Slooooow iPad 3 & iPad 2 on Orbi - everything else super fast

[djc6]

Picked up an RBK53 - three pack Orbi at Costco on Friday.

I have an iPad 2, iPad 3 both running iOS 9.3.5. They will likely never get upgraded past that, iOS 10 doesn't support them.

Both devices get around 18Mbps down and 32Mbps up (odd that upload is 2x faster than download??) approximately 10 feet from one of the satellites. I checked that they were connected to that satellite via 5Ghz 802.11n by using 'Net Analyzer' app and the 'Enable advanced view of Attached Devices page' option on the debug page.  I am running latest firmware on Orbi v1.3.0.12

My wife's iPad mini 4 and my iPhone 6S+ - both are 802.11.ac devices - in the same location get about 310Mbps down and 32Mbps up - I have the 300/30 package from Cox Communications. We also have two laptops and both are able to get the full 300/30 almost anywhere in the house now!

Everything else has been great with Orbi - setup was super easy, so far no disconnections or anything weird - just slow 2nd/3rd gen iPads.

[DarrenM · Accepted solution]

Hello djc6

I was able to get my hands on a Ipad 2 and test it on my orbi  and I am getting the same result as you are it will not go over 20 mbs enen though my laptop is getting 70+ on speed tests I will pass this along to our engineers to see if we can find out why.

DarrenM

[djc6]

I hooked back up my TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v2 N300 class, 2.4Ghz router which I replaced with Orbi.  My iPad 2 & 3 were able to get speeds 2x faster - 40Mbps down.

Curiously, when I use the Orbi both are pegged at almost exactly 20Mbps down like something is rate limiting it.  The speedtest.net graph is a perfectly flat line that I've observed nowhere else.  Still not sure why faster at uploading.

[DarrenM]

Hello djc6

Have you made sure that the beam forming is unchecked its located in Advanced-Advanced Setup-Wireless settings try un checking that and see if this improves your connection.

DarrenM

[djc6]

Thanks for response DarrenM.  

I went into settings and "Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices" was already unchecked.

[DarrenM]

Hello djc6

Do you happen to have any older wifi devices that connect to orbi like a old blu ray or smart tv?

DarrenM

[djc6]

No old devices that connect via Wi-FI.  My TV and Blu-Ray are wired to a switch and switch plugs into Orbi.  Both TV & Blu-Ray show up as 'Wired' when I look at Orbi interface.

Other Wi-Fi devices are 2 Macbook Pros (one Mid-2012, one Mid-2014).  Both get 300Mbps via Orbi 5Ghz easily anywhere in house.

I have an iPad mini 4, iPhone 6, iPhone 6S+ - all also do very well on 5Ghz usually 250-300Mbps.  Other than that, a Roku 3 via Wi-Fi and a Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect.   The nest devices connect to 2.4Ghz everything - Roku and all the apple devices 5Ghz.

The iPad 2 and iPad 3 are slow (in speed tests) regardless of which Satellite I'm using or Router.  I'm testing while in same room as Satellite/Router and sitting in same position where other devices which get amazing speeds.

[DarrenM · Accepted solution]

Hello djc6

I was able to get my hands on a Ipad 2 and test it on my orbi  and I am getting the same result as you are it will not go over 20 mbs enen though my laptop is getting 70+ on speed tests I will pass this along to our engineers to see if we can find out why.

DarrenM

[peteytesting]

hi darren

its a known issue with these older apple devices and the chipset they use , the newer apple products no longer use the chipset so its not an issue for them , not sure if there is a fix for it or its just another apple centric way of forcing users to use only apple routers

[djc6]

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@peteytesting wrote:

its a known issue with these older apple devices and the chipset they use

Link?  I am curious to read about this known issue.  Seems iPad 3 uses BCM4330 and iPad 2 uses BCM43291HKUBC so two different chipsets impacted here in the same manner.  So far haven't been able to find article about a known issue.

Just surprised its so much faster on my old router.  If it was a device issue I'd expect it to be equally slow.

[peteytesting]

just google ipad2 capped at 20mbps

it is a combination of the ipad only using 20mhz and prob only connecting to the 2.4 gig band , check what band the ipad is connected to and if the orbi 2.4 gig ch is set to auto or a specific ch as if its specific it sets the max sync at 400M

its also possible its a wmm issue , try disabling WMM in the qos

[Mikey94025]

Thanks petey for pointing out that this is also a general problem seen with older ipads:

* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2627699?start=0&tstart=0

* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2398063?start=60

[djc6]

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@Mikey94025 wrote:

Thanks petey for pointing out that this is also a general problem seen with older ipads:

* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2627699?start=0&tstart=0

* https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2398063?start=60

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These posts are 6+ years old and reference iOS 5. You seem to be ignoring the fact that on my old router TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v2 N300 class I saw 2x the speeds of Orbi - but the TP-Link router is 2.4Ghz only.  When my iPads connect to Orbi they select 5Ghz - I can't force the iPads to connect to 2.4Ghz to test with Orbi.

To compare apples to apples, I borrowed my sister's Asus RT-N66U and brought it to my house. This router broadcasts two SSIDs - one 2.4Ghz, one 5Ghz so I can force connection to 5Ghz. On 5Ghz I am seeing 48Mbps down and 32Mbps up with the RT-N66U where as the Orbi I see 18-20Mbps down and 32Mbps up (again odd that uploads are much faster than downloads)

Faster uploads than downloads on iPad 2 and iPad 3 when in same room as Orbi router.  Using TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v2 (2.4Ghz) or Asus RT-N66U (5Ghz) - see same uploads speeds as Orbi (~32Mbps) but download speeds are 2x or better with TP-Link or Asus routers (40-48Mbps).

[Mikey94025]

Maybe the speed differences you're seeing between routers has to do with wireless compatibility modes.  On my older routers there were various 2.4Ghz/5Ghz speed options.  My Netgear WNDR3700 has these choices for both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands:

• Up to 54 Mbps - Legacy Mode with maximum speed of up to 54 Mbps for b/g networks.
• Up to 130 Mbps - Neighbor Friendly Mode, with a speed up to 130 Mbps in presence of neighboring wireless networks.
• Up to 300 Mbps - Performance Mode - Maximum Wireless-N speed up to 300 Mbps.

I had a very old Withings scale that only supported 802.11b, so I had to keep the 2.4Ghz speeds low for legacy mode or else it wouldn't connect.  Orbi doesn't seem to allow this type of control over the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz speeds so perhaps whatever it's using is not optimal for your older devices?  It does seem that the Orbi is being packaged as more of a set-and-forget device than a power routers like the Nighthawk R8 and R10.

[JMU1998]

You can add Sony Xperia z4 tablet to the list with very slow speeds and constant wireless drops all day reboot of orbi fixes temporarily and issues starts again. tried changing channels, factory resets, no help.

[peteytesting]

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@JMU1998 wrote:

You can add Sony Xperia z4 tablet to the list with very slow speeds and constant wireless drops all day reboot of orbi fixes temporarily and issues starts again. tried changing channels, factory resets, no help.

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different issue to what you have posted