Question Ethernet slower than WiFi

[locutor]

I’ve been experimenting with the network connections to my Samsung QN90A TV and am finding Wifi 6 to be faster (43-75 Mbps) than direct-connected Ethernet (15-62 Mbps). Doesn’t make sense to me. Both are served by the same Internet feed. What might be going on here?

 

[rgd1101]

what the manual said about speed on the ethernet port? can't found it

 

[Ralston18]

Try a known working at speed Ethernet cable between router and TV.

What is printed on the existing Ethernet cable currently connecting the TV?

 

[BFG-9000]

That sounds pretty much the same to me. Wifi normally reports a higher connect speed because of the greater overhead and retransmits, while ethernet is normally lower latency + collisions and retransmits went away with hubs.

In any case that TV only has a 10/100 ethernet port and Wifi 5 (AC) which appears to be 1-antenna. Given 2.4GHz on Wifi 5 is essentially the same as Wifi 4 (N) from 2008, the maximum reported link speed (unless you live on a farm so can use 40MHz width) is going to be ~72Mbps.

Since you have a Wifi 6 (AX) router, setting 80MHz or wider on 5GHz should in a clean radio environment supply around 300Mbps link speed to to a Wifi 5 client, Wave-2 or not. Samsung TVs appear to have had 5GHz since the 2018 models.

So while technically the temperamental Wifi would be faster for browsing the internet on your TV if you chose 5GHz, you may still have a better and more stable experience streaming content on 10/100 with fewer hitches and hiccups. There may be a way to add a gigabit port via USB 3.0 dongle but I don't think that'd offer much benefit as the extra conversions add latency.

Only 8k TVs seem to come with gigabit ports, and even they don't really need them because most content is going to be highly compressed.

 

[locutor]

That sounds pretty much the same to me. Wifi normally reports a higher connect speed because of the greater overhead and retransmits, while ethernet is normally lower latency + collisions and retransmits went away with hubs.

In any case that TV only has a 10/100 ethernet port and Wifi 5 (AC) which appears to be 1-antenna. Given 2.4GHz on Wifi 5 is essentially the same as Wifi 4 (N) from 2008, the maximum reported link speed (unless you live on a farm so can use 40MHz width) is going to be ~72Mbps.

Since you have a Wifi 6 (AX) router, setting 80MHz or wider on 5GHz should in a clean radio environment supply around 300Mbps link speed to to a Wifi 5 client, Wave-2 or not. Samsung TVs appear to have had 5GHz since the 2018 models.

So while technically the temperamental Wifi would be faster for browsing the internet on your TV if you chose 5GHz, you may still have a better and more stable experience streaming content on 10/100 with fewer hitches and hiccups. There may be a way to add a gigabit port via USB 3.0 dongle but I don't think that'd offer much benefit as the extra conversions add latency.

Only 8k TVs seem to come with gigabit ports, and even they don't really need them because most content is going to be highly compressed.

BFG-9000, thanks much for your informative reply. My router is a TP-Link Archer AX21 (equivalent to TP-Link AX1800, I gather). I hate that TP-Link no longer provides user manuals. I see no option in the interface to adjust the 5GHz channel width (whose setting is not reported). I could, however, turn off the 2.4GHz channel. (My understanding is that Wifi 6 uses both.)
I don’t want to split hairs, though. My goal was to maximize throughput to the TV, but what I’m currently getting through Wifi 6 appears to be sufficient for glitch-free viewing.

 

[bill001g]

Your tv can't use wifi6 and your router is the cheap type of wifi6 that doesn't support 160mhz wide channels so it is not really any faster than wifi5. In the end you are using 802.11ac (ie wifi5) at the very best if you are using the 5g radio.

Most routers have some kind of display that will show how devices are connecting. You should be able to see which radio it is using and the wifi speed (ie encoding) it is using.

A tv is a huge pain to do any kind of network troubleshooting. Who knows what the speedtesting means, ethernet should always get very consistent results and generally the same or faster than the wifi. It is likely some software issue with the tv or maybe the web browser software on the tv.

So it is pretty easy to force 2.4 or 5. Just set the SSID different. On the TV you should then be able to put in the ssid of the 5g radio.

You are still better off using the ethernet cable. Unlike wifi the ethernet cable will not get interference. Wifi you can get random interference. The speed doesn't actually matter on a tv since it primary use is to consumer streaming video content.
You are getting more than what is needed to watch 4k netflix and having any more does not make it better, it still will not use more

People have to get away from thinking download speed numbers are so important. Only something like large game downloads need high bandwidth and device like tv or phones have no place to store lots of data or run complex games.
This is kinda like putting a speedometer on a car that can go up to 200 miles per hour when the limit on the road is 45.

Things like video streaming the key thing is a quality data connection that is fast enough to allow the content to be received, any faster will not be used.

 

[locutor]

Your tv can't use wifi6 and your router is the cheap type of wifi6 that doesn't support 160mhz wide channels so it is not really any faster than wifi5. In the end you are using 802.11ac (ie wifi5) at the very best if you are using the 5g radio.

Most routers have some kind of display that will show how devices are connecting. You should be able to see which radio it is using and the wifi speed (ie encoding) it is using.

A tv is a huge pain to do any kind of network troubleshooting. Who knows what the speedtesting means, ethernet should always get very consistent results and generally the same or faster than the wifi. It is likely some software issue with the tv or maybe the web browser software on the tv.

So it is pretty easy to force 2.4 or 5. Just set the SSID different. On the TV you should then be able to put in the ssid of the 5g radio.

You are still better off using the ethernet cable. Unlike wifi the ethernet cable will not get interference. Wifi you can get random interference. The speed doesn't actually matter on a tv since it primary use is to consumer streaming video content.
You are getting more than what is needed to watch 4k netflix and having any more does not make it better, it still will not use more

People have to get away from thinking download speed numbers are so important. Only something like large game downloads need high bandwidth and device like tv or phones have no place to store lots of data or run complex games.
This is kinda like putting a speedometer on a car that can go up to 200 miles per hour when the limit on the road is 45.

Things like video streaming the key thing is a quality data connection that is fast enough to allow the content to be received, any faster will not be used.

Thanks, bill001g. I know the TV doesn’t do Wifi 6. The router client list shows the TV is using a 5G interface with a Tx/Rx rate of 390-585 / 117-195 Mbps. Point taken about the data rate ceiling for TVs -- as I mentioned, I’ve never noticed a problem. Per your advice, I’ll probably just plug in Ethernet (though I’ll have to use a switch because there’s a single cable to the TV and my cable box also uses it).