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Re: Nighthawk mesh wifi slow

PFCMaddMann
Follower

Nighthawk mesh wifi slow

I purchased the NETGEAR Nighthawk MK62 is a dual-band WiFi 6 mesh system. The setup was quite simple. I have one at the rear of my house to cover my bedroom and 1 downstairs to cover my kitchen, living room, and backyard. Signal is great everywhere, however the speed is crap. The main unit shows it is getting an average of 980mbps which is on par with what I pay for from my ISP. If I am connected directly to that system via hardwire I get the same speed. If I connect to it via WiFi it drops to around 680mbps which is still reasonable, but disappointing to loose 1/3rd of the speed right off the bat. Now comes the real problem, the remote units seem to cap out at around 250mbps. So even getting fantastic signal, the trade off is 3/4 of my speed. This is a problem as I run my media server from downstairs. Even though it is hardwired into the remote unit, the speed is terrible. What is going on? I am getting $90 router speeds from my new $300 set up. 

Dual-band AX1800 2-Pack (MK62) 

Message 1 of 3

Re: Nighthawk mesh wifi slow


@PFCMaddMann wrote:

If I connect to it via WiFi it drops to around 680mbps which is still reasonable, but disappointing to loose 1/3rd of the speed right off the bat.


That is how wifi works. Unless you have wifi clients that go faster than that, there is nothing that your router can do about it.

 

It might be worth a bit of background reading.

 

Understand Wi-Fi 4/5/6 (802.11 n/ac/ad/ax)

 

@duckware knows their stuff and can bust a few myths and cut through marketing hype.

 

WiFi  clients that can do 1000 Mbps are rare.

 


Now comes the real problem, the remote units seem to cap out at around 250mbps. So even getting fantastic signal, the trade off is 3/4 of my speed.

This is from a satellite that connects to the router over wifi rather than wired?

 

What is the distance between router and satellite?

 

Then the usual boilerplate questions.

 

What firmware version do you have on the device?

A number is more useful than "the latest". (It may not be by the time people read this.) There can also be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.

It might also help if you told people what the modem is in front of this router, if there is one. The make and model number could be useful. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?

The reason for asking is that a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.

Message 2 of 3
plemans
Guru

Re: Nighthawk mesh wifi slow

Your speeds actually sound about correct. The reason I say that is you bought the most basic mesh system you can get. Its a dual band AX1800 system. They're not going to have the same speeds as the tribands with their dedicated backhaul. 

If you can hardwire in your satellite, you'll get roughly the same performance as the router but not when using the wireless backhaul. Reason why is that satellites has to use the same wireless connect to go router---satellite and then satellite----device and it can't do both at once. So it cuts the speed of the satellite in half. All dual band mesh systems function like this. 

You can read the review from dongknows that goes over this and has tested speeds of these devices. You'll  notice all t he dual band systems are slower than the tribands. 

https://dongknows.com/netgear-mk63-nighthawk-review/

 

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