Netgear RS600 MLO non-Functional

[GWTechTalk]

I selected the RS700 above because RS600 was not in the list.

First, not to be a negative nelly but the GUI is missing a lot of UI features when compared to other router manufactures. Wish I had researched this more before pulling the trigger. Hoping DDWRT will setup with a custom firmware soon.

Anyways, I have Qualcomm FastConnect 7800, (https://www.qualcomm.com/products/technology/wi-fi/fastconnect/fastconnect-7800) and paired with the new RS600 I should be able to hit muti-gigabit speeds over wifi. However, speed tests from the device itself (RS600) show horrible upload performance, like 500Mbps using the built in speed test. Doing an online speed test to my ISP from my windows PC shows approx.1600Mbps in both directions on my ISP "specific" bandwidth test site. Using the installed Speed Test application for Windows I also get an approx. 500Mbps upload reading.

Using iPerf3 I can get 2.3Gbps on a 2.5Gbps hardline with a Linux server but reverse the flow sending over wifi from windows and again I only see 800Mbps - 1.7Gbps. My Linux server is in the local network on the RS600 LAN port. I started looking into MLO which was advertised as a feature for this device. intra-network I should see max 2.3Gbps to my Linux server in both directions.

Win11 Network Adapters

MLO Adapter View

If the RS600 has the feature its not working. Even my Wi-Fi speeds are not breaking the 2Gbps barrier which it should if MLO was in use. 

Im still using smart connect so im hoping disabling that I might find a way to enable the feature but before I go poking around and changing things I figured I would post here to see if anyone else has solved this issue. I did see a post on the RS700 but the information in that post was weak. Mostly saying Netgear locked MLO behind a MESH only back-haul. Most people will never need more than 3700 sq/ft coverage so without MLO working on / with clients this becomes a false advertising issue. Same with, 3700 sq. ft. coverage, of which most third-party sites now only show RS600 as 2200 sq/ft. Either way it works for my coverage but it appears that MLO is non-functional.

Any help would be appreciated or if you have a network admin router image that opens up all the features I would love to get my hands on that. I am a fledgling network admin / home engineer and I WFH in IT so stable and fast network is paramount. Never had an issue with my ASUS XT8 in mesh using the back-haul as a front haul as well.

My rig is approx. 25 feet from the router with only 1 wood frame / sheet rock wall in between. 

I don't have ethernet drops in my house, long story, Lennar sucks.

[FURRYe38]

Not all features are the same between router Mfrs. Don't have to be the same. Mfrs set the features to what they want in there products. Up to users to do research on new products before buying. 

MLO has not been implemented on the RS series as of yet. In the works from what NG has said. No idea when that will be seen. 

Speed results depend on wifi device support and design as well. 2x2 MIMO devices will be limiting. 4x4 MIMO will have better results.

https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/realistic-speeds-wi-fi-5-and-wi-fi-6
https://www.wiisfi.com
https://support.google.com/fiber/answer/6250056#zippy=%2Cmobile-devices-wi-fi

[GWTechTalk]

Thanks for the response. Disappointed that MLO isn't even functional yet. Rest of the stuff I knew.

[GWTechTalk]

Just not sure what I should do in this situation. I chucked the box by accident so now I can’t even return it. To boot all 320Mhz channels are locked out if you look at the FCC report. You cant even set a LAN DNS you have to set it in WAN which then my separate appliance thinks the router is sending all the requests. OpenWRT or DDWRT I hope will drop soon for these devices. Netgear armor has to be enable then disabled for it to stop annoying me. The built in speed test is showing horrible upload stats. As I said above I can get a full 2.5Gbit channel from my Linux server to my windows machine but my Windows machine maxes out at 1.8Gbps when sending data to the Linux server. Meaning the top speed this router can do in its current form on WiFi is just shy of 2Gbps. I used iperf 3 to check all this inside my network as I run a demon for iperf3 in server mode on my Linux box.

Wifi7 is 6-7Ghz freq bands, 320Mhz channel width which is achieved through MLO aggregation of the 5,6,7 GHz bands. The router does improve my WiFi speed on my Wifi7 8x8 Qualcomm Wifi7 chipset. However, Netgear should not be advertising Wifi7 on their devices because two of the three mandatory features for something to be “Wifi7” are not even implemented. Haven’t these been for sale for like a year?

I guess for now I can just use it as an AP and offload all control to my custom router / firewall.

[FURRYe38]

One should always keep boxes for just in case events. 🤔

NG routers have never been about to set DNS for the LAN side. LAN DNS is proxied at the router. 

You'll have to keep in contact with those FW sites and post there. These forums are for NG stock FW. 

Always when new tech comes forth, some mfrs have to be the first out the door with HW, though may or may not fully be implemented. Seem to be no rules regarding requirements though does seem to skirt some advertising limitations. 🙄

Supposed to be some development this year. Will have to keep an eye out. 

I'm glad Orbi has MLO support. 😉