AX6000 and WiFi6e
Hi all. I have an AX6000 router which I love. I recently got a Dell XPS 17 laptop which came with an Intel AX211 WiFi6e WLAN card. I'm getting slower WIFi speeds than expected. I consistently get considerably slower speeds on the XPS than on my wife's Inspiron, which has a Killer WiFi6 WLAN card, and even my 5 year old Alienware, which has a pre WiFi6 card. I've tweaked settings on both the router and card with no improvement. I've also run diagnostics (using Dell's online diagnostics app) on the card and it says its working as designed. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you in advance!
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Solved the issue!
Turns out, after I noticed the issue occurred both wireless and wired, I started checking my antivirus program (Avast) and found it was causing the issue. I uninstalled it temporarily and speeds soared to what I expected. I just need to figure out what I need to do to prevent it once I reinstall Avast. Thanks for all your help!
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Hi,
For a start, could you please check the "link speeds" of the Wi-Fi cards of both computers, the Dell XPS 17 and the Dell Inspiron?
You get to this screen by right-clicking on the network icon in the task bar and selecting "Open Network & Internet settings" and then the "Properties" of the network adapter.
The values should be rather similar between both computers if they are placed at the same physical location.
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Heres the XPS:
SSID:
Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
Driver version: 22.170.2.1
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 157
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 1201/721 (Mbps)
IPv6 address: 2600:6c5a:587f:3f82:9cf5:e4f0:7f2a:2a4b
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::7fea:ff71:18f0:197d%12
IPv6 DNS servers: 2607:f428:ffff:ffff::2 (Unencrypted)
2607:f428:ffff:ffff::1 (Unencrypted)
IPv4 address: 192.168.0.116
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.0.1 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC): F4-CE-23-FB-F6-71
I'll get the Inspiron shortly.
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@woozle
Here's the Inspiron:
SSID:
Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 157
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 1201/817 (Mbps)
IPv6 address: 2600:6c5a:587f:3f82:e726:97dd:24a0:4a46
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::288c:d794:d46d:ab43%24
IPv6 DNS servers: 2607:f428:ffff:ffff::2
2607:f428:ffff:ffff::1
IPv4 address: 192.168.0.118
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.0.1
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650x 160MHz Wireless Network Adapter (200NGW)
Driver version: 22.150.1.1
Physical address (MAC): 84-C5-A6-85-72-0D
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@woozle
The issue really only affects downloads and not uploads as you can see by the latest speed test done just a few minutes ago. Inspiron on the right, XPS on left.
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So, the link speeds of both computer's Wi-Fi cards are similar, but the download speed is almost just half on the XPS.
Looking at the official webpage of the Dell XPS 17 it appears that there is no LAN port on this model, so I guess you can't crosscheck the download speed over a wired connection, can you?
Do you remember if you've ever set up any devices to get priority in the QoS menu of your AX6000?
By the way. According to the screenshots you posted the router is broadcasting on channel 157. Due to how the segments of channels have been laid out in the 5 GHz band, it means that your AX6000 is only able to utilize 80 MHz channel width. Since you already own at least two devices that are capable utilizing 160 MHz channel width you might want to think about changing the channel of the 5 GHz Wi-Fi on the AX6000.
If you google for something like "5ghz channel layout" you should get some pictures within the search results that illustrate the channel arrangement nicely.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will make that change in the channel. I did try several different channels without any improvement but what you are saying makes perfect sense. The XPS does not have a wired LAN port but I have a Dell Thunderbolt adapter that has a LAN port among other ports. I used this adapter to run speed tests with XPS and the Alienware (the Inspiron has no Thunderbolt OR wired LAN ports) connected to the router via Ethernet. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) the results are similar. The XPS is slower to download. So it looks like the issue is not limited to wireless.
XPS = 190, Alienware = 429. Upload speeds were very similar.
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Solved the issue!
Turns out, after I noticed the issue occurred both wireless and wired, I started checking my antivirus program (Avast) and found it was causing the issue. I uninstalled it temporarily and speeds soared to what I expected. I just need to figure out what I need to do to prevent it once I reinstall Avast. Thanks for all your help!
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Great finding.
Some antivirus programs like Avast and Killer may limit the speed as reported before. You can check this thread to get more details.
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