Nighthawk X4S R7800 - WiFi less than half the speed of my modem/router combo and a third of ethernet

[franklyfresh]

I've been on the struggle bus for hours now and decided to solicit help from the experts here. My router is delivering really poor WiFi speeds. Ethernet connection form the modem or from the router are close to 1gb so the issue is only wireless. I also had a Xfinity-provided modem/router combo that was delivering 2x the wireless speed of the Nighthawk so I don't think its an issue with the devices or room environment.

Quick summary of the situation:

• I have 1gb service from Xfinity/Comcast
• I have been using their provided wireless modem/router combo for ~6 months with 900mbps via ethernet and 650mbps via WiFi
• I recently purchased a Motorola MB8611 modem that has a 2.5gbps port
• I activated the new modem and connected directly via ethernet and got 950-980mbps
• I connected my Nighthawk X4S R7800 to the modem and then connected via ethernet and got 900-950mbps
• I connected to the Nighthawk router via WiFi and keep getting 200-350mbps

Here is a list of things I did to troubleshoot:

• Checked my laptops Wifi adapter (Intel WiFi 6E AX210) could receive 1gb speeds

• Performed a factory reset on the router

• QoS off

• Metering off

• MTU setting is correct via ping test

• Ran test on cell and a second laptop and got similarly poor speeds

• Made sure I was on 5ghz network

• Checked 5ghz channel was on DFS but also tried 48 and other channels

• Made sure I had the latest Netgear firmware

• Not connected to VPN

Could it be the firmware? Or something else in the router settings? I don't know what half of the settings in the router control panel does so I haven't touched anything really. I don't expect Wifi to get anything close to the ethernet speed of 1gb but I can't beleive the ISP provided modem/router combo was delivering 2x the wireless speeds vs. the expensive netgear! There's got to be something going on with the router...

[michaelkenward]

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@franklyfresh wrote:

I don't expect Wifi to get anything close to the ethernet speed of 1gb but I can't beleive the ISP provided modem/router combo was delivering 2x the wireless speeds vs. the expensive netgear! There's got to be something going on with the router...

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That's good. Because wifi will never deliver wired speeds.

For all your long saga, you say nothing about the wifi clients. These are the things that set your wifi speeds.

You might find it instructive to read up a bit on wifi speeds and the many misconceptions surrounding them.

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.

The bottom line is that the 200-350 Mbps you get is better than many wifi clients can hope to achieve.

Another common confusion is between "connection rate" and speed. But that's another story.

[franklyfresh]

Thanks for the reply and link!

My adapter runs 2x2 which should get me actual throughout of 600mbps. The main reason I am puzzled is that I have been getting 600-650mbps via WiFi for months through my ISP provided modem/router. So there is no issue with my devices receiving 600mbps+ speeds. It was not until I switched to the Nighthawk that the speed was cut in half.

[franklyfresh]

bump

[Kitsap]

Under Advanced -> Wireless Setup, make sure you do not have a check mark beside Enable Smart Connect.

Under Advanced -> Wireless Setup, make sure you do not have a check mark beside Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence.

Use different SSID's for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

You should consider using the Voxel refined version of the firmware.  Link is:  Voxel