Low WiFi AC Connection Rate

[Kross888]

Hi,

I need help with my wifi ac at my home.
I'm using TP-Link Archer C7 v2 dual band router and the problem is I connected to AC connection with only 173.3 mbps connection rate. It's slower than it's Wifi N connection. With N i can connect with 300 mbps connection rate.
I know that it's only theoritical rate but because of that my real AC speed also slower than N speed.
I tried using my notebook & my smartphone with similar result. And I don't think it's the Archer problem also because I tried borrowing my friend AC AP and the problem still the same.
Any idea what might be the problem?

 

[ColinTaylor]

It sounds like you router is only allowing 5GHz connections with a bandwidth of 20MHz. There doesn't seem to be any way to manually set that (unlike for 2.4GHz).

Check the Wireless 5GHz settings on the router's Status page and make sure it's Mode set to "11 a/n/ac mixed".

If that looks correct try manually selecting a different channel that's a long way away from the current one, e.g. if the current channel is 44 choose 153.

 

[Kross888]

I checked using wifi analyzer tool and the 5GHz connections bandwith is 80MHz.
The mode also already set to 11 a/n/ac mixed.

My router support 5GHz mode on channels : 30, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165.
I have already tried channel 149 - 165 with the same problem.
But something strange is if I set between channel 30 - 48, the 5GHz network disappeared & can't be detected on any of my devices.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What country have you set on the router and what country were your client devices purchased in?

 

[ColinTaylor]

But something strange is if I set between channel 30 - 48, the 5GHz network disappeared & can't be detected on any of my devices.

Make sure that when you selected the new channel you didn't accidentally un-tick the "Enable SSID Broadcast" option which is directly beneath it.

 

[Kross888]

My router firmware is US version. I downloaded the firmware from TP-Link website according to my region/country (Indonesia).

My notebook is local version (Indonesia), my phone is Oneplus 6 Asia version (I think imported from India) , my iPad also purchased locally but i don't know imported from where (maybe singapore).

SSID broadcast is always enabled, in fact I tried manually entering 5GHz SSID when not detected and my client devices still can't find it.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I looks like the lower channels are not valid for devices produced for Indonesia.

Have you set the Region to Indonesia as shown above?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Looking at the Linux kernel WiFi database here and the official Indonesian government document here it appears that only 20MHz bandwidth is allowed in your country.

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linu.../?id=aa1d66d38eb549631d03f5bfd91892ac5237e0bb

 

[Kross888]

I don't have any option for region setting.

Do you think that's the problem & 20MHz bandwith regional restriction that making my AC Wifi only connect at 173 Mbps regardless when I checked the 5GHz channel is on 80MHz Bandwidth.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't have any option for region setting.

That's not too surprising. The FCC brought in new laws a few years ago that forbids the changing of the region by the user. So that option was removed from most routers. I guess the emulator I got my screenshot from was an old version of the firmware.

Do you think that's the problem & 20MHz bandwith regional restriction that making my AC Wifi only connect at 173 Mbps regardless when I checked the 5GHz channel is on 80MHz Bandwidth.

173 Mbps is exactly correct for 20MHz bandwidth on 5GHz. So I think it's likely to be caused by the region set on the router.

It would be interesting to know what region the router "thinks" it's in because channels 36 to 48 are not allowed in Indonesia. My guess is that it's set for China. That would allow those channels - but also at 80MHz bandwidth . So it might just be a limitation of your clients.

 

[Kross888]

How about my client device's antenna / stream configuration.
I don't really understand about it but I often read about antenna config that have several stream or only single stream or something like that.
Especially in phone that have more limited antenna than in notebook for example.

Is it possible my problem related to that?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Look at the data rates tables here and here.

We know from the US spec of the router that it is capable of 450Mbps on 2.4GHz and 1300Mbps on 5GHz. That is consistent with both the router and the client using 3 streams (antennas). 2.4GHz using 40MHz and 5GHz using 80MHz.

You said in post #1 that your client could connect to 2.4GHz at 300Mbps. So we can deduce that the client has 2 antennas. Looking at the 5GHz table you can see that 173.3Mbps is the maximum rate possible with a bandwidth of 20MHz and two antennas.

 

[Kross888]

Ok, so back to 20MHz bandwith.

Could you suggest any free windows tools or android app that can show me what real bandwith I'm connected to.

Because i'm using WinFi Lite Beta app from Windows Store, that app show me the bandwith i'm connected to.
According to WinFi, when I set my router to Wifi N 20MHz bandwith it show I'm connected to 20MHz & 144 connection rate.
When set to N 40MHz it show 40MHz & 300Mbps rate.
But for wifi AC it show 80MHz & 173 Mbps rate.
So I guest it doesn't report a real working bandwith?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sorry I don't normally use WiFi on Windows 10. If I do I just use the normal network adapter "Status" information.

Do you get the same data rates using your mobile phone? What about the iPad?

Use a mobile app like WiFi Analyzer to check on nearby WiFi access points. If there are strong signals on the same channels WiFi is designed to reduce the bandwidth automatically (80 > 40 > 20) to avoid interference.

 

[Kross888]

Do you get the same data rates using your mobile phone? What about the iPad?

Yes same data rate & 80mhz bandwith showing on my Android phone using Wifi Analyzer app.
I'm not so sure about iPad but I have once tried using iPerf on iPad and the speed I get consistent with below 173mbps.

If there are strong signals on the same channels WiFi is designed to reduce the bandwidth automatically (80 > 40 > 20) to avoid interference.

On my location, only me using 5Ghz channel

 

[ColinTaylor]

Well I'm at a loss what to think. You could try using the free version of Acrylic on your laptop. Maybe that will reveal something.

But if everything is saying that the AP is set for 80MHz that seems to contradict what's actually happening. I still believe it must be a regional restriction somehow because it's too much of a coincidence you can only connect at 20MHz and that is the maximum allowed in your country.

 

[Val D.]

You could try using the free version of Acrylic on your laptop

Just to confirm, Acrylic Wi-Fi Home (free version) shows bonded channels on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

 

[Kross888]

Yes the same with Winfi lite.

This is my 5GHz Channel Spectrum. Set on 149 channel.

Additional info.

I think my router is working correctly but as you suggested my client devices somehow can't connect using its full capabilities.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I think my router is working correctly but as you suggested my client devices somehow can't connect using its full capabilities.

Strange though that is, it appears to be the case. We can at least see from your screen shot that the region of the router is set to USA (CC=US).

 

[Mot_ikswon]

I have problem with my WI-FI adapter too. The speed of my internet 50 mbps, but my router is cut this speed and in exit I have 18-20 mbps. Can anyone explain how can I fix it, please?