MK83 - MR80 - 2 X MS80 slows down after days on MS80 until a reboot

[jeffreytk421]

Tri-band AX3600 3-Pack (MK83) which has an MR80 and two MS80's.

(Can't select this model in the "Start A New Discussion" Model box.)

Problem: Things going great. MR80 reports with built-in Speedtest of 928 Mbps down / 403 Mbps up.

fast.com at my farthest MS80 satellite reports 130 Mbps or up to 200 Mbps.

speedtest.net at my  farthest MS80 satellite reports 234 Mbps down / 142 Mbps up. Faneffingtastic!

Then a week goes by. Maybe more? And I get terrible lag and throughput and then fast.com shows very slow speeds in the single-digit Mbps.

If I bridge the LAN port of the MS80 to the MR80, I am ok. Things go great, but I don't have a permanent hardline for that (yet).

I looked for problems in the WiFi bad by inspecting NetSPot to see who is where. There is nothing right on top of my frequencies. (Note, there are several "hidden" SSIDs that have BSSIDs that look like they are part of my MK83 setup, and they're always on 157 + 1. I was worried about them since one was very strong, but it must be me, so there's that.) My configured channel for 5GHz is 40 (NetSpot shows as "40 - 1").

When I power-cycle this remote MS80, my speeds get better and things go OK for a week plus. Makes me want to proactively watch this, but what I want to know is:

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Can I get more diagnostic information out my MS80 or the MK83 system to understand what the problem is?

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My physical setup:

MS80 ---- 21 feet ---- MS80 on 2nd story

MR80 about 20 feet away from closer MS80, through one floor. (carpet over wood floor, sheetrock walls/ceiling, wood framing)

MR80 about 46 feet away from farther MS80, through the one floor.

What I've tried so far is to remove a WiFi HDMI link I have nearby that uses 5GHz 161-1. I did notice that when I ran speed tests, the HDMI signal was degraded. I left this wireless HDMI link down this week and still ran into the slow speed on the remote MS80.

Was so happy going with this system since May 2021 and not sure when this started happening.

Thank you for any tips.

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

Yes lets remove the middle MS and see if you can move the farthest MS a bit closer if possible. 

Is Ralfie the SSID of your system? 

I recommend blocking MAC addresses from being seen in publc forums. You can use any photo editor to block out that info. 

I would also try testing with no MS online at all and see what speeds you see. 

What brand and model devices are you wirelessly speed testing with? 

What connection rates do you see with it using WifiSweetSpots app loaded on it while connected near the MR? 

What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last update?

[FURRYe38]

Can you try moving the MS a bit farther away from the MR? Try 30 feet and see? 

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?

https://kb.netgear.com/000061709/Where-should-I-place-the-Mesh-WiFi-satellite-of-my-Nighthawk-Mesh-W... 📡

What channels are you using? Auto? Try Auto and 48 on 5Ghz. Or try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Be sure WMM is enabled on the MR. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

[jeffreytk421]

I can't really move the MS farther, but could remove the one in the middle so I had just my remote one 46' away and through the floor. I will experiment with that.

Firmware on all three devices is the same, latest, V1.1.6.6_3.1.93

I am now doing a speed test within my LAN so avoid Internet things. I set up iperf on wired-to-MR80 laptop (slow, but steady) and get 85-95 Mbps when things are good.

Just now saw slow Internet and did the local iperf and see 8 Mbps. I did this two more times. Same slow. The wired-to-MR80 laptop gets its typical 200 Mbps as reported by fast.com. Yeah, it's a slow laptop, but shows that the MR80 is happy with wired things and might help point to this being a "WiFi only" problem.

I will also collect iperf every so often... maybe 15 minutes when I am not working/watching a stream? Should be able to tell if this is a steady degredation or abrupt, fwiw. It would be nice if there was a client bandwidth usage report. This would help me troubleshoot. So, when it gets slow again, I will try to shut down other WiFi clients. There are a few things that could be at fault here, but since I cannot see what bandwidth they are using, I can't know. I have a few suspects, amazon/google assistants and cameras.

I power-cycled one MS, still got 8 Mbps. I power-cycled the intermediate one, which I don't always need to do,  and now back to 95 Mbps.

Attached is an image of NetSpot output which I keep running on my main computer that is not using WiFi for network connectivity--it is wired to the remote MS80 (satellite).

Also in the attachment is the layout of the devices in the house. The MS80's are upstairs, left in the image, and the MR80 is downstairs, right in the image.

My current 5GHz channel is 40. I did try 48 and still had the same issue. The 2.4GHz channel is set to Auto. The hidden 5GHz BSSIDs that are apparently coming out of the system never change their channel and show up as "157 + 1".

I see no setting for WMM on my device.

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

Yes lets remove the middle MS and see if you can move the farthest MS a bit closer if possible. 

Is Ralfie the SSID of your system? 

I recommend blocking MAC addresses from being seen in publc forums. You can use any photo editor to block out that info. 

I would also try testing with no MS online at all and see what speeds you see. 

What brand and model devices are you wirelessly speed testing with? 

What connection rates do you see with it using WifiSweetSpots app loaded on it while connected near the MR? 

What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last update?

[jeffreytk421]

Yup--ralphie is me.

Re the MAC address--sure, won't do that any more.

Since I am wired to the remote MS80 satellite, I can't readily test without it, but can experiment with that.

*** I have turned off the intermediate MS80 for now. It doesn't affect my remote MS80 speed. ***

I have not moved the remote MS80 closer at the moment because my iperf test seems to show it's fine.

I have a Windows 10 box with Threadripper 2950X and ASRock  X399 Taichi MB with integrated Intel I211 gigabit adapter that I care about the most and is on the most remote MS80. It is getting 120 Mbps to fast.com and 80-90 Mbps to iperf on the laptop at the MR80.

Local to the MR80 is a laptop running iperf in server mode with processor Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8435 3.06GHz with a Realtek PCIe GbE network adapter. This tests 200-250 Mbps to fast.com.

My phone, Android LG G5 with WiFi fresh turned on feet away from MR80 gives a fast.com speed of 260 Mbps. When I take this phone up to where the remote MS80 is, I see it report 2-3 Mbps until it migrates to the MS80 (I presume). Then it goes to 100-150 Mbps.

I don't think I need another app, such as WifiSweetSpots. 🙂

So, I think I'll run like this, intermediate MS80 off, and collect iperf over next week or until the issue is seen.

I did not do a factory reset after firmware update. I'd rather not do anything additionally unless it is known to be required. Since things work as expected from powering up, I assume from a configuration and basic hardware and software health it should continue to run fine like this indefinitely.

[FURRYe38]

 Seems like maybe the additional MS you turned off could be a factor. 

Ok keep us posted on how it goes.

[jeffreytk421]

I didn't see a slowdown in the last 5 days where I was logging the speed while one of my MS80's was off (the intermediate one).

I added a wired backhaul to my most remote MS80 and so my experimentation is over with no conclusion.

Thanks for suggestions, FURRYe38. I'll mark your response about turning off one MS80 as the accepted solution, but don't know if that certainly caused my problem.

[FURRYe38]

Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/24231/How-do-I-back-up-the-router-configuration-settings-on-my-Nighthawk-rout...
Enjoy.