Poor Wi-Fi speed with EX7700 connected to an Asus RT86U

[woodhill]

Hi, my EX7700 has started to perform poorly. I have it connected to an Asus RT86u router and have a 150mbs fibre connection. But I can only manage around 60mbs across the wi-fi network. I have tried resetting it several times including ethernet connection. I am using same SSIDs as router. See image:

Can someone suggest what might be wrong with my setup? BTW the extender is about 25 feet from the router with a wall between.

[woodhill · Accepted solution]

Plemans, many many thanks. You have been so helpful. Before I saw your email(s) I decided to move the extender a little closer to the router. I moved it to the other side of a stud and plasterboard wall, a distance of no more than 1 metre, and what a transformation. Now in the main (living) room away from the extender, I get speeds approaching 140mbs on the 5ghz channel! I cannot believe a distance of only approx. 1metre and avoidance of a thin wood and board partition could make so much difference.

For now, I will resist any further changes but if it deteriorates, I will look again at your suggestions. 

Thanks for explaining fronthaul and backhaul. It was clearly a backhaul problem!

[plemans]

Test the hardwired connection on the extender. If it hits full speed, then its something on the fronthaul. If it doesn't, then its something on the backhaul.

If its on the fronthaul, make sure the speeds you're getting are while connected to 5ghz. The 2.4ghz is only going to hit around the 60mbps but the 5ghz should max out a 150mbps connection. (2.4ghz is a slow network)

If its the backhaul, try changing the routers 2.4ghz and 5ghz channels. 

[woodhill]

Thanks Plemans, but what is fronthaul and backhaul?  Excuse my ignorance! And how to check?

The speeds I am getting are whilst connected to 5g (SSID: AUS RT-AC86U_5G).

I've tried changing 2.4ghz and 5ghz channels. Can you suggest what to? On the ASUS router the control channel only goes up to 112. I've currently got it set to 48.

What do you mean by "hardwired" connection? Is this the ethernet connection as used with the installation assistant?

Thanks in advance...

[plemans]

The tribands have a dedicated backhaul. 

Thats the 5ghz connection between router and extender. 

the fronthaul is the connection between the extender and devices. 

So we want to be sure the backhaul (router---extender) connection is operating at speed. 

so if you directly wire a pc/laptop into the extender and test its speeds, it'll tell us how that backhaul is operating (as a hardwired connection will only rely on the backhaul). 

[plemans]

set the router's 5ghz to channel 112. See how that works (if you're not in an area with DFS)

One other thing I'd recommend is re-run setup on the EX7700. during setup using the installation assistant, uncheck the box that says "extend 2.4gh". You'll still be able to use the 2.4ghz but it won't use it as failover for if there's issues with the 5ghz. Sometimes that can help as well. 

[woodhill · Accepted solution]

Plemans, many many thanks. You have been so helpful. Before I saw your email(s) I decided to move the extender a little closer to the router. I moved it to the other side of a stud and plasterboard wall, a distance of no more than 1 metre, and what a transformation. Now in the main (living) room away from the extender, I get speeds approaching 140mbs on the 5ghz channel! I cannot believe a distance of only approx. 1metre and avoidance of a thin wood and board partition could make so much difference.

For now, I will resist any further changes but if it deteriorates, I will look again at your suggestions. 

Thanks for explaining fronthaul and backhaul. It was clearly a backhaul problem!

[plemans]

glad to help!

Moving extenders around can help big time (as you found out). I might have been something like hvac in the walls causing issues or something else. I regularly have people test several different locations when they first set it up because sometimes random spots are actually the best spots. Or a lateral move helps big time. 

But either way, glad you got it working well again!