WiFi vs Hardwired/Ethernet Speed?

[Midpack]

Reviving a topic I raised about 6 months ago, still battling.

All else equal and no device restrictions, if you have a 300/300 Mbps fiber internet connection, how fast should your WiFi connection be? I’ve done several searches without seeing much specific, a few said WiFi should be 300/150 on our setup, most just said WiFi is slower (duh?).

TMI

• If I run a speed test on my Ethernet connection via PC I always get more than 300/300 Mbps.
• Our AT&T Pace 5268ac gateway is capable of 1 Gbps.
• If I run a speed test on my WiFi connection via iPad or iPhone I am getting 30-50 Mbps down and 15-30 Mbps up. About 5-10% of wired? Latency ranges from 15-30 ms.
• My iPad is supposed to be capable of 866 Mbps, my iPhone of 433 Mbps.
• I’ve talked to [-]India[/-] tech service about a dozen times, they’re always excessively polite, upbeat and “going to fix the problem” - but nothing has changed. They’ve rebooted, run diagnostics and “changed my config” over and over. Had a tech in home visit once, no change. They just gave us a new gateway, no change.

 

[Jerry1]

Mine are very close. I have 200 Mbps (not fiber) service and I just tested and got just over 200 Mbps on my iPad. I’ve usually run at closer to 150 Mbps. Not sue it’s so much faster this morning. Maybe everyone is still in bed nursing a hangover.

 

[njhowie]

The 300/300 (or above) is going to be theoretical under ideal conditions...i.e. you have your device right next to the router, the router has no other loads on it, the device you're testing with has no other loads on it, etc. If you have other devices in your home that are connected (via wifi or ethernet) to the router and doing any kind of access, it's going to take resources from the router and decrease maximum any individual device will get. Maybe you have some streaming device(s) in the home, maybe a couple phones with wifi enabled, maybe some other IOT devices - they are all using some amount of bandwidth and resources from the router. On the device you're testing with, be sure that when testing, absolutely everything is disabled and you have no other apps running on it at the time of testing.

One way that you can increase the performance of the device you're testing with - go in to the QoS (Quality of Service) settings in the router, and prioritize it above all the others. That will likely increase the performance of the device, though may still not get you to the theoretical maximum.

 

[arch57]

It matters on what type of WiFi router you have and if it supports 5GHz. Years ago when WiFi first came out it was at the 2.4Ghz band (which is also crowded with other devices such as Bluetooth and even Microwave ovens can affect it). There are certain channels on the 2.4Ghz band that are better than others and a quick Google search says only 1,6 or 11 run with no interference. If you only have 2.4Ghz on your router try one of those channels.
The 5Ghz WiFi band is much faster but at at reduced range. In our house I get 280Mbps on 5Ghz when near the router and only 60Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band. However across the house away from router the 5Ghz struggles to get 15Mbps as the signal is weak yet the 2.4Ghz is still at 45Mbps.

That being said have you tried on your iPad or iPhone searching for a WiFi connection that ends in "5G". For example you should see "MyRouter" and "MyRouter-5G" as choices.

And also what distance away from the router are you operating your phone. Comcast installed my router in the basement, which made WiFi awful but that is where the cable came in so I ran more cable and located it in our main living area and that made a difference. Good luck.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Ah, yes. Diagnosing speed problems on wifi. Right now, I am getting over 80 Mbps on all devices, with my max at theoretically 100 Mbps. So I am good. Here are some mutually exclusive things I had to do to get to this point.

Factory reset of gateway/router.

Firmware upgrade of router.

Kill most advanced features on router-guest network, intelligent switching between 2.4 and 5.0, various logging functions. Kill every advanced feature.

Settings in Windows 10 that saved energy by throttling/stopping wifi. Multiple software locations on my laptop.

Too many devices on wifi. Even though marketing material talks about 253 devices on the network (254 including the router), wifi can only handle 5 or 10 or 15. Depending on your router. I would shut off all wifi devices, then connect your fastest wifi device and see how fast it is.

Kill more features on your router.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Get one of those free apps for you android/ios devices called wifi analyzer. Test signal strength. Where you are doing the testing needs to be -60 Db or better. -70 is bad. -50 is good.

