AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed

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AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed

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AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-16 15:19:10 - last edited 2020-03-12 16:04:41
Model: Archer A7  
Hardware Version: V5
Firmware Version:

I bought two TP-Link AC1750 routers, one to use for my parents' house and one for my house. I set mine up, like the admin, works right away, good range, etc. I updated the firmware. However when I try a speed test (speedof.me) from my wired computer, I get 15-20 Mbps or so download speed. It actually doesn't even peak much higher than that, like 30 something. I did a speed test at Charter's Ookla page and also got around 30 Mbps there. Prior to the router change I used a Netgear N750 WNDR4000 and got right around 100 Mbps.

 

I have done a bunch of speed tests since then, and only one time it did peak higher than the 30s - it peaked right at 100 actually. So that's interesting, it can go faster. I have some screenshots of speed tests if needed. I have power cycled both modem and router in there as well. It seems normal and quick enough for web browsing, but I did do a big Steam game download that was slow.

 

Yesterday, I made it to my parents' house and swapped their router for the second AC1750 I bought. It works right away as well, and I did not update the firmware. It gets about 125 Mbps in speed tests when before it had gotten 100 Mbps. Great, a little improvement. It's probably modem-limited since that hasn't been changed in a long time (and same for mine). So I'm fine with that. We both have Charter Spectrum service, and we can try swapping in newer modems later.

 

So riddle me this, what's going on with my slow router? What can I check? The updated firmware is one obvious difference, but I'm doubtful on that. I wish I had done a speed test before updating firmware on mine. Mine was a v5.8 and my parents' was a v5.0 so that's another difference. I set the wifi network(s) name and password on both. I have a NAS at my house and I reserved the IP it had so that wouldn't change. I also set port 80 forwarding for it initially, but then I noticed it was in the UPNP already so I removed my change. I have not yet tried powering down my NAS to see if it is going nuts and using all my bandwidth for some reason, but it didn't prior to the change. I think I will try different ports next. I'm stumped. I saw someone with a similar problem in an old post here was asked about NAT boost being enabled, but I didn't see that in the menus.

 

Thank you for any help!

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#1
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1 Accepted Solution
Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed-Solution
2019-10-17 00:57:53 - last edited 2020-03-12 16:04:41

@HikingMike 

 

 

Hi Mike,  Good to see that after turning NAT Boost off the speeds went up.  Not really sure why that works but its does.  I will find out though.  As for why the wireless speeds are faster it really could be a few things. 

 

1.  You are connected to 5 GHz and it does have a higher throughput capablity than 2.4 GHz.

2.  The ethernet cable between the router and client device is Cat5 which is 10/100 or maximum of 100 Mbps

3.  The Client device ethernet port is 10/100 again meaning maximum of 100 Mbps 

 

Those are really the only reasons the wireless is faster than the wired device.  

 

 

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-16 17:01:23

@HikingMike 

 

Hi Mike.  First there is no difference between a V5.8 or a V5 other than the maufacturing location.  One is made in Vietnam and the other is made in China.  For the speed issue the issue could likely be NAT Boost or Duplex setting.  Both are located in Advanced - System Tools - System Parameters. 

 

Try disabling NAT boost, save and reboot then test.  If the speed is still slow try changing the Duplex to Full 100 or Full 1000 mbps. You may also want to swap the ethernet cable between the modem and router and between the router and computer just to rule it out if you haven't already. If that fails to improve speeds please let us know.  

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-16 19:23:40 - last edited 2019-10-16 19:27:07

@Carl 

Hi Carl, thanks for the reply. Great info there, good to know on the V5 stuff.

 

Interesting development - I tried a speed test with a laptop (wireless) and got 150 Mbps. But I was also able to test with another desktop on wired connection to the router and it was stuck at 20 Mbps like my first computer. So this issue seems limited to wired connections. And chances are the issue is not related any cords.

 

Ok, I checked NAT Boost in System Parameters and it is enabled. Duplex is set to Auto Negotiation. I disabled NAT Boost, saved, rebooted the router. Next test - 100 Mbps on both wired desktops!

 

Oh I tested the laptop again and it got 150 Mbps again. Wireless is still a bit faster than wired.

 

So is there an explanation?

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed-Solution
2019-10-17 00:57:53 - last edited 2020-03-12 16:04:41

@HikingMike 

 

 

Hi Mike,  Good to see that after turning NAT Boost off the speeds went up.  Not really sure why that works but its does.  I will find out though.  As for why the wireless speeds are faster it really could be a few things. 

