100mbit pipe, trying to reach these speeds with wifi

[ls3c6]

1000sq ft foundation, bilevel single family home, servicing 2000sqft

I have a DPC3939 from Comcast downstairs serving 2.4/5ghz g/n and gigabit cat5 connected dir825 b1 on stock firmware 2.07 lan port 1 serving 2.4/5ghz separate channels/ssids g/n upstairs.

5ghz coverage is poor on both, 2.4ghz works great but only get ~25mbit through 2.4 with 40mhz/wpa2/aes... I would at least like to achieve ~75 upstairs with another cat5 connected router/access point PREFERABLY over 2.4ghz

is this possible? advice?

 

[azazel1024]

Sure. I have no idea with your wireless environment looks like or what clients you are using, but I have a couple of WDR3600 TP-Link routers. One as a router and one as an access point. The AP is setup in 40MHz mode for 2.4 and 5GHz. I get ~180Mbps on 2.4GHz and 200Mbps 5GHz on my laptop which has a 2:2 adapter. On my tablet I get around 70-85Mbps on both bands with the same ones, but I have a 1:1 adapter (11n) in my tablet.

On my basement router it is set to 20MHz 2.4GHz and 40MHz 5GHz. I get roughly the same 200Mbps same room on 5GHz with my laptop, but I get only around 80Mbps on 2.4GHz on my laptop on the basement router. My tablet gets around 40Mbps on 2.4GHz and about the same 70+Mbps on 5GHz.

My iPhone 5 by comparison gets around 30Mbps on 2.4GHz on either and around 45Mbps on 5GHz on either.

Clients are important to consider. Also wifi environment. I have no nearby networks that can interfer with mine at all.

 

[ls3c6]

My N clients are a Vizio TV, Razr-M phone, S3 phone, sony bluray player... no laptops connected.... maybe it is delivering the speeds but I don't have a client capable of it? 5ghz is definitely better on the phones but range is very limited

 

[azazel1024]

My N clients are a Vizio TV, Razr-M phone, S3 phone, sony bluray player... no laptops connected.... maybe it is delivering the speeds but I don't have a client capable of it? 5ghz is definitely better on the phones but range is very limited

I would say likely. To the best of my knowledge those are all 1:1 clients and they very well might be limited to 65Mbps only...and consider the quality of a typical wifi adapter and how it is connected to the SoC, you might be looking at 30Mbps absolute max...if you are lucky. Downhill with a tail wind.

My wife's iPhone 4s can hit around 30Mbps or so on 2.4/5GHz, but it can't hit the same ~45Mbps or so that my iPhone 5 can because it is limited to 65Mbps link rates (can't do 40MHz channel bonding)...where as my iPhone 5 can use 40MHz on 5GHz (but not on 2.4GHz).

TVs like phones are just as likely to use very crappy and slow wifi adapters.

 

[ls3c6]

I would say likely. To the best of my knowledge those are all 1:1 clients and they very well might be limited to 65Mbps only...and consider the quality of a typical wifi adapter and how it is connected to the SoC, you might be looking at 30Mbps absolute max...if you are lucky. Downhill with a tail wind.

My wife's iPhone 4s can hit around 30Mbps or so on 2.4/5GHz, but it can't hit the same ~45Mbps or so that my iPhone 5 can because it is limited to 65Mbps link rates (can't do 40MHz channel bonding)...where as my iPhone 5 can use 40MHz on 5GHz (but not on 2.4GHz).

TVs like phones are just as likely to use very crappy and slow wifi adapters.

i'll try a decent laptop before I start condemning hardware, S3 says it linked at 150mbit pulls 25 on 2.4 / 50 on 5ghz.

I also tried same SSID, different channels but the AP's are close enough that roaming to the better signal doesn't work very well

 

[thiggins]

Use 20 MHz bandwidth on both routers. You aren't really buying additional performance and with two APs, you are getting co-channel interference on 6 if you have primary channels set to 1 and 11 as you should.

You won't reach 100 Mbps with 1x1 adapters, not in 2.4 GHz anyway and not at range.

 

[ls3c6]

ok i'll do that, I know my S3 supports HT40 at least so I figured I'd see more on 2.4ghz, I do alright on 5ghz though

 

[thiggins]

5 GHz channels don't overlap, so you can do 40 MHz. But 2.4 GHz has only 1, 6 and 11 that don't overlap.

 

[azazel1024]

i'll try a decent laptop before I start condemning hardware, S3 says it linked at 150mbit pulls 25 on 2.4 / 50 on 5ghz.

I also tried same SSID, different channels but the AP's are close enough that roaming to the better signal doesn't work very well

Not terribly far off my iPhone 5. Is it actually linking at 150Mbps on 2.4GHz? It is also possible it is claiming it is linking at 150Mbps, but is actually just doing 65Mbps (20MHz 1:1). My iPhone 5 won't tell me link rates at all, but I know for a fact it'll only link at 65Mbps on 2.4GHz and 150Mbps is for 5GHz only.

The connectivity between the SoC and the wifi adapter is also pretty highly suspect on these things too. For instance, this is better than most, I know that the standard that Intel's Bay Trail SoC uses is limited to 100Mbps absolute maximum. The Broadcom 1:1 adpater (150Mbps both 2.4 and 5GHz) isn't capable of exceeeding or really pushing that, but it does get ball park (as mentioned, I'll see as high as 80Mbps consistently. I'll get brief spikes as high as 90Mbps, but nothing close to baseline performance that high).

If you look at a lot of phone's performances, they are looking at maxing in the 30-50Mbps range on their 1:1 adapters. Poor designs, poor connectivity and possibly an OS network stack not really optimized for speed.

 

[azazel1024]

Actually I just checked the Anandtech review. The MAC within the S3 is limited to 65Mbps on 2.4GHz and 150Mbps on 5GHz. They tested 5GHz and got around 66Mbps performance and 2.4GHz netted around 33Mbps...which is spitting distance of what you are able to get with your setup and also test variances.

At least back to the router/AP. I personally am not a fan of Dlink and I have no idea on the Comcast modem/router/AP combo...but generally such devices have rather lackluster performance. I supose it is possible to squeeze a little more performance, at least on 5GHz and maybe also on 2.4GHz out of a better router/AP...but I wouldn't expect a whole lot...maybe 10-20% better. Not doubling or anything like that.

Your clients are just too handicapped.

 

[ls3c6]

most i can get with the s3 on 50mbit actual on 5ghz certainly not 66 but not sure what software rev they're using and mine is American s3 Verizon which differs from the international so I dunno hmm

I understand the WNDR3700 is basically the same as my DIR-825 but works better... should I seek one of those anyway? range is very poor even running by itself from the 825

 

[azazel1024]

Without knowing the exact construction you have going on in the house, I can't tell you if what you are experiencing is typical or not. IIRC the DIR825 does have pretty poor 5GHz range.

I think you are probably better off with something that isn't the WNDR3700. In my limited experience it also doesn't have great 5GHz range.

The wdr3600/4700 TP-Link routers seem to have pretty good 5GHz range. The Asus N66u and AC routers also have very good 5GHz range.

 

[ls3c6]

the house was built in 2001, so a bunch of plywood and drywall... you'd think it was good for wifi really