NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
RAX 200 slow LAN and Wireless
Hello team, First time on here. I purchased a RAX 200 and have had slow issues with LAN connections of not being able to obtain full downloadspeeds through the router. It cuts to half of my 1gig ...
MercerNYC wrote:Just purchased this unit from Amazon (arrived today) and I've spent most of the day configuring, testing, tuning, and bouncing but I'm still encountering similar slowness reported by others, though less pronounced. My ISP service is 1Gbps - verified w/ the QoS speed test and also cabling in via ethernet, but the best I can squeeze out of the wifi router connection is 640Mbps... at 4am when the family's sleeping, though on average it's closer to 550-590Mbps (even with Killer's app config giving highest priority to chrome and FF for downloads).
Unlike others, I can only reach this speed if I *disable* QoS. If QoS is enabled, download rate drops to around 520Mbps (max) but closer to 350-450 on average - irrespective of dynamic or manually entered (940mbps download/45 upload) - which is not much better than my original ISP/cable co-provided wifi router. MU-MIMO is enabled "just in case" (it helps balance loads) but I see no major lift in speed.
I have not tried fiddling with attached device priority after enabling dynamic QoS/speedtest yet, but for $600 I really shouldn't have to. I'm still on the fence as to whether a 50-60% speed increase is worth it. I could live with a consistent 700Mbps - double my old router's speed - but this is not the case.
S/N: 5VC39A7KA03E1
Router Firmware: V1.0.1.12_1.0.41
Machine (or the most important one):Dell 7590 (2TB SSD/32GB RAM) / Killer Wifi 6 AX1650x
Distance: 30 feet/signal passes through 2 (dry)walls
Please advise.
Thanks,
M
I am getting about 450Mbps to 550Mbps on the RX80 on 5GHz with 5 devices... most in standby. I was getting 700 to 800Mbps back in September but something changed. Not sure about RAX200, but I know they use same chipset so may be same issue.
It seems to be related to QoS still... before I got 700 to 800Mbps with it off. Now with it off I barely get 300 but with it on I get 450 to 550. Not sure what's going on with RAX80... seems RAX200 has similar issue also. Maybe they are close to fixing it since QoS definitely changed on latest firmware.
On Ethernet I am getting 940Mbps... I would like to see 800Mbps on WiFi again so hopefully they fix RAX80 and 200 issues.
Update to my original post/response...
I contacted tech support and they recommended some channel adjustments, which I made...but these didn't really have much of an effect after waiting 24 hours like they suggested. After poking around in the Advanced Tab --> Setup --> Wireless Setup area, I was able to get my download speeds up to 800+ Mbps...mainly with the help of the Killer Wifi Control Center app (comes w/ my laptop), which will show you what channels are actually being used by the NG router.
Notes...
- Speed test apps vary widely... be sure to check several providers/servers, e.g., run it with Sprint, then compare to AT&T, etc.
- Users might also want to read up on DFS / radar channels which I've learned will change automatically if you select channels that are in active use by local radar. For example, my wifi router 5G-2 channel is set to 128, but it gets changed to 149 automatically... no matter what I choose due, apparently, to radar 'hit' detection which i suspect can slow things down. I've suggested to NetGear that they should include radar hits in the logs to see what channels are actively being used by airports/radar nearby. This way, users can go back and pick channels that aren't constantly getting changed automatically per the DFS FCC regulation/spec. I've read several blogs recommending non-DFS channels (36-48 and 149-165) unless you have a congested 5 GHz environment.
- DFS channels (informational):
U-NII-1 Band: Channels 36 – 48, 5170 – 5250Mhz
U-NII-2A Band (DFS): Channels 52 – 64, 5250 – 5330MHz <-- I manually set to 56 (and seems to stick/remain stable)
U-NII-2C Band (DFS): Channels 100 – 140, 5490 – 5710Mhz
U-NII-3 Band: Channels 149 – 165 5735 – 5835 <-- 149, where the RAX200 always bumps me for 5G-2 - If you live in an urban area or, worse, a major city in an apartment building, it's possible others are using the same channels you are. The only way to see this is with a good Wifi monitoring app...in my case, Killer Control Center shows me everyone else's SSID, channels, bandwidth, and signal strength.I then try to pick the channel(s) no one else is using
- What isn't immediately obvious in the Advanced Tab --> Setup --> Wireless Setup panel is that not all channels are availble if you select Mode "Up to 4800 Mbps". So, if you set to channel 161, you'll see the next dropdown change to "Up to 2400". The new/young NG rep I spoke to didn't know these dropdowns were linked and that the channel you pick determines the max mode, e.g., "Up to 2400mbps" or "Up to 4800Mbps"
So, my final settings, in case it helps anyone else...
Advanced Tab --> Setup --> QoS Setup
QoS: Off
Advanced Tab --> Setup --> Wireless Setup
Enable AX: True/Enabled
Wireless Network 2.4Ghz
Channel: Auto
Mode: Up to 1200 Mbps
Wireless Network 5G-1
Channel: 56
Mode: Up to 4800 Mbps
Wireless Network 5G-2
Channel: 128 <-- but 149 actually being used according to Killer Control Center. So it looks like this is auto-set
Mode: Up to 4800 Mbps <-- this should read "Up to 2400" based on the ACTUAL channel used (149) since, the only way I can see channel 149 in the prior Channel dropdown is if I change this to "Up to 2400". Play with these two options. Not sure if this is a bug since it doesn't reflect what's actually being used
Advanced Tab --> Advanced Setup --> Wireless Settings
Scroll down... all checkboxes towards the bottom under "WPS Settings" are enabled/checked,
EXCEPT "Enable AIRTIME FAIRNESS" (disable/uncheck) and "use other operations mode" (disable/uncheck)
...then wait a day and re-check your download speeds
Good luck,
M