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Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber

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Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
2020-11-08 21:58:33
Model: Archer AX50  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.0.9

Hi all!

 

I have CenturyLink Gigabit fiber and am using a TP Link Archer AX50 WiFi 6 router instead of the router they provide. The AX50 supports PPoE and VLAN tagging, and the router has been configured in the correct manner (as far as I can tell) to allow me to use it instead of the CenturyLink one. However, I'm not really getting the speeds I'm expecting.

 

Note: all subsequent speedtest results are derived from Ookla Speedtest using the nearest CenturyLink server. The device I am using to test speeds is a 2015 MacBook Pro that should support these speeds running MacOS Catalina.

 

Hardwired: I have heard that CenturyLink claims you should be at least getting around 80% of the advertised 940mbps when hardwired. In my case download speeds aren't achieving this (~625mbps), but upload speeds are.

 

WiFi: WiFi speeds when 6 feet away from the router are around 200-250mbps for both downloads and uploads. With the AX50, I have read reports of people getting considerably faster WiFi speeds.

 

Do any of you have any guidance as to what the bottleneck might be and how I can diagnose it? I have already read the threads saying NOT to use te Tether app, and I set this router up as new through the web interface without the Tether app.  I'm mainly trying to determine if it's CenturyLink or the AX50. Any feedback would be appreciated!

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Re:Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
2020-11-09 02:32:46
To check if the router is causing the slow down is to connect a PC direct to the modem bypassing the router and run your speed tests, then again with the router in place. Anytime you change equipment, power cycle everything as sometimes that helps. On the WIFi, are you on the 2.4 Ghz network or the 5 Ghz network as that will make a difference in speed as well as the distance from the router. If you are using the same SSID and password as the old router, you may need to delete/forget the network and re set it up. Also try different channels and widths for WIFI.
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Re:Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
2020-11-09 03:18:34

@ArcherC8 

 

In my case, my ISP required PPoE, so I'd need to figure out if I can test speeds directly from the ONT, bypassing the router. 
 

I'm generally always on the 5Ghz network, but I have reused the previous SSIDs; I'll try forgetting it from my machine and trying again. 
 

What's the best way to determine which channel and widths to use? I previously used Wifi Analyzer to observe how much traffic was on various bands/channels, but I was wondering if there was a better way. 

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Re:Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
2020-11-09 10:49:29
I found this for PPoE https://www.tp-link.com/il/support/faq/285/ 5 Ghz is faster but 2.4 gives you distance but tends to be more congested. I use the Network tools in IOS on my iMac but I do not need much as I can use auto channels. There are third party tools, but I have not used them. See this https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202068 on WIFI. If you have a bit of time, this will give you a lot more info on WIFI speed https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html
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Re:Trying to figure out speed bottleneck with AX50 and CenturyLink FIber
2020-11-09 22:30:21 - last edited 2020-11-09 22:31:37

@starbelly 

 

Look to use other wireless devices other than your MacBook in testing the Wi-Fi. 

 

You should be able to create a PPPoE connection with your computer: https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/mac-help/mchlp2714/mac

 

If you happen to have the router the ISP provides you could possibly look to set that up just to rule out your ISP, and the issue being the router.

 

Start with using the 5G on any specific channel using either 80 MHz or 160 MHz. If you do not currently have any AX adapters, try switching the 5G mode to a/n/ac to see if that helps.

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