[SOLVED] TP Link RE 450 Slow Speeds

Witterings

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Dec 23, 2016
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I'm using a TP Link RE 450 as an Access Point to replace a broken Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router that was doing the job before and it's mainly used for transferring files from a Wireless Laptop across the network which is all Cat6 / 1000 gb Switches.

If I re-boot everything for a short while I'll get between 22/24 Mbps transfer speeds on 5g which is the same as I consistently got with the R7000 before it broke but if I come back and do another file say 1/2 hour later the speed's permanently dropped to between 6 and 10 Mbps at best and stays like that until I re-boot everything again.

I've tried it in it's default setting obtaining the IP address from the router and also giving it a fixed IP and it makes no difference .... DHCP is switched off on the access point for both.

If anybody has any ideas what it may be would be appreciated.
 
Solution
What I mean is there is a number in the wifi status that tells you the connection "speed" You will see numbers like 433 or 867 or maybe 300 if you use 2.4g.

These numbers represent how the data is encoded. This table will show you what each number can mean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

What I suspect is you are getting a lot of errors and the pc and repeater renegotiate at a lower speed/mcs value.

If these numbers look good and do not change when the speed drops then I don't know. Normally I would say it was interference but that problem comes and goes it does not just run fine and then all the sudden drop to a lower value and stay there.

Maybe test with the PC near and connected to the main router wifi...
Make sure you have it running as a AP and not a repeater. A repeater will degrade the traffic because it re transmit wifi signals even when it really doesn't have to.

Check the connection rate you get in the wifi nic. It will show the so called "speed". In general wifi tends to negotiate the best it can but some wifi devices are too smart for their own good. Many will run say with a 40mhz channel width but detect a neighbor using a adjacent channel and drop to 20mhz.....to share the bandwidth with the neighbor.

It is not related to dhcp or ip addresses etc. Pretty much you have a ethernet to wifi converter. It just takes packets from one media to the other. It almost has to be in the wifi somehow.

Also if you are using the same SSID try to see if your device might be connecting to the main router via wifi directly. Many wifi nic will give you the mac address of what you are connected to. You could of course change the SSID so you know for sure where you are connected.
 

Witterings

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Dec 23, 2016
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Cheers for that .... am definitely running it as an AP rather than repeater, I'd already turned the WiFi off on the main router even though they had different SSID's.

I've tried changing boh from auto to 40mhz for the 2.4 and 80mhz for the 5g and it's still running at the same speeds.
 
Look to see what speed the wifi nic has in the status screen. This should show you what is called the MCS rate. This indicates what encoding it is using but you can also tell how good the signal the router thinks it has.

What I suspect is you are getting a lower encoding rate.

Still those speeds are so slow most people get over 100mbps with modern equipment.

I will assume you are testing to the internet. Does it test faster if you use a ethernet cable to the main router. You could try to copy files between machines in your house and see what rates you get. Best if at least one of the machines is not on wifi but I would still expect much faster rates.

There is not many option on wifi. Most issue are a result of interference and the only partical fix to that is to change channels. I would also try the 2.4g band especially if your internet connection is slow since you should be able to get at least 50mbps on 2.4g.
 

Witterings

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Dec 23, 2016
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Look to see what speed the wifi nic has in the status screen. This should show you what is called the MCS rate. This indicates what encoding it is using but you can also tell how good the signal the router thinks it has.

What I suspect is you are getting a lower encoding rate.

Still those speeds are so slow most people get over 100mbps with modern equipment.

I will assume you are testing to the internet. Does it test faster if you use a ethernet cable to the main router. You could try to copy files between machines in your house and see what rates you get. Best if at least one of the machines is not on wifi but I would still expect much faster rates.

There is not many option on wifi. Most issue are a result of interference and the only partical fix to that is to change channels. I would also try the 2.4g band especially if your internet connection is slow since you should be able to get at least 50mbps on 2.4g.

Apologies for the delay in replying ... I was waiting for some "bits" to arrive whilst also trying to do some troubleshooting and testing to see if it made a difference.

When you say the wifi nic in the status screen I wasn't sure what you meant?? I'm not testing the internet connection speed but testing the transfer rates from one devive on the network to another meaning it's bytes not bits and I'm guessing what you mean is the box showing how much has been done but if you click the down / more info arrow it shows the transfer speed.

The laptop doesn't have an RJ45 socket but if I use another PC that does and transfer the same file I get between 60 and 70 Mbps.

Where you mentioned about adjusting the transfer width .. would you set this to the highest as a matter of default or just leave it on auto????

EDIT: Almost forgot tried it using the 2.4 nd got virtually the same transfer speeds, maybe even a smidge faster.

Thank you again for your input ...much appreciated!
 
What I mean is there is a number in the wifi status that tells you the connection "speed" You will see numbers like 433 or 867 or maybe 300 if you use 2.4g.

These numbers represent how the data is encoded. This table will show you what each number can mean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

What I suspect is you are getting a lot of errors and the pc and repeater renegotiate at a lower speed/mcs value.

If these numbers look good and do not change when the speed drops then I don't know. Normally I would say it was interference but that problem comes and goes it does not just run fine and then all the sudden drop to a lower value and stay there.

Maybe test with the PC near and connected to the main router wifi. This is mostly to rule out the pc being the problem. After that you start to suspect a defective repeater.
 
Solution

Witterings

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Dec 23, 2016
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I'm beining to think it's something to do with the Network Card as I've very recently had a huge increase in the number of times it drops the Network connection altogether ... especially when trying to transfer files from the laptop across teh network and if I run Network Troubleshooter and getting "The Default Gateway Is Not Available" .... it's resets the device an dthen it works again.

Thank yo so much for all your help, I'll probably start a new thread asking about that as it may possibly resolve the other issue as well.