WiFi speeds lower than expected / confusing

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
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Location
Birmingham
Hi all

I have a Virgin Media superhub 3 as my WiFi router. I have 250 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload as my broadband connection.

At the pc end I've just bought a pci-e WiFi card which is using the Intel Ax210 chipset.

I'm getting some strange results.

Firstly, a speed test on the pc gives me around 120 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload, so only half the download speed that my broadband can provide. Ok, this could be range issues as the pc is approx 10m straight line distance from router on the floor above.

But if I run a speed test on my pixel 4a mobile phone in the same spot as the pc, I get faster results, at 170 Mbps.

Secondly, if I do a file transfer from my NAS, which is connected to the superhub 3 via ethernet, I get 12 MB/s transfering FROM the NAS, but Im getting double that, 25 MB/s transfering TO the NAS.

This doesn't make sense to me for two reasons. 1, why would transfering TO the NAS get double the speed, and 2, 25 MB/s is around 200 Mbps, faster than the speed test results I'm getting via a broadband check.

Anyone know what I can start to look at settings wise?
 
Run a cable. :D

danlightbulb said:
I get 12 MB/s transfering FROM the NAS
Click to expand...

danlightbulb said:
2, 25 MB/s is around 200 Mbps, faster than the speed test results I'm getting via a broadband check.
Click to expand...
Which is it? If you are getting 12 MB/s from the NAS that would be download to your PC, that is close to your download speed results.

As answered in your other thread, the wifi on the phone could be better than the card you have for your PC.

It could be congestion, channel overlap, or the Superb 3 being crap.
 
If you look at your WiFi settings what does it say your link speed is? At my parents with their Virgin SuperHub 3 I have to manually force it to connect to the 5GHz band, the 2.4GHz one gives me ~120Mbps but I get ~500Mbps if I force connect to the 5GHz one.
 
What connection speed / standard is showing in the Wifi Properties on both the PC and Phone?
(Or netsh wlan show interfaces from a command prompt)


Both the Intel AX210 and Pixel 4a have 2x2 aerial configurations, but the Pixel 4a only supports AC wireless unlike the AX of the Intel.

It's worth looking at the settings on the Intel Wifi card, as there are a ton of them (or at least on mine there are), including at least one setting that will unfortunately limit it to only AC if not set correctly (there is no magic "Auto" setting for most of them unfortunately)


Edit: Ignore me - just realised the Super Hub 3 is only AC anyway (So the "best case" is going to be 866Mbps for a 2x2)



Also recommended reading that I came across earlier for anyone not 100% to speed with all the ins and outs of wifi:

Wi is Fi
 
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ChrisD. said:
Which is it? If you are getting 12 MB/s from the NAS that would be download to your PC, that is close to your download speed results.
Click to expand...
Yes, 120 Mbps and 12 MB/s are around the same, but why would I be able to upload to my NAS (which is my LAN network not the internet) at twice this speed? I would have thought the LAN speed would be the same copying files in any direction, its only the internet that has a different download speed and upload speed?

PaulM said:
If you look at your WiFi settings what does it say your link speed is? At my parents with their Virgin SuperHub 3 I have to manually force it to connect to the 5GHz band, the 2.4GHz one gives me ~120Mbps but I get ~500Mbps if I force connect to the 5GHz one.
Click to expand...
AtmzRXf.png


Im definitely connected to 5GHz wifi, as I configured the superhub to have separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs.

Armageus said:
What connection speed / standard is showing in the Wifi Properties on both the PC and Phone?
Click to expand...
PC:
BUPfn1m.png


Phone initially said transmit speed 526 and receive speed 325. Then as I type this where Im sitting at my desk in the upstairs bedroom, the numbers changed to 351/263. If I take the phone downstairs right next to the router, I get 866 transmit, 702 receive. Why I am getting faster transmit speed compared to receive speed?
 
If you could post a screenshot or list of what options your Wifi driver has (as I don't have an Intel AX in front of me), there may be something obvious that can be adjusted on it.

Assuming you have the following options, they are worth a try if not already set:
Transmit Power - Highest
Throughput Booster - Disabled
802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode - 802.11ac
MIMO power save mode - No SMPS
Roaming Aggressiveness - Lowest

Also worth turning off the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option
 
Armageus said:
If you could post a screenshot or list of what options your Wifi driver has (as I don't have an Intel AX in front of me), there may be something obvious that can be adjusted on it.

Assuming you have the following options, they are worth a try if not already set:
Transmit Power - Highest
Throughput Booster - Disabled
802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode - 802.11ac
MIMO power save mode - No SMPS
Roaming Aggressiveness - Lowest
Click to expand...

I have quite a few options, but some weren't set as per the list above. Here is what I have and have changed:

"802.11a/b/g wireless mode" set to "Dual band 802.11a/b/g"
"802.11n/ac/ax wireless mode" set to "802.11ac" (was set to 802.11ax)
"ARP offload for WoWLAN" set to "enabled"
"Channel width for 2.4Ghz" set to "Auto"
"Channel width for 5GHz" set to "Auto"
"Channel width for 6GHz" set to "Auto"
"Fat channel intolerant" set to "Disabled"
"GTK rekeying for WoWLAN" set to "enabled"
"MIMO power save mode" set to "No SMPS" (was set to "Auto SMPS")
"Mixed mode protection" set to "RTS/CTS enabled"
"NS offload for WoWLAN" set to "enabled"
"Packet coalescing" set to "enabled"
"Preferred band" set to "Prefer 5GHz band" (this was originally set to "no preference" but I found the PC was preferring to connect to the 2.4 GHz wifi SSID on boot up, so I changed it to this).
"Roaming aggressiveness" set to "lowest" (this was set to "medium)
"Sleep on WoWLAN disconnect" set to "disabled"
"Throughput booster" set to "disabled"
"Transmit power" set to "highest"
"U-APSD support" set to "disabled"
"Ultra high band 6GHz" set to "disabled" (this was set to enabled but I tried disabling it as I don't have 6GHz)
"Wake on magic packet" set to "enabled"
"Wake on pattern match" set to "enabled"

Armageus said:
Also worth turning off the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option
Click to expand...
Already off.


So after changing all the above settings, I checked again the link speed. I briefly saw it had changed to 780/780, but that didn't last long and its now back to reading 234/390 (receive/transmit).

Speed test still giving me 120 Mbps download. LAN file transfer test still giving me 12MB/s download, 25 MB/s upload.
 
danlightbulb said:
Why is Windows reporting my WiFi network as Wifi 4 and not Wifi 5? Im on a 5GHz ac connection, it should be showing as WiFi 5? My phone is showing the network as wifi 5.
Click to expand...
Is that not just the connection name on the PC. You know when you have multiple WiFi connections over the years they get numbered like Ethernet1, Ethernet2, WiFi1, etc. I don't think it means you're connected to a WiFi4 network. Mine on checking for example is "WiFi 2". :)
 
Ad_Augendae said:
I find netsh gives a better reading of things wifi try pasting this into a command prompt
Code: 
netsh wlan show interfaces
Click to expand...

There is 1 interface on the system:

Name : WiFi 4
Description : Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz
GUID : redacted
Physical address : redacted
Interface type : Primary
State : connected
SSID : VM8469592-5GHz
BSSID : redacted
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : 802.11ac
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : CCMP
Connection mode : Auto Connect
Band : 5 GHz
Channel : 104
Receive rate (Mbps) : 780
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 260
Signal : 80%
Profile : VM8469592-5GHz

Hosted network status : Not available
 
Wireless will always be unstable and cannot always be explained, many factors exist why you may get more transfering data then receiving.

Run a cable it's the best and most reliable option if you want the best bandwidth, otherwise don't worry about it too much
 
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