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Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

FizzBuzz
Aspirant

Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

I just upgraded my internet to Fiber Gigabit. I also bought the Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO from Amazon. I was super excited once the Fiber Gigabit internet was all hooked up and ready to go. But to my dismay, when I connect the Nighthawk to the ethernet cable from one of the ports from the ISP's modem/router, the download speed can't go over 180~ Mbps, but the upload speed is 840~ Mbps. I try plugging this same ethernet cable directly to my laptop, and I am getting close to gigabit speed as expected: 940~ Mbps download/840~ Mbps upload.  I also try a few CAT 5e / CAT 6 cables from the Nighthawk to my laptop, none help. I even plug these cables to the ISP's modem/router port and still achive the gigabit speed. Bad cables theory all ruled out. Traffic meter, QoS, Guest WiFi all disabled on the Nighthawk.

 

I found this resolved post: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/r6900P-Wired-Ethernet-Speed-is-extremely-slo...

I'm a little unclear on the solution in that post: new router or reverting to older firmware. My current firmware version is 1.3.1.64_10.1.36, which is a few versions newer than the OP's reverted version.

 

Defective router? Bad firmware update? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Edit: the internet port stats also show both WAN and LAN port as 1000M/Full (attached image).

Model: R6900P|Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router
Message 1 of 4

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FizzBuzz
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

Update: A replacement was delivered today. It was able to achieve gigabit speed right off the bat (see attached image - speedtest-wired-2020-01-27.png). The firmware version that came with the replacement was V1.3.0.20_10.1.1, which I left alone, didn't upgrade. So it seems the original router, which I already sent back, was defective, or the new firmware version or both.

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antinode
Guru

Re: Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

> [...] I also bought the Nighthawk R6900P [...]

 

   Why?

 

> [...] when I connect the Nighthawk to the ethernet cable from one of
> the ports from the ISP's modem/router, [...]

 

   Which port, exactly, of which device, did you connect to which port,
exactly, of the other device?

 

   Does your (unspecified) "the ISP's modem/router" have a maker and
model number?

 

   Cascading multiple routers can cause multiple problems.  If the
purpose of adding the R6900P was to extend the wireless-network coverage
of your (unspecified) "the ISP's modem/router", then you might want to
configure the R6900P as a wireless access point.


   Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and look
for Documentation.  Get the User Manual.  Read.  Look for "Use the
Router as a WiFi Access Point".

Message 2 of 4
FizzBuzz
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

Thank you for your quick reply.

 

Why?

Why did I buy the R6900P? I would like to use my own router with more functionalities than the ISP's provided router. Also, the R6900P has high review ratings on Amazon. That's why I bought it.

 

>Which port, exactly, of which device, did you connect to which port,
exactly, of the other device?

I connect the R6900P's internet/WAN port to one of the ISP's modem/router LAN ports.

 

>Does your (unspecified) "the ISP's modem/router" have a maker and
model number?

Not sure why this matters as I just connect my router to another modem/router which I have done before without problems. But here it is: ZYXEL C3000Z from CenturyLink.

 

>Cascading multiple routers can cause multiple problems.  If the
purpose of adding the R6900P was to extend the wireless-network coverage
of your (unspecified) "the ISP's modem/router", then you might want to
configure the R6900P as a wireless access point.

 

I understand the potential partial loss of connectivity connecting from one device to another. But "cascading" routers is not an issue. I have done it before with CenturyLink DSL modem/router to my own router without problems. Netgear also states the below in the router Setup Wizard, Router Mode is what I'm setting up the R6900P for.

 

[...] Router Mode: this mode allows you to take advantage of NETGER router functions. The NETGEAR router is setup as a normal WiFi router behind your existing router or gateway [...]

 

This is just reiterating what I'm seeing: I ran a speedtest with my laptop directly connected to the ISP's router via its LAN ports, I got over 900 Mbps download. I only achieved about 1/4th of this download speed on the R6900P. Upload speed is fine, which even confuses me more. Why isn't the upload speed impacted, only the download speed. I will try to flash older firmware version to see if that helps.

Message 3 of 4
FizzBuzz
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R6900P MU-MIMO degraded speed

Update: A replacement was delivered today. It was able to achieve gigabit speed right off the bat (see attached image - speedtest-wired-2020-01-27.png). The firmware version that came with the replacement was V1.3.0.20_10.1.1, which I left alone, didn't upgrade. So it seems the original router, which I already sent back, was defective, or the new firmware version or both.

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