1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.

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1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-17 13:19:06 - last edited 2019-09-18 03:19:07
Model: EAP225  
Hardware Version: V3
Firmware Version: 2.5.0 Build 20190404 Rel. 57144

So I have just upgraded to 1 Gbps internet at home.

There I have my ISP router connected to an 8-port TP Link switch, which then covers 3x EAP 225 AP's, and some other ethernet enabled rooms. The WiFi is obviously disabled on the ISP router, so only the AP's should put out WiFi (at least according to the available WiFi networks). Now, I have checked most ports, and all the ports, if connected via ethernet, I get around 900-1000 Mbps up and down - which is what I have paid for.

But even though I am standing right under an AP, or at least really close, I don't get much more than 100-200 Mbps, which I really think is insufficient.

 

So do you have any idea about what I am doing wrong ? I have tried to lower the power of the AP's, so they don't interrupt each other that much, and I have made sure that the channels used are not used by anyone (or no more than one other) of my neighbours. I have also tried to reset my AP's, but that didn't do anything either. I also don't think it's my devices that are incapable of more than 200 Mbps. 

 

So yeah, what should be my next step in troubleshooting this. A decrease of around 80% is a bit too much I think :)

 

Thanks in advance.

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#1
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-18 13:32:47 - last edited 2019-09-18 13:36:47

@Lynild It depends on a lot of factors. I can get around 700mbps+ on my EAP225 but this is only achieveable on the 5ghz band. Strangely this dropped to around 500mbps when i enabled mesh.

 

Create a separate SSID for 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Ensure you are on the 5ghz band for testing. 

 

It will also depend heavily on the device you are using. Check out the wifi specs of your device to see what speeds you should be expecting.

 

You will not get gigabit speeds over wifi on EAP225 but you should be getting over 700. 

If you have an IOS device I recommend downloading and app called wifi sweet spots. It will show your connection rate to the AP rather than relying on an internet speedtest which could be limited by other factors such as cabling, POE injectors and switches. 

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#2
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-18 15:04:27

@quadrophenic 

 

Thank you for your answer.

I have now tried to do seperate SSID's for 2.4GHz and 5GHz, but that didn't do much.

I did however not know that Mesh was enabled. Is that a new feature, or...? And should it even be enabled in a regular home with 3 APs?

 

And I am aware that I will not get 1 Gbit WiFi, but as you mentioned, twice or even triple the 150 Mbit I get now should be doable.

 

But I have actually just found out that the Omada controller was out-dated (or at least not the least version), and this upgrade improved it to 200-300 Mbps (still not enough).

 

So is there anything else one can do ?

For example, I have already put each AP on different channels, with channel width = 20 MHz for 2.4GHz and 80MHz for 5Ghz. Power is low for 2.4GHz and medium for 5GHz.

Should the EAPs have static IPs or not ?

Are there any setting I might have enabled/disabled, that maybe slow down the WiFi, or...?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

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#3
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-18 16:39:21

@Lynild well ironically I have just got home and decided to retest my own AP and I am only getting around 300mbps on 5ghz. I have previous test results in the same setup which were around 500mbps. Looks like I’ll be doing some testing of my own. Will let you know how I get on. I only use mesh because I haven’t got round to running a cable to one of my AP. Disable it if you don’t need it. 

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#6
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-18 16:59:39

@quadrophenic 

 

And this is actually also what is weird.

I have just upgraded to 1 Gbps. Before I had 300/300 Mbps. And when I had that and first optimized my setup I peaked at around 250-280 Mbps on WiFi. And alright, I haven't checked the WiFi speeds for a month or so, I only did that to see the speed after the upgrade. And yeah, now I can't even reach the speeds I did when I had 300/300 Mbps.

 

So maybe something automatic has happened, I don't know. Again, I am pretty sure Mesh wasn't enabled before (unfortunately that didn't help much), so maybe something else has been enabled/disabled automatically since I was in the Omada software last time...

 

But "nice to hear" you may have some of the same problems :)

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#7
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-18 17:46:23

@Lynild I think we might need @forrest to help out here. I have tried everything and cannot get any of my EAP to connect above 300mbps. I have disabled mesh, tried with fast roaming on and off, disabled 2.4ghz band, deleted my wlan settings and recreated them. Scheduler turned off, mac filter off and same results on all AP.

Rebooted every AP and still the same issue. 

 

I have 3xEAP225 v3, EAP225-Outdoor and OC200 all running latest firmware. I'm stumped.

 

Using an iphone X to test wifi connection rate and nothing will get them above the speeds you have mentioned. 

 

My internet is not at 300mbps (I wish sad )hence why ive not noticed it in 4 months. 

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#8
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-19 00:52:57

Hello,

 

EAP225v3 is a dual-band device. It can support simultaneous 450Mbps on 2.4GHz and 867Mbps on 5GHz. 

When the client devices connect to the WiFi network, what we normally care is the wireless speed we test via the speedtest, which can tell us the wireless speed. However, the wireless speed is related to many factors, such as the ISP network, the AP, the link speed, the environment, the clienct devcie, etc.

