Having a problem with Airport Express bandwidth

[convergent]

I have a home network that includes a cable modem coming into an Apple Airport Extreme. I also have a gigabit switch connecting the Airport Extreme to local devices and a MOCA network to get to some hard to access places, including the upstairs of my house. Upstairs, I have an Airport Express connected to the MOCA network to extend the wireless network.

The problem I'm seeing is that if I run a speed test from my iPhone 6s upstairs, connected wirelessly to the Express, I get less than 0.5 mbps up and down. If I use the same iPhone 6s downstairs, connected wirelessly to the Extreme, I get 10+ mbps up and down. I don't believe there is a problem with the MOCA network because my home office is upstairs and I have a Mac and Windows PC connected, both of which get speed tests of 60mbps down, 10mbps up. I also have a Tivo Roamio Plus upstairs using MOCA, and two Roamio Mini's downstairs that can stream HD content simultaneously. So the MOCA seems to be fine.

Any idea why the Express is getting such low bandwidth, and also I guess why is the Extreme only getting 10mbps wireless when i can get 60mbps wired? I've tried the usual reboot of everything.

Any ideas?

 

[sfx2000]

A few things to check...

1) make sure the Express is configured in "Bridge" mode, not AP mode
2) ensure that ethernet is connected to the right port - should be the port labeled "o", not "<-->"

If you cannot adjust the channels on the Express, then it is wirelessly repeating the extreme - need to ensure that it is in bridge mode as an AP, not repeater...

review the technote here - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204616

And check your wired performance on the LAN port of the Express, should be reasonably fast out to the internet when it's bridge mode (considering that it's 100BaseT that is...)

 

[convergent]

Although that tech note doesn't match the menus on the Airport Extreme, I am definitely in bridge mode on the express and its able to get to the internet, so assuming the upside is sharing the internet connection.

 

[convergent]

By the way, on the Airport Express, there is only one ethernet port, and it is labeled <-->.

 

[Trip]

@sfx2000 - looks like he's got the little guy that just plugs into the wall, as opposed to the 2-port model...

One way to sort this would be cross-testing with a cheap but decent N300 device set as an access point. Something like a TP-Link TL-WA801ND ($23) or Asus RT-N12 ($25 w/ rebate) would more than do it. I throw AdvancedTomato on N12s all the time for friends and they just run and run and run.

I know it's not the all-Apple fix, but for 3 cups of Starbucks it is a likely solution.

 

[convergent]

@sfx2000 - looks like he's got the little guy that just plugs into the wall, as opposed to the 2-port model...

One way to sort this would be cross-testing with a cheap but decent N300 device set as an access point. Something like a TP-Link TL-WA801ND ($23) or Asus RT-N12 ($25 w/ rebate) would more than do it. I throw AdvancedTomato on N12s all the time for friends and they just run and run and run.

I know it's not the all-Apple fix, but for 3 cups of Starbucks it is a likely solution.

I'm not opposed to using non-Apple gear... just easy to configure it all through the Airport Utility. The thing is that this was working fine at one point. I have to of the Airport Express and just swapped it out and still has the low bandwidth. I think I'm going to take it down and connect it directly to the Extreme and give it a different network ID and see if the problem persists... if not it would imply that something in between is causing the problem. I just don't understand what it could be since I can get 50 mbps from my computer going through the same switch the Express is plugged into. Strange.

 

[convergent]

I just switched the Express from "802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)" to "802.11n (802.11a compatible)" and now I'm getting 30mbps down, 10mbps up, just like the base (Airport Extreme). I'm guessing there is some old wifi device somewhere here in my house that is slowing down the network.

This should solve my problem for now. Still not sure why I'm getting half the downstream via Wifi as I get wired, but this is plenty for a smartphone.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[sfx2000]

By the way, on the Airport Express, there is only one ethernet port, and it is labeled <-->.

FWIW - the older 802.11n (non-dual band) is actually bit easier to setup in a roaming network with the current Airport utility than the 2012 model - much more granularity with how to pick which radio, modes, etc...

As OP reported - the default is 802.11 b/g/n, but moving it over to 802.11 a/n can do wonders to fill gaps in 5GHz coverage without impacting the 2.4GHz wireless...