RBS850 showing 2.4gb speed but getting less than 1gb at satellites

[Brykelly]

I recently upgraded to 2.5gb service. I'm using a cm3000 and I'm getting full speeds on my orbi speed test through the app. I'm not getting anywhere close to that from my satellites that are about 30ft away. My phone is getting about 800mb if I'm 6-10 feet away. Are there settings I need to change to enable 2.5gb wireless?

[donawalt · Accepted solution]

Yes, for 2.5G speeds you need a router like the Orbi 770, 960 or 970. They are rated at 2.5G and above (the 970).

[plemans]

If you're testing off the phone's wifi and not the orbi app (which is hosted on the orbi) its basically either testing the phone's wifi (which probably won't hit 2.4gig speeds) or the backhaul, depending on which is the bottleneck. You can always hardwire a pc/laptop into the satellite to see if its maxing out at least gigabit but you have to keep in mind the satellites lan ports are only gigabit on the rbs850

[donawalt · Accepted solution]

Yes, for 2.5G speeds you need a router like the Orbi 770, 960 or 970. They are rated at 2.5G and above (the 970).

[Brykelly]

Isn't the 853 rated at 2.5 wireless? It's wifi 6. Laptop at the router is maxed at 1g but sitting 5 feet away it's 200 down 350 up

[CrimpOn]

The 850 series Product Data Sheet describes the maximum theoretical capabilities of the 850 router and satellite:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/orbi/rbk853_na_ds.pdf 

(please pay attention to the footnote)

Radio 2 is the user facing 5G WiFi radio.  The calculation is that a 5G WiFi device capable of 802.11ax, supporting 4x4 MIMO (4 antennas) that is placed (literally) within inches of the radio could reach 2400 Mbps, before subtracting the loss  present in WiFi transmission (network overhead, management frames, etc.).  User devices almost never have four antennas, which cuts the maximum possible transmission to 1200Mbps (or less).  Thus, a phone that is 6-10 feet away from the router getting  800 Mbps is pretty darn good.  (Considering that streaming 4K video requires about 25Mbps, that would allow the phone to stream several simultaneous videos while doing a LOT of other things!)

Since the Ethernet ports are all 1 gigabit, the most that any device 'wired' to the system can achieve is slightly over 920Mbps.  (Ethernet also has overhead that consumer part of the bandwidth.)

The router to satellite link is significantly affected by (a) distance between router and satellite, (b) building construction, and (c) the number of satellites.  WiFi is "one devices broadcasts at a time".  When the router sends, every satellite must wait.  When one satellite sends, the router and other satellites must wait.

[FURRYe38]

Depending on wireless device design and support, some will max out at lower speeds. 

What wireless device brand and model are you speed testing with? 

Most 2x2  MIMO devices are limited at a lower speed. 4x4 MIMO devices can see speeds over 1Gb on 5Ghz AX mode. 

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

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@Brykelly wrote:
Isn't the 853 rated at 2.5 wireless? It's wifi 6. Laptop at the router is maxed at 1g but sitting 5 feet away it's 200 down 350 up

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[donawalt]

Yes, the device you are measuring with makes a big difference on what their WiFi speeds are. Most consider the true speed only through a direct connection.

The 853 (an 850 series, just a different # of satellites) has a 2.5G port from the modem, but its output ports are all 1GB. You can see that here:

https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/mesh/rbk853/