 

In your network, you can only get a wireless speed about 200Mbps. I think you shoud know which band you are using. 

Normally the wireless speed is 1/3 - 1/2 of the link speed. So when you have a slow wireless speed, you should also check the link speed on the client devices. 

Besides, different client devices may have different speed. Some client devices only support 802.11 b/g, in this situation, this devices will not get a very high speed. 

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#9
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-19 01:16:26 - last edited 2019-09-19 12:10:06

Hello @Lynild,

 

I did a quick measurement of wireless speeds using NetSpot running on a MacBookPro 2016 model for EAP225 with following setup: 5 GHz band / 80 MHz channel width / n/ac-only mode. This is the result:

 

 

Note that this is wireless speed, not data speed. Protocol overhead might be up to ~30%, so theoretical data speed for 585 Mbps (MCS 7) wireless speed is about 410 Mbps data speed. My upstream is 450 Mbps, dslreports.com shows me 421 Mbps downstream over WiFi. That's pretty good for an 2016 MacBookPro over an EAP225 IMHO.

 

Actual maximum wireless speed depends on many parameters: RSSI, SNR, SIR and quality of the WiFi adapter of your device. Data speed depends on the speedtest site you use, its current load, network latencies, NAT throughput of your router etc.

 

So I guess the bottleneck is almost certainly your WiFi adapter of your laptop or whatever device you use, but not the EAP. Of course, using Ethernet over the wire you will get much better numbers.

 

If you really want to compare Gigabit Ethernet over-the-wire speeds with WiFi speeds, than you would have to compare it with latency-free WiFi equipment capable of transmitting at wireless speeds from 1.5 to 2 Gbps. Such devices usually do not use the 5 GHz band, but operate at 24 (twenty-four) GHz with proprietary protocols.

 

WiFi 6 aka 802.11ax tries to achieve such speeds by combining several channels of both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, MU-OFDM, 1024-QAM, 256 subcarriers, 8x8 MIMO etc., but such APs will be even more susceptible to interferences, so they will probably most useful to serve several client devices with 1 or 2 spatial streams rather than increase the total bandwidth for a single client device. All in my opinion, I have not tested WiFi 6 devices such as AX6000 or AX11000.

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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-19 06:42:33

@forrest @R1D2 Hi Guys, thank you for your input on this one. I understand both of your points regarding the many factors that determine wifi speeds. However I still share the concern that, in the same environment, same AP, same client my device is showing a reduced wireless connection speed, not data speed. 

 

Using WiFi Sweet Spots on iPhone X previous tests have shown similar to what @R1D2 is showing with his netspot tests, however now the same test is only showing results similar to @Lynild. It is as if the device is not getting the correct link speed despite being capable. 

This is the last set of results I was able to acheive, but now NONE of those are above 300mbps:

 

Maybe this is due to the device itself because the only change I can think of since the last set of tests is that my iphone has been updated to ios 12.4.1 so maybe the problem is on the device.

 

I will try again tonight using the same channel width (80MHz) and mode (n/ac mode only) as used in R1's tests. 

I will also try using some different devices. 

 

@Lynild what devices have you been using to test your connection?

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#11
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-19 10:44:20 - last edited 2019-09-19 11:06:17

quadrophenic wrote

Maybe this is due to the device itself because the only change I can think of since the last set of tests is that my iphone has been updated to ios 12.4.1 so maybe the problem is on the device.

 

Just a note: Apple has a long tradition of messing up the WiFi on iDevices with each new software upgrade. We're a hotspot provider with thousands of APs and hotspot guests using iPhones/iPads regularily complain to us after iOS upgrades. Usually patches from Apple will fix this again sooner or later.

 

Also keep in mind that changes in the environment (such as neighbors installing more devices) can influence existing setups. But since wireless links to all of your APs degraded, I guess it's caused by the new iOS.

 

But honestly: how often do you make full use of the hundreds of Mbps bandwidth? How many employees use your highspeed Internet connection? More than 400 power users? See https://bandwidthpool.com/bandwidth-calculator/ to estimate the total bandwidth you actually would need for what use case. Also keep in mind that most web servers still don't have a true Gigabit link at the ISP's site for all visitors except high-traffic sites (which then use rate limiting on their 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps connection).

 

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#12
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Re:1 Gbps ethernet, but only 150-200 Mbps WiFi.
2019-09-19 11:32:24

@R1D2 Thanks again for your reply. I will try to test on a device that hasnt been updated yet and let you know.

While I COMPLETELY agree that in most scenarios 100s of mbs of bandwidth would be wasted it does not negate the fact that if we buy hardware capable of providing a certain speed we expect to be able to achieve it even if only theoretically and in test scenarios. 

 

There are still situations even in a home environment where i would want to use the max connection speed available, large file transfers between devices for example. 

Now that file sizes are regularly tens of gigabytes it is important. 

 

Not needing it regularly should not mean we settle for an underperforming device.

 

I have a suspicion you may be right pointing the finger at apple in this case so hopefully the OP also confirms he is using some apple device to test his speeds.

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