R7000 / EX7000 / EX6150 – Throughput

[rheyman]

I have an R7000 connected to a cable modem. I also have an EX7000 and an EX6150 connected to the R7000 over Cat5. All units are broadcasting the same SSID but are on different channels. All units are on the latest firmware.

I recently upgraded my cable Internet service to 1Gb down and 35mbps. I used my MacBook Pro to test speed at various points in my network. I am getting about 950Mbps down through a wired connection directly to the cable modem. I am getting about 750mbps at the router with the wireless off and all wired connections removed except the MacBook. Standing with a few feet of the router, I am getting about 450mbps wireless.

Is this normal? What settings can I check to improve the performance? Would moving to a mesh network (e.g., Orbi), maybe with wired backhaul, improve network throughput?

Before I go through the pain of upgrading my home network, I want to make sure it will actually increase performance.

[plemans]

wireless speeds aren't the same as wired speeds. 

Wireless has more overhead as well as most actual devices are a 1x1 antenna or 2x2 antenna. So they aren't going to connect at faster speeds. 

I'd take a look at this article on wifi misconceptions: 

https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html

Its a good article (a bit in depth at times for most) and can clear up speed misconceptions over wifi. 

If you're hitting 450mbps over wifi, you're doing pretty well. Especially with those devices. 

[rheyman]

Thank you so much for the insight. Makes sense.

Two follow-up questions...

1. Is router overhead also responsible for the drop in wired speed at the modem (1Gbps) and the router (~750Mbps)?

2. Are there more recent Netgear routers and extenders, wired or wireless, mesh or traditional, that would increase downstream throughput? If so, what might you recommend (e.g., Orbi with wired backhaul)?

[plemans]

I don't have the r7000 so I can't attest to its own performance. I do know its an 8 year old device. it was a flagship device at the time it was released but it still needed certain features disabled to max out connections. Make sure access control, traffic monitoring, parental controls, and qos are all disabled. 

I'm a fan of the orbi series of routers/satellites. I've got the RBK53 series an a pro SBK30. 

The wired backhaul does make a performance difference in my opinion.