 

[Midpack]

It matters on what type of WiFi router you have and if it supports 5GHz. Years ago when WiFi first came out it was at the 2.4Ghz band (which is also crowded with other devices such as Bluetooth and even Microwave ovens can affect it). There are certain channels on the 2.4Ghz band that are better than others and a quick Google search says only 1,6 or 11 run with no interference. If you only have 2.4Ghz on your router try one of those channels.
The 5Ghz WiFi band is much faster but at at reduced range. In our house I get 280Mbps on 5Ghz when near the router and only 60Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band. However across the house away from router the 5Ghz struggles to get 15Mbps as the signal is weak yet the 2.4Ghz is still at 45Mbps.

That being said have you tried on your iPad or iPhone searching for a WiFi connection that ends in "5G". For example you should see "MyRouter" and "MyRouter-5G" as choices.

And also what distance away from the router are you operating your phone. Comcast installed my router in the basement, which made WiFi awful but that is where the cable came in so I ran more cable and located it in our main living area and that made a difference. Good luck.

It’s a brand new dual band, 2.4 & 5 GHz, Pace 5268ac gateway. It replaced a nearly new Arris 210-700, also dual band. It chooses automatically, we can’t select directly that I know of and there’s only one username/password. It supposedly defaults to 5 GHz and drops to 2.4 GHz if the device doesn’t support 5 GHz. [I had a Netgear dual band that had separate 2.4 and 5 usernames so I could force, can’t with the AT&T gateways that I know of]

To other comments above:

• I can stand next to the gateway and run a speed test and it makes no difference, so it doesn’t appear to be a proximity issue?
• I’ve done speed tests with only one device connected, everything else OFF.
• I’m not expecting 300/300, I asked what to expect? I’ve been told I should get 150 or better, I’m getting 30-50 even if I only have one device connected. I hope that’s not all I can expect - 5 to 10% of 300/300 on WiFi vs Ethernet?

 

[target2019]

My starting reference:
https://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/2267100~5694a5d84811c1255c4f12556de77ead/5268AC Manual.pdf

 

[Sunset]

OP - do you log into your router so you can see and adjust the settings ?

My router has bandwidth settings for the various SSID's (separate networks).

I personally dislike these all in one modem routers, so I don't have one, but they should still work.

 

[target2019]

This video shows how to put the gateway into Bridge Mode. That is not your question, OP, but it seems to be a good intro to the 5268ac gateway device and shows various settings tabs once you get there.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

It’s a brand new dual band, 2.4 & 5 GHz, Pace 5268ac gateway. It replaced a nearly new Arris 210-700, also dual band. It chooses automatically, we can’t select directly that I know of and there’s only one username/password. It supposedly defaults to 5 GHz and drops to 2.4 GHz if the device doesn’t support 5 GHz. [I had a Netgear dual band that had separate 2.4 and 5 usernames so I could force, can’t with the AT&T gateways that I know of]

To other comments above:

• I can stand next to the gateway and run a speed test and it makes no difference, so it doesn’t appear to be a proximity issue?
• I’ve done speed tests with only one device connected, everything else OFF.
• I’m not expecting 300/300, I asked what to expect? I’ve been told I should get 150 or better, I’m getting 30-50 even if I only have one device connected. I hope that’s not all I can expect - 5 to 10% of 300/300 on WiFi vs Ethernet?

1) speed test not same thing as wifi analyzer strength test.
2)OK. Then it is not too many devices.
3) I believe you should expect, depending on time of day, 50% to 100% of theoretical maximum. I say "time of day" because during prime streaming times, internet is slower. https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/why-does-my-internet-slow-down-at-night

 

[Z3Dreamer]

My $229 Netgear router had a firmware upgrade. This firmware upgrade messed up the ability to auto sense whether the device should be 2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz. With many devices, it couldn't tell what they should be so they either were frequently disconnected or were very slow. I turned off that function and the problem went away. Of course, according to Netgear tech support, this couldn't possibly happen and I don't know what I am talking about.

I notice you have this function, too.

 

[zinger1457]

I would look further into which band you're connecting to (2.4/5GHz). I'm pretty sure with the AT&T router you have the option of configuring each band with the same or different network names. If you use different network names you'll know for sure which band you're connected to. On my network if I'm connected to the 2.4G band my network speed is about 50% of max, when connected to the 5G band I'm very close to 100%.

 

[wanaberetiree]

Reviving a topic I raised about 6 months ago, still battling.

All else equal and no device restrictions, if you have a 300/300 Mbps fiber internet connection, how fast should your WiFi connection be? I’ve done several searches without seeing much specific, a few said WiFi should be 300/150 on our setup, most just said WiFi is slower (duh?).

TMI

• If I run a speed test on my Ethernet connection via PC I always get more than 300/300 Mbps.
• Our AT&T Pace 5268ac gateway is capable of 1 Gbps.
• If I run a speed test on my WiFi connection via iPad or iPhone I am getting 30-50 Mbps down and 15-30 Mbps up. About 5-10% of wired? Latency ranges from 15-30 ms.
• My iPad is supposed to be capable of 866 Mbps, my iPhone of 433 Mbps.
• I’ve talked to [-]India[/-] tech service about a dozen times, they’re always excessively polite, upbeat and “going to fix the problem” - but nothing has changed. They’ve rebooted, run diagnostics and “changed my config” over and over. Had a tech in home visit once, no change. They just gave us a new gateway, no change.

On 1GB fiber Internet connection on wire I get 900+mbps/900+mbps and on WiFi close to my Eero router best case ~400mbps/400mbps

Make sure you are not connected to VPN by mistake

 

[braumeister]

FWIW, my cable internet service is supposedly 200 download, and I typically get 65-70.

 

[homestead]

I switched my two smart tv's and apple tv to ethernet and they work much better.
They worked with wireless but occasionally would drop out and then come back.

 

[Midpack]

OP - do you log into your router so you can see and adjust the settings ?

My router has bandwidth settings for the various SSID's (separate networks).

I personally dislike these all in one modem routers, so I don't have one, but they should still work.

Just got the replacement router yesterday, and I haven’t tried to log in and look around. But I’ve done it before with other routers, so I’ll try that. And it was easier when I could choose which band I wanted.

Of course, according to Netgear tech support, this couldn't possibly happen and I don't know what I am talking about.

I notice you have this function, too.

I talked to a dozen AT&T reps, some clueless, none closer than 8,000 miles. They all know more than I do too, yet they haven’t fixed anything yet...

I switched my two smart tv's and apple tv to ethernet and they work much better.
They worked with wireless but occasionally would drop out and then come back.

Only 2 Ethernet ports in the house, 1 in kitchen closet (where gateway is) and one in office. Nothing near TV’s. With a 300/300 connection, I should have way more than enough bandwidth with WiFi.

 

[gauss]

Do you know how many radios/antennae are in your portable device for the band that you are using? Often for portable devices it is only one which would limit you to one spatial stream - not the three or four that modern routers and laptops support.

After you have your laptop connecting and performing at the desired
Speeds using wired ethernet, switch your laptop to wireless mode and continue the testing. Laptops will often have multiple radios per band where portable devices only have one.

Also pay attention to your hardware link speed before performing end to end tests. This can be seen in both Windows and Android on to he details/status page for the network device of interest. For wired Ethernet this should be something like 100 Mbps or 1Gbps Also for WiFi, you should know what the maximum link speed should be for a givenbumber if radios. In old 802.11G systems the max link rate was 54 Mbps. In N or AC systems, multiple radios are supported (aka multiple spatial streams). Leading to higher max link rates.

Only after you have the hardware link speed operating where you think it should be would you do an end to end peformance test (ie ookla speedtest).

Gauss

P.s. I am in the process of upgrading a 10 year old G WIFi network, so I have been learning this during the past week or so.

 

[homestead]

Only 2 Ethernet ports in the house, 1 in kitchen closet (where gateway is) and one in office. Nothing near TV’s. With a 300/300 connection, I should have way more than enough bandwidth with WiFi.

That is the way my house was too until I crawled under house and ran a single ethernet from router to a ethernet switch and from there to all the tv's & devices.

