[SOLVED] WiFi Speed

[cuse165]

I have a few questions about my wireless network and setup. I have only tested this on my Android phone. From our ISP we get 100Mbps that's what we are paying for. Now on the 2.4GHZ I get only 40Mbps top speed. In my router it's setup for the 2.4GHZ Network to go up to 450Mbps. If I connect the the 5GHZ network I do get 100Mbps. But only when I get full signal like -43dbm. At about half signal -68dbm the speed jumps down to about 55 60Mbps. My question is for both of my issues is why is this happening? Is it my router network or my phone. I was told to get a super router to get good consistent speeds. It's not that super but it was not cheap. I have two homes and the issue is with both networks.


My equipment.
I got a Zoom DOCSIS 3.0 5341-00-00J modem with a Netgear R6700v3 router
And a Netgear C6300 Router/modem

 

[bill001g]

It is likely the phone causing the problems. Phones unlike routers have small antenna and low power radios.

The 450 number assumes that you can run 3x3 mimo. Most phones only have 2 antenna so you are limited to 2x2 which would have a 300 number. These numbers are not speeds they represent the data encoding and are deceptive because they do things like add transmit and receive speeds. They also assume things like sending 2 overlapping signals (ie 2x2 mimo) can actually be fully recovered and not interfere.

You will only get a small fraction of these numbers.

The 5g band because it has wider channels has more bandwidth to start with. A single 802.11ac channel is 433 before you start doing stuff like mimo etc. So this more than anything else tends to be the reason 5g runs faster.

As you get less and less signal levels they must drop to simpler data encoding. As a over simplfication they go from putting 256 bits into the signal to 64 or maybe even 16 or less. You can see the data encoding method by looking at the status of the wifi nic. The number you see you can lookup in what is called a MCS table to see what they represent. Not that it matters much, the router and the nic attempt to use the highest data encoding rate they can that does not get excessive errors.

 

[RealBeast]

I have a few questions about my wireless network and setup. I have only tested this on my Android phone. From our ISP we get 100Mbps that's what we are paying for. Now on the 2.4GHZ I get only 40Mbps top speed. In my router it's setup for the 2.4GHZ Network to go up to 450Mbps. If I connect the the 5GHZ network I do get 100Mbps. But only when I get full signal like -43dbm. At about half signal -68dbm the speed jumps down to about 55 60Mbps. My question is for both of my issues is why is this happening? Is it my router network or my phone. I was told to get a super router to get good consistent speeds. It's not that super but it was not cheap. I have two homes and the issue is with both networks.


My equipment.
I got a Zoom DOCSIS 3.0 5341-00-00J modem with a Netgear R6700v3 router
And a Netgear C6300 Router/modem

Cuse, wireless is a very complex beast. The first problem is that everything is advertised by marketing people at its maximum potential transfer rate, at essentially zero distance from the router, with no competing signals (happens nowhere in the real world except my house since I live on 26 acres), and they do not account for overhead -- the parts of the signals that do not transfer your data but figure out what it is and where it is supposed to go.

Don't even think about trying to get what they tell you that you will get. Just get the best connections that you can. On 2.4GHz there are only three non-overlapping channels 1, 6, and 11 -- but everyone else uses them for wireless and lots of other stuff. Baby monitors, wireless headphones, wireless speakers, even microwave ovens use the upper part of the band.

Put a wifi analyzer on your android and use it to hunt for wireless networks nearby -- try to avoid those channels if you can. If you cannot, use the best one that you can of the three.

Now wireless AC 5GHz gives you an advantage -- the signal is not able to penetrate matter nearly as well as 2.4GHz so you will have less problem with neighbors, but it will not penetrate your house structure as well so you may need an access point in some spots to help out.

Whenever possible use Ethernet for high bandwidth low latency applications, as it has none of the above issues.

Even though I live in the sticks and have no competition, I do have a large house so I have lots of wired computers and 5 access points strategically placed for maximum benefit since we have to use wifi calling (no carrier signals out here in the sticks).

The best way to learn about wireless is to read a lot. There are good CICSO whitepapers, Bill001g is around here and is exceptionally knowledgeable, and I read THIS site and use a lot of its comparative data as it is very well done and the methodology is well explained.

 

[cuse165]

Thanks a lot for the help and information.