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5G multi-device speed question

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mreg376

Occasional Visitor
I'm new here but OLD to computers and networking. But evidently not that smart...

I have two older wireless N Macbooks, each of which connect on 5G with an otherwise excellent Synology RT2600ac at a max of about 200Mbps up and down. I have a FiOS gigabit connection, getting about 915/910. When I do a speed test of the the two MacBooks side by side (5G N connection), they each separately get their usual 170-200/160-200 connection. But when I do the test with both MacBooks running Speedtest at the same time the speeds drop by half. I expected the speeds to be separately maintained, as I have almost of full gigabit capacity. Is this drop normal?

Edit: Same thing happens with same tests with ac devices (iPhone and iPad). Tests go down from about 500/400 to half that.

By the way, all tests were done close range and line of sight to router.

Any thoughts appreciated.
 
You are testing on WiFi correct? Wireless is a shared medium...so completely expected to see the speeds to the individual devices drop by roughly half when two devices were actively transmitting.
 
Yes, wifi. I understand that in general, but if the router has well over 1GB of 5GHz bandwidth and the Internet connection is gigabit, what is the limiting factor?
 
The wireless airspace is the limiting factor. Within the allocated airspace of the channel that your WiFi is operating on, there is only so much transmission time available. When you have multiple clients talking at the same time, they must take turns talking. Think about a CB radio...only one person at a time can talk.

If you want to resolve this you have a few options:
- wire more of your clients
- add more airspace...basically add additional APs on different channels and spread the clients across them
- move to newer devices that support faster speeds so the speed cut is less noticeable
 
Ah, I see. Is that channel capacity why people try to move to wider channels, like 40Mhz on the 2.4GHz band and 80Mhz on 5GHz? And isn't that also what MU-MIMO is supposed to solve? I know at this point neither is a practical solution, but at least I can't blame my router. Thanks for all the info.
 
Ah, I see. Is that channel capacity why people try to move to wider channels, like 40Mhz on the 2.4GHz band and 80Mhz on 5GHz? And isn't that also what MU-MIMO is supposed to solve? I know at this point neither is a practical solution, but at least I can't blame my router. Thanks for all the info.

Not all devices support MU-MIMO. I suspect that an older wireless N device would not.
 
I think you should try in more fashion and then shared it with us. "more fashion" means you can try connecting your device without the wireless router. Perhaps a direct connection. Or connect a single device and put it closer to the router or something.
 
You are testing on WiFi correct? Wireless is a shared medium...so completely expected to see the speeds to the individual devices drop by roughly half when two devices were actively transmitting.

Does this include dual band routers ?
 

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