 

[Cobra9777]

I would say that 5 to 10% of wired bandwidth is definitely not normal. Something is wrong. Based on my experience, 50-100% should be your expectation, assuming you have good signal strength. Stay on AT&T until they find a resolution. If you want to troubleshoot this yourself, I'd suggest going to dslreports.com. Go to the forums tab, click on the sub-forum for your ISP, and search for threads with a similar problem or post your question. Often, there are very experienced ISP reps who respond to problems posted on that site.

FWIW, we have 50/50 fiber (FiOS) and a mesh WiFi system with 6 nodes. I just ran a speedtest (speedtest.net) on my hardwired desktop PC and got 52/60. Then I ran a WiFi test on my Android phone (about 10 feet from one of the mesh nodes) and got 50/46. With our older traditional router-based network, it was not unusual to get WiFi results of around 25/25. But since installing the mesh system, it is rare to see tests less than 50/50.

Years ago, I ran cat5 cable to all 3 of our TV streaming boxes and to our main desktop PC in the office. We also have our Obi-200 VoIP adapter hardwired to the router. I prefer hardwire over WiFi for bandwidth-intensive applications like video streaming and VoIP.

 

[Midpack]

That is the way my house was too until I crawled under house and ran a single ethernet from router to a ethernet switch and from there to all the tv's & devices.

I hadn’t thought about it, but we have a (mostly) ranch on a crawl space so it wouldn’t be that hard. But we have mobile devices and I’d like to know what I could get with WiFi first.

 

[Midpack]

I would say that 5 to 10% of wired bandwidth is definitely not normal. Something is wrong. Based on my experience, 50-100% should be your expectation, assuming you have good signal strength. Stay on AT&T until they find a resolution. If you want to troubleshoot this yourself, I'd suggest going to dslreports.com. Go to the forums tab, click on the sub-forum for your ISP, and search for threads with a similar problem or post your question. Often, there are very experienced ISP reps who respond to problems posted on that site.

FWIW, we have 50/50 fiber (FiOS) and a mesh WiFi system with 6 nodes. I just ran a speedtest (speedtest.net) on my hardwired desktop PC and got 52/60. Then I ran a WiFi test on my Android phone (about 10 feet from one of the mesh nodes) and got 50/46. With our older traditional router-based network, it was not unusual to get WiFi results of around 25/25. But since installing the mesh system, it is rare to see tests less than 50/50.

Years ago, I ran cat5 cable to all 3 of our TV streaming boxes and to our main desktop PC in the office. We also have our Obi-200 VoIP adapter hardwired to the router. I prefer hardwire over WiFi for bandwidth-intensive applications like video streaming and VoIP.

All my earlier speed tests were using an AT&T speed test, here’s one using dslreports.com speed test with nothing connected except one iPad, 8 feet from the gateway - still way less than I think I should be getting using WiFi paying for a 300/300 fiber connection.

We had better performance at our old house with a Comcast 25 Mbps connection and my own Netgear Nighthawk 1.2 Gbps dual band router.

So I’ll nose around the dslreports forum, and I have a live AT&T tech scheduled in the morning.

 

[target2019]

What iPad? Specs are important.
Use WiFi Analyzer to isolate the best channel(s). Set the Wifi to use that 5GHz channel.
From what I can tell in reviews, that gateway modem is not very popular.

 

[Midpack]

What iPad? Specs are important.
Use WiFi Analyzer to isolate the best channel(s). Set the Wifi to use that 5GHz channel.
From what I can tell in reviews, that gateway modem is not very popular.

From my OP, “My iPad (Air 2) is supposed to be capable of 866 Mbps, my iPhone (6 Plus) of 433 Mbps.”

I just went into the AT&T device manager and it’s assigned all 8 of our devices to 2.4 GHz? Most of them are 5 GHz capable. It’s very rare we have more than 2-3 devices connected at a given time.

I wanted to use my router, but AT&T insists I use their Gateway, they won’t support anything else. I’d have to buy a new modem, as my old one can’t handle fiber. I had my Netgear router plugged into the earlier AT&T gateway (Arris 210-700) and it worked. So far that won’t work with the new (Pace 5268ac) gateway. BUT I want the AT&T equipment I’m paying for to work properly before I spend time on workarounds.

Still sleuthing, and I have a “house call” tomorrow.

 

[target2019]

Create a 5GHz SSID with different name. Connect to that.