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Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

gkshenaut
Aspirant

Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

I have a new R7800 configured as an access point to my wired LAN. I can connect to the Internet either via wireless or via ethernet, but in both cases, I am passing through the R7800. When I run speed tests connected via ethernet, I get reasonable speeds, around 700-800 Mb/s (I have an AT&T Internet1000 fiber connection). But when I connect to the R7800 via wireless, speed tests show around 10Mb/s. For “speed test”, I have used several, but mostly the one from AT&T. However, in spite of the abysmal speed test scores over wireless, I can stream multiple fullscreen videos at full resolution via wireless without a problem. I'm using a MacBook Pro, and its wireless transmit speed generally shows from 875-1300 Mb/s.

 

Since I am connected as an AP, I can't access any of the QoS functionality of the R7800, but could that be related to this 70-80x difference in speed?

 

Two problems: why the big difference between wired and wireless passing through the R7800, and why the discrepancy between the poor speed test scores and the excellent streaming performance? I'll be grateful for any suggestions.

Model: R7800|Nighthawk X4S AC2600 Wifi Router
Message 1 of 8

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gkshenaut
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

OK, thanks for the very useful suggestions. I also did another test: I ran the AT&T speed test on my wife's newer MacBook Pro, and, mirable dictu, got much more satisfactory results, in the 300-500 Mbs/s range. This, along with the iPhone & ping results, have persuaded me that there is probably nothing wrong with my wifi network except that it is too fast for the wifi service on my computers.

 

And that's a wrap.

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Message 8 of 8

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microchip8
Master

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

which firmware version are you using on the R7800? version number, not "the latest". .58, .60 and (.62 for some) have wifi issues, mostly with high latency but there are no reports of such a low throughput like yours

Message 2 of 8

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance


@gkshenaut wrote:

Since I am connected as an AP, I can't access any of the QoS functionality of the R7800, but could that be related to this 70-80x difference in speed?

 

 

Disabled Features on the Router when set to AP Mode | Answer | NETGEAR Support

 

Any QoS stuff will be down to the router on your network.

 

With Internet that fast, you don't need QoS.

 

Maybe you should explain what else is on the network, the modem (if there is one) and the router.

 

Message 3 of 8
duckware
Prodigy

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

Do you get the same (poor) results from your smartphone connected 5GHz to the AP running http://speedtest.comcast.net?

 

From the Mac connected wirelessly to the AP, what 'ms' times do you get when you 'ping' the IP address of the AP (not the router) with a packet of size 62500?

 

Other possible tests: (1) revert to firmware before .52, (2) turn off 160 MHz channels (3) turn off MU-MIMO, (4) change channel.

 

I run the R7800 in AP mode and get great wifi speeds.

Message 4 of 8
gkshenaut
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

I'm on .62

Message 5 of 8
gkshenaut
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

Well, the setup is: AT&T ONT box (fiber to ether) to an Arris BGW210-700 (supplied by AT&T) in passthrough mode to a random routerbox running pfSense. The LAN port of the pfSense box is connected to the WAN port of the R7800 in AP mode. The ethernet ports are currently used as follows: a MacMini used as a low traffic server, a local connection point for the pfSense box, and an 8-port gigabit hub. To the hub is connected the wired ethernet LAN and a printer in the same room. When I run speed tests over ethernet, I connect either to the wired ethernet in another room, directly to the 8-port hub, or directly to the remaining ethernet port on the R7800, it makes no noticeable difference to the result.

Message 6 of 8
gkshenaut
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

I think my iPhone 6+ is overwhelmed by the speed when I do the speed test. When I do the AT&T one, it basically crashed the page; when I did another one, the results were somewhat better, like maybe 100 Mb/s, but I don't trust them because of how flaky the iPhone was acting during the tests. However, I think it's reasonable to conclude that on the iPhone it's faster than on the MacBook Pro. Interesting.

 

As for the pings, on two -c100 trials, I got means of 9.4 and 10.9 ms for the max packets.

 

As for the channel, when I run iStumbler, the upper channels in my vicinity are pretty clear. I'm using channel 161 currently (I had a chat with a netgear person and they suggested that? I was running in “auto” mode before. The channel change had no discernible result.)

Message 7 of 8
gkshenaut
Aspirant

Re: Nighthawk R7800 poor WiFI performance

OK, thanks for the very useful suggestions. I also did another test: I ran the AT&T speed test on my wife's newer MacBook Pro, and, mirable dictu, got much more satisfactory results, in the 300-500 Mbs/s range. This, along with the iPhone & ping results, have persuaded me that there is probably nothing wrong with my wifi network except that it is too fast for the wifi service on my computers.

 

And that's a wrap.

Message 8 of 8
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