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Forum Discussion
RBR850 - Poor download speeds on Wi-Fi
Hi guys, Having some serious issues with download speed when on Wi-Fi. Have 500/500 Internet link and when I use cable connected directly to router i get about that so just Wi-.Fi that's affected...
Really really strange..
Shut down everything in the entire house that has a radio transmitter (alarm, yale doorman locks, camera-hub, xiaomi robots, apple-tv's, google home, automated lightning, washing machine etc etc) and both RBSs so that only my PC was connected.
Did a hardware reset and tested after that (my PC being only connected device) -> no change.
Downgraded RBR to V4.6.14.3_2.3.12 -> no change.
Connection via cable to router gives full speed up/dwn in all tests.
You think it might be that the router-hw is broken?
I would think that broken hardware would reduce performance in both directions. I can think of only one other possibility, and have no idea how to investigate it: Military/Weather Radar.
Radio use is regulated in every part of the globe. In the US, the FCC controls which frequencies are available. In Europe, it appears to be some sort of group effort. See the footnotes for Europe in this article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_(802.11a/h/n/ac/ax)
WiFi routers achieve impressive speed using two techniques:
- Combining frequencies into a larger bandwidth
- Using complicated modulation so that each chunk of data can represent more information.
WiFi5 (802.11ac) uses 256QAM (2^8 = 256) meaning 8 bits of data per radio symbol
WiFi6 (802.11ax) uses 1024QAM (2^10 = 1024) meaning 10 bits of data per symbol, an increase of 25%
See, for example:
https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/1024-QAM/thread/667282457449349121-667213871523442688
In the US, the 5G frequency band from 5170 to 5280 GHz (channels 36 through 48) are "available" and the Orbi 850 uses these frequencies for user WiFi connections.
In Europe, this frequency band is not completely available. As footnotes 1 and 2 indicate, the WiFi system must take steps to avoid interfering with military and weather radar systems. (indoor use only. reduce power. "mitigate" - whatever THAT means).
My hypothesis is that the Orbi router has detected radar using part of the radio frequency and is not using all of the channels to transmit information, but the user devices (PC, Macbook, PS5) are just blasting away on all frequencies and thus achieve higher bandwidth.
But, geez, how to validate/reject this hypothesis? I suggest:
- Perhaps there are user forums in Sweden that might discuss WiFi and radar issues?
- Download WiFi Info View (free for Windows from Nirsoft https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html )
Use the Advanced Settings to capture only the 5G channel from your own SSID (otherwise it captures every WiFi system in the neighborhood) and look at the details about which frequencies it is using.
Interesting theory! Given the current state of things this might be it if i'm unlucky.
This started to happen quite recently, setup has worked just fine for +6 months. Thought about if we had added or changed anything since I updgraded to this setup (from RBK 50) and we bought a new TV but having that unplugged didn't change anything. Never had any issues with Wi-Fi speeds in this house (owned since 2018) previously.
Ran WiFi Info View like you suggested, attached pic of what my networks look like.
2.4 set to auto, 5Ghz set to 36, 2.4 shows on channel 3 and 5Ghz on 40 in Info View.
1 2.4 and 1 5Ghz network shows pretty bad RSSI but not sure that is an issue? Networks around aren't that many (that I can see) and no channels seems to be clogged/congested
What would happen if I changed my country code, for example to United States to gain access to more channels?
Would that be something to try to see if it makes any difference (would not stay on it)?
Thanks for all the effort. WiFi Info View reports each individual WiFi access point. With one router and two satellites, that makes three APs using 5G chanel 40 (for management. Channels 34-50 for data transmission) and three APs using 2.4G channel 3.
I am puzzled that it appears the PC is connected to a WiFi AP with lower signal. (RSSI of -68 and signal quality of 60.6 when there is another AP with a better signal (RSSI -56, quality 80.9) Does the Orbi Attached Devices screen or the Orbi 'app' Device Manager show the PC connected to the closest Orbi?
One of the frustrating parts of the Orbi system is changing Region codes. Yes, I would recommend setting the Region to match the actual location. For example, the WiFi link between Orbi router and satellites is different in the US than many other regions (US uses channel 157. Europe uses channel 108.) There have been numerous reports on the forum of customers who find they cannot change the region code - and we on the forum have no idea why not. In the User Manual:
page 62:
I am the one that should thank you guys for your efforts in trying to help me 🙂
Must say that I am at loss here, have no clue on what to do about this..other then buying another router (diff brand) and test if that one also encounters the same issues with dwnload speeds.
Saw that I still have hardware warranty on the units, any chance one could get Netgear to replace the RBR unit?
