[SOLVED] Much slower wifi speeds than expected

FluffyFlounder

Reputable
Feb 21, 2019
123
7
4,595
Hi, I have a TP-Link Archer T4E in my pc, which says is capable somewhere around a gigabit connection, and my network plan is currently 50mbps, however I'm only getting around 30mbps down and 3 mbps up. There are a couple walls / interferences between my pc and the router, however doing a speed test on 2 phones and a laptop, they are all maxing out at 50 down and 50 up. Is there an issue with my wifi card? I've tried both 2.4 and 5 ghz, both are ~30 down ~3-5 up. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
 
Solution
You could try the latest drivers for the nic card, do not use the generic ones microsoft includes in windows. There is very little you can set on the nic card almost all the setting are done on the router so would affect all devices.

Check the connection speed in the status. This will give you a indication of how good the device and the router thinks the connection is. The number represents the way the data is encoded. If you were getting maximum values you should see 867 on your particular card....I will assume your router supports the same as your card. If this number will drop when you see slower speeds it generally means you are getting errors and it dropped to a slower encoding.

BUT all that does not matter a lot since...
There are so many things that can affect wifi it is very hard to say why somethings run slower.

I would see if turning the PC helps. A desktop has a lot of metal that can block the antennas.

Also make sure you are connected to the 5g wifi radio. If you are only using a single SSID for both radios your machine maybe picking the 2.4g and the phones might be using the 5g. If you use different names for the SSID you can force it to use the 5g. Now in some cases the 2.4g radio might actually be faster, all depends on how strong the signals are and how much of the 5g is being absorbed by the walls.
 

FluffyFlounder

Reputable
Feb 21, 2019
123
7
4,595
There are so many things that can affect wifi it is very hard to say why somethings run slower.

I would see if turning the PC helps. A desktop has a lot of metal that can block the antennas.

Also make sure you are connected to the 5g wifi radio. If you are only using a single SSID for both radios your machine maybe picking the 2.4g and the phones might be using the 5g. If you use different names for the SSID you can force it to use the 5g. Now in some cases the 2.4g radio might actually be faster, all depends on how strong the signals are and how much of the 5g is being absorbed by the walls.
its set to 5g, antennas are facing towards the router (no pc in between). I did some fiddling with some settings and saw 50 down and 50 up for about 5 speed tests, but when i opened up discord the wifi just dropped again and I had to restart my pc, only to see 30 down and 5 up again.
 
You could try the latest drivers for the nic card, do not use the generic ones microsoft includes in windows. There is very little you can set on the nic card almost all the setting are done on the router so would affect all devices.

Check the connection speed in the status. This will give you a indication of how good the device and the router thinks the connection is. The number represents the way the data is encoded. If you were getting maximum values you should see 867 on your particular card....I will assume your router supports the same as your card. If this number will drop when you see slower speeds it generally means you are getting errors and it dropped to a slower encoding.

BUT all that does not matter a lot since you can't actually change any of that stuff, it is all negotiated between the card and the router.

Wifi is frustrating at times and many times the solution is to blindly buy new stuff. Rather than spend more money on a new wifi card that may also not work I would consider powerline or moca even though it will cost more. If you have tv coax in both rooms you can use moca and get full gigabit speeds. The newer powerline units called av2-1000 and av2-2000 generally can get 150-300mbps for most people, it depends on the quality of your electrical wires.
 
Solution

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
If you have 50 mbps, and getting 30 mbps on wireless. That’s pretty much the reality of the situation. Wireless.. for what you are paying for... that’s pretty good
Not true at all. 50Mb/s internet service should be easy to saturate with 5Ghz WIFI. 5Ghz should get up to 400Mb/s throughput. Whether the specifics of the house will allow 5Ghz, is a different question.
Even 2.4Ghz (N) on 20Mhz channel width should get close to 50Mb/s in an uncontended RF environment. Typical connect rate is 144Mb/s for an N or AC device.