New router is no better than my SuperHub5

Goose

Goose

Goose

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,720
Location
Kent
I bought a TP-Link Archer AXE75 to replace my SH5 and im disappointed to find that my wireless devices are getting almost exactly the same download speeds on both 2.5ghz and 5ghz networks.

Does this mean my new router is a bit naff or have my wireless devices simply reached their limits?
 
There's only so much a new router can do due if it's in the same place, due to power limits. You would've been better off running a cable to where the WiFi is slower then add an access point there.

My home is also rather small but the support wall runs right in the middle, and slows the 5Ghz band considerably, so I have access points on both sides to ensure the entire home gets good speeds.
 
Is your WiFi environment congested? Loads of neighbours all using the same bands? If so, tried a DFS channel or narrowing the channel width? Android is your friend here as you can easily perform site surveys using various free/freemium apps from the Play store. Net Analyzer, Aruba Utilities, WIFiAnalyzer, Unifi WiFiman...

Don't be tempted to immediately crank the AP's transmit power unless it's absolutely necessary, you will often make it harder for the AP to hear the device transmitting back if you're borderline on coverage.

Unsurprisingly I got worse throughput on a 5 GHz band using 160 MHz than with 80 MHz. Variation is significant, I can get ~1300 Mbit 10 feet from the AP downstairs through one wall, but less than 200 Mbit in the upstairs bedrooms, and my newbuild is mostly stud walls. The AP is under the stairs. I stopped caring in the end as the connection quality is reliable :)

I run my 2.4 GHz network with 20 MHz channel width for better coverage to all the IoT tat with crap WiFi antennae.
 
Goose said:
I bought a TP-Link Archer AXE75 to replace my SH5 and im disappointed to find that my wireless devices are getting almost exactly the same download speeds on both 2.5ghz and 5ghz networks.

Does this mean my new router is a bit naff or have my wireless devices simply reached their limits?
Click to expand...

Do you mean internet download speed or internal wlan transfer speed?

What are the speeds when connected with Ethernet directly to the router?
 
Goose said:
I've never really learned what channel width is/does. Does lower mean faster speeds but less coverage or something?
Click to expand...
Wider means it can carry more data, so 160 is faster than 80. However, this is only assuming you live with neighbours that don't use 5Ghz at all, as 160 is so wide it'll use all the lower end channels meaning you're bound to get interference. The higher channel bands are DFS and some client devices don't even support those channels.

80Mhz is the best balance I find for 5Ghz, and more likely not overlap with others. For me I'm using 80Mhz on channels 52 - 64, and it's not overlapping with any of the neighbours whose ISP routers/mesh kits defaults to 80MHz 36 - 48. While 52 - 64 is also DFS I haven't had any issues with them in my area.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ~cw
Orcvader said:
Wider means it can carry more data, so 160 is faster than 80. However, this is only assuming you live with neighbours that don't use 5Ghz at all, as 160 is so wide it'll use all the lower end channels meaning you're bound to get interference. The higher channel bands are DFS and some client devices don't even support those channels.

80Mhz is the best balance I find for 5Ghz, and more likely not overlap with others. For me I'm using 80Mhz on channels 52 - 64, and it's not overlapping with any of the neighbours whose ISP routers/mesh kits defaults to 80MHz 36 - 48. While 52 - 64 is also DFS I haven't had any issues with them in my area.
Click to expand...
This is true.

Rarely find issues with devices supporting DFS channels now but it can happen.

You also end up with some devices not supporting wider than 20MHz and wider channels can also cause a couple of other issues, such as primary/secondary overlapping interference and also not forgetting, the wider the channel the additional noise caused which when we're talking about already low signal to noise ratio, you're making matters worse.
 
Goose said:
Router is upstairs, devices are downstairs in a pretty small house.
Click to expand...
I may be wrong but I believe having the router above the devices isn't great due to the radiation pattern.

Have you tried altering the antenna orientation?

How to place your wireless router for optimal reception and performance | TP-Link United Kingdom

How to place your wireless router for optimal reception and performance
www.tp-link.com www.tp-link.com

"... so that the signal of the router is on the same horizontal plane as the equipment you usually use."

"The device will get a stronger wireless signal when it’s at the same altitude as the router."
 
Firegod said:
I may be wrong but I believe having the router above the devices isn't great due to the radiation pattern.

Have you tried altering the antenna orientation?

How to place your wireless router for optimal reception and performance | TP-Link United Kingdom

How to place your wireless router for optimal reception and performance
www.tp-link.com www.tp-link.com

"... so that the signal of the router is on the same horizontal plane as the equipment you usually use."

"The device will get a stronger wireless signal when it’s at the same altitude as the router."
Click to expand...
It depends on the antenna pattern, many access points are ceiling mounted and omni directional so they're meant to be above you.

OPs router has multiple external dipole antennas which will be omni-directional, whether they're best orientated is another matter.
 
Hyburnate said:
It depends on the antenna pattern, many access points are ceiling mounted and omni directional so they're meant to be above you.

OPs router has multiple external dipole antennas which will be omni-directional, whether they're best orientated is another matter.
Click to expand...
Yep the orientation might be the key here. I know my APs are ceiling mount only, but I think a general router in this instance will need to be placed and orientated. The article I linked to even shows an example of the router being higher than the device and how that impacts the signal quality.
 
I probably should have clarified that my speeds aren't actually bad, i'm actually quite happy with them. My Ipad gets around 700mbps and my Shield Pro around 450mbps. I made this thread because I just assumed that a proper router would improve things over the SH5 even if it was only a little bit.

Thanks to everyone for the info and advice.
 
Goose said:
I probably should have clarified that my speeds aren't actually bad, i'm actually quite happy with them. My Ipad gets around 700mbps and my Shield Pro around 450mbps. I made this thread because I just assumed that a proper router would improve things over the SH5 even if it was only a little bit.

Thanks to everyone for the info and advice.
Click to expand...
Actual speeds come down to some very specific things (modulation etc) but what it boils down to is your signal to noise ratio, channel width and device capabilities.

In windows if you do netsh wlan show all you'll get a good output of what your device sees

Mine as follows -

BSSID 2 : [HIDDEN]
Signal : 93%
Radio type : 802.11ax
Band : 5 GHz
Channel : 104
Hash-to-Element: : Not supported
Basic rates (Mbps) : 12 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 18 36 48 54

If you really want to geek out, run netsh wlan show interfaces and take a look at what you get. If you then look at MCS Tables (this link is great and from a good Wi-Fi guy Francois) https://mcsindex.net and work out what how you could in theory improve.
 
If you’re on 1Gb connection. Make use of the over provisioning on the SH5 with the 2.5gbe port. Your will get 1.3Gb speeds for free.
 
Last edited:
Hyburnate said:
For what it's worth, you'd be better looking at a VPN in the grand scheme of things, VPNs are so easy to setup and with todays up/down rates, they're actually usable.
Click to expand...
I have a PIA sub and i want to make my Unraid server reachable (including docker container) outside my home network. According to the guide I tried to follow that requires port forwarding to work which the SH5 does (at least mine doesn’t).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom