WAX Speeds too slow

[PhilBest313]

Approximately 12 months ago, I purchased the GS108PE-300AUS as well as 4 WAX214 access points.

The system as a whole works very well, however I have been experiencing very slow data rates when connected via the WAX214.

Being an electrical engineer, I tried every possible test and each time the outcome was the same.

1. The GS108PE is located approximately 40metres from my desk.

2. The same Cat-6 Ethernet cable and patch cables and GS108PE POE port 4 was used for the each test.

3. When I connect the laptop to the patch cable, it connects directly in Ethernet mode to the GS108PE Port 4 with speeds 270mbps down & 18mbps up .

4. When I connect the WAX to the same cable and wait for it to handshake, I only get 40mbps down & 18mpbs up.

5. At other times the WAX download is much slower, around 20mbps or less.

6. I searched for firmware updates and did this for the GS108PE, however there was nothing available for the WAX.

7. My Conclusion: The WAX design speed is unchanged or slower and because there is no firmware update, the WAX internal design is greatly flawed.

- Philip Best Electrical Engineer, Brisbane Australia.

[PhilBest313]

NETGEAR WAX Published Speed Specification lists 600MBps at 2.5GHz and 1200MBps at 5GHz.

Our Ookla Speedtest to different speed-test access points, shows a speed between the WAX and NETGEAR switch GS108PE-300AUS (firmware updated) is only 44Mbps download ans 12Mbps upload.

Please help us find a solution to this low speed problem ASAP.

[Nivedita]

Could you please let us know the model and FW version details, AP configurations, topology, connected clients details. 

[BrianL]

Hi @PhilBest313,

Welcome to the Community!

You may also want to share the WiFi Clients specs and if the issue is being experienced in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.

Kind regards,

BrianL

[PhilBest313]

GS108PE-300AUS S/N 5E56175000019 Product GS108PEv3 Bootloader V2.06.03 Firmware V2.06.14EN

DHCP Enabled IP Address 192.168.20.23 Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.20.1

Purchased 2023-01-15

WAX214 WiFi 6 AX1800 PoE Access Point Firmware is factory as no new firmware is available for this product.

Purchased 2023-01-15

Serial numbers on boxes 6K51132R00641  6K51132W00646  6K52172E0000C 6k52172L0003C

Note: We have a total of 4 WAX214's

WAX Login information: WAX214 - AX1800 WiFi 6 Dual Band PoE Wireless Access Point

Ap Name NETGEARB0CD4D Firmware Device Version 1.0 Management VLAN ID Untagged LAN Speed 1Gbps

Firmware version 2.1.1.3

device version 1.0

Last Firmware availability Check Tue Jul 2 11:14:09 STD 2024

New Firmware Version [blank]

release date [blank]

[PhilBest313]

I am located on Level-3 and all this work has been done using WAX "Level-3" and that all of this time doing tests, no other traffic was possible because no other devices were connected.

After being in WAX admin Config mode and then returning to normal operation mode, the WAX suddenly began to operate at very fast speeds with download at 253.64Mbps and upload 23.41Mbps.

Furthermore, after rebooting the fast speed was maintained, so it clear that the WAX has the electronic capacity but for some reason this mostly does not happen.

Then after bringing another WAX214 online "Level-2" and then connecting to that, the speed is much faster but only at 177 download and 23.89 upload.

But after connecting back to WAX Level-3, the download speed has dropped to only 13.38Mbps (extremely slow).

Connecting back to WAX Level-2 shows the download speed fast again at 160Mbps.

Reconnecting to Level-3 shows the download speed slow at 40Mbps.

Then rebooting and reconnecting to Level-3 shows a download speed of 238Mbps.

Please note that we are located in a slightly remote area where there is no outside interference, and we are using the Australian National Broadband Network.

Please also note that the Ap Name NETGEARB0CD4D is similar to the WiFi Config name WAS214B0CD4D.

[schumaku]

I'm more than  little bit confused. Always the same switch port, and always the same patch cable.

However you talk about Level-1, -2, n -3.  Using  single flying patch cord all through the house, or is there an in-house fixed cable installation in place?

In reality, the WX214 does easily exceed the up- and download speed with  reasonable wireless client.

In a test scenario, with other 5 GHz AP active on air and in use, the test client here does establish a weak 649/600 (Mbps) PHY link speed only.

Key reason is because the WX214(v1) does only offer four 5 GHz channels which are heavily used here because we're benchmarking MLO these hours, so only 4 channels at 20 MHz nd the concurrent usage does not allow to reach the 1201/1201 Mbps the WX214 does easily reach typically. 

Even at these low PHY link rates, the WAX214 does easily reach much more performance on a popular Swiss cloud test then the numbers you report. Some 750..850 are easily possible under good conditions with the WAX214 and an average Intel AX200 or better.

Said this: Netgear refuses to enhance the WAX214(v1) for supporting the DFS channels, at lest for the EU/CE regulatory domain  

This makes the WX214v1 (or WAX218v1) not feasible for deploying more than a single AP in the same house or office.

SSID: WAX214 Test
Protokoll: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Sicherheitstyp: WPA3-Personal
Netzfrequenzbereich: 5 GHz
Netzwerkkanal: 44
Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit (Empfang/Übertragung): 649/600 (Mbps)
...

Hersteller: Intel Corporation
Beschreibung: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 7 BE202 160MHz
Treiberversion: 23.40.0.4
Physische Adresse (MAC): A0-02-A5-xx-xx-xx