 

1.  You are connected to 5 GHz and it does have a higher throughput capablity than 2.4 GHz.

2.  The ethernet cable between the router and client device is Cat5 which is 10/100 or maximum of 100 Mbps

3.  The Client device ethernet port is 10/100 again meaning maximum of 100 Mbps 

 

Those are really the only reasons the wireless is faster than the wired device.  

 

 

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-17 15:47:46

@Carl 

Yes, definitely big thank you on that. By the way, I turned NAT Boost off, rebooted, tested, then turned it back on, rebooted, tested and confirmed that NAT Boost is definitely the reason I got 20 Mbps on wired connection.

 

Now to work on why it isn't higher than 100 Mbps on wired connection - your 3 points. I tested two desktops that are wired. They both say 100 Mbps connection when I view the adapter status in Windows.

 

  1. We are talking wired vs wireless, and the issue is with wired right now so I don't think 5 GHz vs 2.4 GHz applies.
  2. One of those does have an old Cat5 cable so I will try switching that. I believe the other one has Cat6 cable, but it does go through a wall outlet. I installed that outlet and I think it has Cat6 on both sides, and I'm pretty sure the outlet was Cat6 as well. I will run a single Cat6 cable directly to the router on both and see what happens.
  3. Both of the computers have gigabit ethernet ports (motherboards: ASUS ROG Strix B450-F Gaming, ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150).

 

I will report back with results on the cable change.

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-17 16:57:10

@HikingMike 

 

If the adapter link rate is 100 Mbps and the acutal adapter is gigabit then likely the issue would be the cable type.  I included the wireless 5GHz over 2.4GHz really as a comparison but i do realize it was a bit confusiong so sorry about that.  

 

 

Please let me know if there is anything else you need or can provide.  We will be glad to help

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-19 19:22:51

@Carl I did a test with a Cat 6 cable and it showed 1.0 Gbps in Windows' ethernet status dialog, and BOOM 240 Mbps speed test! Great. Now I just need to replace one cable and troubleshoot the cables/outlet on my other one. Awesome. Thanks a lot for your help!

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#7
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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2019-10-21 17:30:46

@HikingMike 

 

Awesome,  Glad that worked.  Happy to be of help

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2020-02-05 13:38:27
Had the same issue, fixed it based on your answers. Thanks.
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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2020-06-16 16:43:41 - last edited 2020-06-16 16:51:55

No improvement with any of the suggestions here so far.

 

I've tried every possible combination of settings I can think of: No NAT, NAT but no NAT boost, NAT and NAT Boost. Firmware is up to date.  440 Mbps out of the router and at best 115 Mbps on ethernet cable out of Archer A7, but I'm averaging 62Mbps over 250 tests.

 

About to leave a terrible review for TP-Link on Amazon and then buy a Synology RT2600ac. This is just insane. For what it's worth, I KNOW it the Archer... I put an old Netgear N300 on the modem... and 400 Mbps passthrough on the ethernet port without doing any configuration whatsoever... pulled the thing out of a box after no use for a year, plugged it it to modem, booted.. bang 400 Mbps. 

 

Another odd symptom... my ISP service is 400 down, 20 up.  I do get the 20 up through the A7, just not the 400 down.. and again service is perfect out of the modem.

 

What's the deal TP-Link?

 

:::.. Internet Speed Test Result Details ..:::
Download Connection Speed:: 89679.73 kbps or 89.7 Mbps
Download Speed Test Size:: 117.4 MB or 120244 kB or 123130176 bytes
Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 11210 kB/s or 11.2 MB/s
Upload Connection Speed:: 21477 kbps or 21.5 Mbps
Upload Speed Test Size:: 22.6 MB or 23168 kB or 23724032 bytes
Upload Binary File Transfer Speed:: 2685 kB/s or 2.7 MB/s
Timed:: Download: 10.984 seconds | Upload: 8.837 seconds
Tested At:: https://TestMy.net
Test Time:: 2020-06-16 10:51:22 Local Time
Client Location:: Madison, WI US https://testmy.net/city/madison_wi
Target:: Dallas, TX https://testmy.net/multithread
Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/rAk3kvSeJ.24THMzrub
Client Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/KVanHorn  https://testmy.net/compID/12941871919686
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:77.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/77.0 [!]

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Re:AC1750 (Archer A7) slow wired speed
2020-06-16 16:59:39
KenKnight, are you saying you get 440 Mbps wireless and 100 Mbps wired with the AC1750 router? And then 400 Mbps wired with the Netgear N300? That does seem to indicate you have something holding back wired speed on the AC1750. Did you use the same ethernet cables for those tests?
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