SteveRPenny wrote

Having got the Deco M9 Plus yesterday, I'm having similar issues with inconsistent wifi speed reporting.

 

I have a cable modem/router which has a 1GB/s connection. Wired direct from this gets about 900mb/s down, while wifi gets, on average, 650-700mbs.

 

I have set up 2 Deco M9 Plus. One hard-wired next to the router and one hard-wired, further away, in my office. The Deco system is set to AP (Access Point) mode as I just want them kicking out my existing home network with greater reach etc.

 

When I test a device that is connected to either Deco, I'm getting good speeds (comparable to above) for anything hard-wired (such as my iMac), but anything on wifi e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc, will only get 90-100mb/s max. The device is approx 12 inches away from the Deco hub.

 

The Deco app on my device actually records approx 500mb/s, but SpeedTest and Fast both report the much lower speeds on wifi connected devices.

@SteveRPenny 

To add to this after a few weeks of use; all of my wifi devices connected to a Deco seem to cap out at 200mbs. I'm yet to see a speed over that on any device I've tested (iPad x 2, Smart TV, Apple TV 4k, Xbox One S, various laptops, etc).

Frustratingly, when I test my iPhone via the SpeedTest app (as well as fast.com), I get the expected approx 100-200mb speed, but if I use the Deco app (which says that it uses SpeedTest for the measurements), it tells me I'm getting approx 550mbs. I find it very unlikely that one single service (SpeedTest) could produce such varied and disparate results when being tested on exactly the same device, in the same locaiton etc - makes me think TP-Link are doing something to the numbers.

Same speed issue as everyone else.  Read all the tips on this thread.

Confirmed latest firmaware on all M9's

Unplugged all 4 M9's and modem

Plugged in modem until all lights on

Plugged in Base M9 until good wifi signal

All home care options off.

( This is the big one for me)

QOS  set to STANDARD.

NO high priority devices

Set total bandwidth via internet speed test.  SAVE

Plug all other M9's back in.

400 MBps service.  460 speed on Deco app (wired).  380mbps on wifi.

Hope this helps

@SteveRPenny 

I see exactly the same results you do. In my case I tried switching the router from AP to Router mode and that caused the speed to make sense from the wifi and the speed test in the app. Switching it back to AP again reproduces the problem again.

My guess is there is some limitation in the AP mode.

I had a similar issue when I upgraded from 100mb to 1000mb service.  I discovered that when I originally setup the M9 it did a bandwidth test and set th le max bandwidth to 100mb.  I manually set my bandwidth to 1024 and everything started working. 
 

from the main menu "more" (bottom right), then select "QoS", then "total bandwidth edit "

hope that helps 

@KCjuggernaut Unfortunately, I don't have that option (I assume because I use them in AP mode).

@SteveRPenny I assume you are using web based speed test tools from desktops/laptops, and apps on your mobile devices (phones/tablets), is this correct? 

There is a significant reporting delta between an app and a HTTP based bandwidth testing tool. There is a lot of overhead in the web based testing, and they are often capped at a certain speed. When I run the Ookala speedtest from a browser on my Windows 10 machine (browser doesn't change the results by any significant number - ie. Edge, Chrome, Firefox) I get 100Mbps down & 200Mbps up through the Deco network to my carrier modem which is connected to fibre with a 1Gbps connection.

Using the Ookala speedtest Windows 10 app 425Mbps down & 430Mbps up. These numbers to vary throughout the day and are less than half the 1Gbps I pay for. However, all devices are different and I chalk it up to CPU, RAM, some have good network cards, others are built in and utilize some CPU & RAM when running, which makes a big difference. 

If I connect direct to my carrier modem the same Windows 10 machine sees the same results from the HTTP speedtest, but the throughput doubles when using the app. 

Don't forget that these deco devices route all QoS and parental control traffic through TPLink servers. Because of this I am certain bandwidth is effected, in fact I see latency numbers anywhere from 5-15ms with these features enabled, disabled 2-3ms hitting the same services.

The real test is copying large chunks of data across your internal network, device to device. I do see nearly full 1Gbps speeds across all internal wired devices, wireless speeds vary but closely match the device speeds.

Summary - Don't trust the web based speedtests if your provider delivers anything over 100Mbps to your home. Use the app based speedtests, and still assume some drop-off due to overhead. I believe you should easily see up to 80% of your provided bandwidth when direct connected to your carriers device, I've seen anywhere from 40-70% through the deco's and I assume a lot of overhead from the device itself and the traffic routing TPLink is doing with these devices to manage QoS, parental controls, etc. 

Lastly, I'm still not pleased with my Deco units, as I see many faults. But over 400Mbps to my wired devices is suitable for now...

@TWPS 

I have one M9 as the router, one M9 with a wired Ethernet backhaul, and one M9 using wireless backhaul.  If I wire my Chromebook directly to incoming box I get 900mb down and 900mb up (approximately).  If I directly connect my Chromebook (via Ethernet) to the m9 router I get slightly lower, but still in the 800-900 range.  If I connect (via Ethernet) to the m9 with the wired back haul I get about the same 800-900 range up/down.  If I connect (via Ethernet) to the m9 with the wireless backhaul I get around 300-400mb download, but only 5mb upload (I haven't figured that one out yet).  I'm just using the Speedtest.Googlefiber.net site.

@KCjuggernaut do you have any of the features enabled? QoS, parental control, blacklisted devices? 
 

I use these features, main reason for purchase was parental controls. I did run mine as AP's at one point and saw much better throughput. I'm convinced these features are part of the challenge. knowing they offload this to the cloud it makes sense why latency goes up and bandwidth appears to be lower. I suspect they retain a certain amount of bandwidth for this overhead. 
 

I have two M9's CAT6 backhaul wired. Main wired directly into carrier modem again CAT6. DHCP enabled on the Deco's not at the carrier modem. 
 

@TWPS I am using Qos and parental controls.  No black listed devices, but I have black listed urls.