EX6200: disappointing 2.4 GHz speeds

[Aqualung]

Just had Netgear's EX6200 repeater delivered and installed a few days ago. I paired it with a Nighthawk R7000 via the 5GHz FastLane, line of sight, excellent 5GHz signal, everything peachy. Wired clients throughput: 50Mbps or more (obviously limited by my cable Internet provider's bottleneck). Wireless 2.4 clients max out at 5-6Mbps! What gives? What am I doing wrong?

Anyway, I also did some tests. I did some speed tests with the EX6200 on the 2.4 GHz frequency (screenshots attached, prefixed with EX6200), and then turned off the EX6200 2.4 GHz radio, attached my trusty old Linksys E4200 (v. 1) to one of EX6200's wired ports, and turned on E4200 2.4 GHz access point. In effect, I replaced EX6200's 2.4 GHz radio with E4200's (same channel, same settings). I then did some speed tests with the E4200 setup--see screenshots prefixed with E4200. I need to stress that these results are pretty characteristic of the two setups. As it can be seen, the difference is pretty shocking. The only explanation I have so far is that EX6200's 2.4 drivers are half baked (assuming, that is, that the issue does not reside in the hardware, which I am hoping it is not the case).

 

[stevech]

WiFi clients using the repeater will see a 50% reduction, or more, as compared to a client going directly to the router. A WDS repeater has this characteristic, as you may know.

But there could be other causes, such as the client's WiFi bit rate to the repeater, and the same for the repeater to the router.

Often the reliability and performance on average, is better if MoCA or power line is used instead of a repeater.

 

[Aqualung]

WiFi clients using the repeater will see a 50% reduction, or more, as compared to a client going directly to the router. A WDS repeater has this characteristic, as you may know.

Thanks for the reply. As I was mentioning in the OP, Netgear have been trumpeting this FastLane technology that avoids this 50% penalty. The two setups are thus identical with respect to the connection between the router and repeater (exclusive 5GHz lane), and only differ in the connection from EX6200 to client, which is:

1. EX6200 2.4 GHz radio in one scenario;
2. EX6200 wired->E4200 wireless 2.4 GHz->client in the other scenario.

What I noticed is that the second scenario is so much faster than the first, and this can only come down to a difference in performance between the two 2.4GHz radios (namely EX6200 vs. E4200). And that is a shame. Netgear needs to do something about that.

 

[stevech]

I'm not familiar with FastLane.. but in general, a WDS repeater in consumer products has ONE WiFi radio. I can either transmit or receive but not both, simultaneously. That is why there's a large reduction in speed/throughput. The link from the WDS device to the router may well be at a higher data rate than the client access - if the repeater was better positioned and could run a somewhat faster raw rate than could the clients.

Higher up the product food chain, there are dual-radio devices, where data is bridged to/from a second radio, usually in 5.8GHz WiFi, but it must talk to a like-kind (proprietary) radio on the other link. This is what you've seen/heard about for citywide WiFi using proprietary mesh networks.

 

[azazel1024]

The fast lane lets you bridge, say, the 2.4GHz network, using the 5GHz radios.

So router A is broadcasting a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz SSID (or the same one, but you can connect on both). The wireless bridge/repeater connects to the router on 5GHz, but then broadcasts/extends the 2.4GHz ONLY SSID.

So the 2.4GHz SSID doesn't have the performance penalty, as it is relayed over 5GHz.

Of course the problem here is...what kind of 5GHz connection is going on? If it is weak, you are still going to get slow speeds.

I think Netgear has the option to bridge 2.4GHz and broadcast/extend 5GHz. I'd maybe try that and see what happens. It could be that your 5GHz uplink it just too weak to get much throughput from where you have it located.

I know it won't happen, but it would be nice to see more multiradio products meant to act as wireless extenders and wireless extender basestations.

So it could, for example, have 4 2.4GHz and 2 5GHz radios in each one, or 4 5GHz and 2 2.4GHz...or 4 and 4. They uplink on, say, 2 2.4GHz in the first scenario on channel 1, but broadcast the SSID on channel 6 and 5GHz on channel 135 or something.

That way there is no retransmission penalty for anyone at all anywhere (unless of course you have more than one active bridge at the same time).

AFAIK that is kind of how muni wifi mesh networks work. The APs have a boat load of radios and they'll broadcast a network on one channel, but use the other radios to uplink to the other APs on different channels. It isn't simply using 5GHz to uplink and 2.4GHz to broadcast.

 

[Aqualung]

Of course the problem here is...what kind of 5GHz connection is going on? If it is weak, you are still going to get slow speeds. ... It could be that your 5GHz uplink it just too weak to get much throughput from where you have it located.

Like I said in the OP, the 5GHz FastLane connection is simply awesome: if I turn off EX6200's 2.4 GHz radio, and only use wired clients, those clients get insane speeds (which is, actually, the case with my E4200).

Again, there does not seem to be anything wrong with the 5GHz router-extender connection. The issue is with EX6200's 2.4 GHz radio, which can't hold a candle to E4200's 2.4GHz radio.

See also the attached diagram: scenario #2 gives insane speeds compared to scenario #1!

 

[azazel1024]

Very well could be something wrong with the radios/amps in it. Within the return period?

 

[Aqualung]

Very well could be something wrong with the radios/amps in it. Within the return period?

Yes, still within the return period (Amazon). What I'll do is buy another one from BestBuy or WalMart, test it, and if the speed rivals the one I am getting with the E4200 I'll return the defective one to Amazon. Otherwise, i'll probably return them both and look for another powerline solution to connect the E4200 (I forgot to mention that the EX6200 was intended to replace the combination PLEK400+E4200).

Thanks for the replies y'all!

 

[TC777]

This website did a good review this extender.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk