Orbi RBK40 AC2200 Portable Device WiFi Speeds dropped 80% with no deliberate change to system setup!

[napochan]

Wireless speeds of several portable (Android) devices recently dropped ~80% from previous speeds while WiFi speeds of a desktop and laptop have not. 

ISP service speed is 200 Mbps and this is measured on both a wired Ethernet connection and on a WiFi desktop connection.  The latter was confirmed using Ookla Speedtest and Netflix fast.com.  WiFi speeds on several Android devices are about 10% of that realizing only ~20 Mbps with varying signal strength across the house, as expected. 

There was no known upgrade or configuration change of either the Android devices or the Orbi system.  As part of troubleshooting, I ensured the latest firmware versions were applied to the Orbi router and satellites.  The upgrade made no difference. I tried power cycling each device, again, with no improvement.

I'm at a loss as to what is happening and what to try next.

Equipment:

Broadband Internet with 200Mbps download - verified via Ethernet connection to PC

orbi RBR40 AC2200 Tri-band router with firmware version 2.6.2.104

orbi RBS20 satellite and RBS40 satellite, each with firmware version 2.6.2.104

[plemans]

Have you checked to see what band your devices are connecting to? 

2.4ghz is slow (very slow) and in areas with a lot of wireless signals, its even worse. 

5ghz is going to be much faster. 

[napochan]

Hi plemans,

Yes, all the devices affected operate on 5GHz.  2.4GHz is being used only by a couple of smart speakers and security devices.

It seems the low performance only affects the handheld (i.e., Android) devices as I just ran Speedtest again from a Win10 desktop connected by WiFi and it reported ~200Mbps. 

[plemans]

I understand that they operate on 5ghz. But the orbi bandsteers. 

It moves devices from 2.4ghz to 5ghz as needed. 

So you'd actually have to log into the orbi to see what band its on

[napochan]

Agreed; that's what I did. I logged into the router to view the mapping of devices across the router, satellites and their assigned frequency band.  I also read the assignments, signal strengths, and channel load in the Orbi app on a tablet and phone. 

I will monitor the band assignments over time as I move through the house.

Is there a way to disable the bandsteering and lockdown a device to a band?

[plemans]

No, with orbi there's no way to disable bandsteering. 

its one of the challenges with mesh systems 

[napochan]

@plemans, thank you for your comments.  Large speed discrepancies also exist on other channels I tried and if I didn't mention it before, test results are also hugely different between Ookla's Speedtest and the Orbi app, when taken on my Android phone (moto g6).

There may be something amiss with my settings - although I believe the problem surfaced using default settings - but there seems to be a difference in how these apps measure speed.  Results from multiple tests vary (as wireless signals are prone to do) but the magnitude of the difference remains the same.

Anyway, I'd be surprised if these observations are unique thoughout this community.

[plemans]

You will get large discrepancies in speeds when using the orbi app versus using the speedtest app. 

Reason why is when you use the orbi app, it hosts the test of the router. So its a hardwired connection. 

When you use the speedtest app, its hosting off the device you're testing on. So if that device is wireless, the phone/tablet/etc that you're testing on is the limiting factor. Wireless isn't as fast as a wired connection. And 2.4ghz is slow as well. Plus if your device you're testing on is a 1x1 antenna device or 2x2 device. or any other issue that device might be having. 

[pnobrega]

Today i noticed the same. I also have the RBK 40 with 2 sat. Both sats are connecting with 5GHZ with good sinal to the router. I also have a 200mbps internet speed.

Usually i can get around 180 to 200 mbps in wifi on my laptop or my smartphone.  Today, doing some tests i'm getting around 100 mbps wifi speed. 

This is over 5Ghz. I've checked the channels, rebooted ISP and orbi routers, checked if devices where at 5ghz wifi 5 at max 866mbps and all ok..

I've not changed anything in the Orbi for months... The only thing i've noticed changed is the firmware.... Maybe it was that... Can't confirm, but that's the only thing i noticed that changed

[napochan]

The problem was first noticed after upgrading firmware to v2.6.2.104.