a R8000 fully updated 1.0.3.4_1.1.2.
The 2.4Ghz band is running at 600Mbps (according to the advanced netgear menu). I noticed on my wifi device that it would not losd webpages fast, it would not check emails correctly, so I tried the speedtest app when connected to the 2.4GHz band and for my surprise it logged 0.5Mbps download and 0.7Mbps on upload. On the same device I switch back to 5GHz band and it logged 389Mbps. Putting it back on 2.4Ghz horrible spoeds (0.5-0.9 download, 0.7-1 Mbps uploads).
The wifi device was 5 feet from the R8000.
What is going on? Any suggestions?
I have a R8000 fully updated 1.0.3.4_1.1.2.
The 2.4Ghz band is running at 600Mbps (according to the advanced netgear menu). I noticed on my wifi device that it would not losd webpages fast, it would not check emails correctly, so I tried the speedtest app when connected to the 2.4GHz band and for my surprise it logged 0.5Mbps download and 0.7Mbps on upload. On the same device I switch back to 5GHz band and it logged 389Mbps. Putting it back on 2.4Ghz horrible spoeds (0.5-0.9 download, 0.7-1 Mbps uploads).
The wifi device was 5 feet from the R8000.
What is going on? Any suggestions?
Quick update, I got a Netgear 6400 (AC1750) for 120$ at Bestbuy, replaced the R8000 and all my devices on the 2.4Ghz WiFi are scoring best results than before and on my router GUI administration page it shows 450Mbps. The results are similar on the 5Ghz WiFi network.
Conclusion, the R8000 could be a great device, unfortunately is too buggy and the firmware is not stable enough.
If you don't have more then 12 people streaming at the same time in your 5Ghz, forget the triband routers, go for the dual band ones (AC1750 or AC1900), they are cheaper and most of the time offer the same speeds the standard WiFi devices support - plus the 2.4Ghz band works better and its more stable!
13 Replies
600 is useless unless you have clients that support it .....most do not
Agree, but if you ahve multiple devices using 2.4Ghz, better speeds means multiple clients will perform well (not up to 600Mbps)
I tried from several devices and got the same results: iPhone 6S, iPad Pro, Macbook Pro (mid 2015). They all report extreme slow speeds when connected to the 2.4Ghz network.
When connected to the 5GHz network everything seems great.
I checked and WMM is enabled ((in this model is called: Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices), I already use WPA2. I tried to downgrade the firmware to V1.0.2.46_1.0.97, no success.
Then:
I did a factory reset and tested with all the default configuration and numbers have improved to 26Mbps download and 6.26Mbps Upload. In the advanced settings it shows that the max speeds for the 2.4GHz network is 289Mbps (not 600Mbps).
Then: I upgraded the firmware to the lastest: V1.0.3.4_1.1.2
And tried again with the default configurations and the speeds are: 16Mbps Downlaod and 0.64Mpbs.
I tried to disable the Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence for the 2.4GHz network and tested again: 27Mpbs download and 1.1Mbps upload. Then I tried to do a factory reset again, but now using the lastest firmware and results: 50Mpbs down and 35.25Mpbs up.
Now disabled the Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence for the 2.4GHz network and tested again (noticed it now shows 2.4GHz network is 600Mbps (not 289Mbps): 6.7Mpbs down 0.49Mbps up.
Enabled 20/40 MHz Coexistence for the 2.4GHz network and tested again:32.6 Mbps down and 3.19 Mpbs up tried again: 39.14Mpbs and 14.3Mpbs up.
Restored my configuration from backup: and tested, noticed it now shows 2.4GHz network is 600Mbps (not 289Mbps): 0.99Mbps down and 0.65 up.
Enabled the 20/40 MHz Coexistence for the 2.4GHz network and tested again: 22.21Mpbs down and 16.63Mpbs up
noticed it now shows 2.4GHz network is 289Mbps (not 600Mbps)
All the above tests were done on a iPhone6S.
I used another device, a Macbook Pro (mid2015)
Here are the results:
1.8Mbps down and 1.50Mpbs up. Tested several times and it would not go beyond 2Mbps when using a Macbook Pro.
Somehow, the iPhone is performing much better according to the speediest results.
Anyway. The only thing I could conclude is that 600Mbps is a **bleep**ing marketing bull**bleep** number and when the device shows that 600Mbps is available, the 2.4GHz network is extremelly slow and unsusable.
I got better results with Enabled the 20/40 MHz Coexistence for the 2.4GHz network (this is something that you always read on the forums to disable to get 600Mbps - bull**bleep**!)
I'm extremelly disappointed with the results. The R8000 is not living my expectations. Maybe its better to have a 2.4Ghz router only (example a Nighthawk X4S with 5GHz band disabled) and a R8000 only doing 5GHz.
Or maybe its time for Netgear to make better software to exploit their hardware better :-(
Yes, 600 Mbps is a marketing number and basically impossible to achieve in practice. It uses 256-QAM, which is not standardized for use at 2.4 GHz. Good luck finding any device that supports it. Certainly not any Apple product.
600 Mbps also relies on using a 40 MHz channel width. The 20/40 MHz Coexistence setting is relevant, here. It determines whether the router is forced to use 40 MHz channels. But there are two issues with disabling coexistence (i.e. forcing the use of 40 MHz).
- Wi-Fi standards require that routers fall back to a 20 MHz channel width whenever conditions warrant. Usually, this means whenever other Wi-Fi networks are present.
- Many devices will only work properly with 20 MHz channels. Such devices can set a Fat Channel Intolerant indicator to routers, which are supposed to respect it by dropping down to 20 MHz. Apple is well known for supporting only 20 MHz. If your router is using 40 MHz, things are not going to work well, if at all.
So, what's the practical reality? If you live in an isolated area with no neighbors, then 64-QAM with a 40 MHz channel is capable of 450 Mbps. With neighbors present, 64-QAM with a 20 MHz channel is capable of 216.7 Mbps. Mind you, all these speed numbers are link speeds. A good rule of thumb is to cut these numbers in half to get real world "speed test" numbers.
What settings should you use? Leave 20/40 MHz coexistence on, especially because you have Apple products. Alternatively, set the mode to Up to 289 Mbps. This will force the router to use only 20 MHz channels and will, thus, insure this best experience with your Apple products.
Better yet, use 5 GHz with those devices that support it (i.e. all your Apple products) and you will have none of this nonsense. In my experience, 5 GHz is always faster than 2.4 GHz. Superior modulation (256-QAM is supported) and wider channels (80 MHz) more than make up lower signal strength. Even the criticisms about 5 GHz having lower range I feel are overblown.
