sraposo
New Around Here
Hey there, I’ve been tinkering with my home set up for awhile now and while I’m very happy with the results and don’t have much to complain about, I feel like I’m not quite getting the speeds I should be and would love some outside opinion.
The basic setup is a Bell Giga Hub modem/router connected to a ZenWiFi AX XT8 with a second ZenWifi AX XT8 node one floor up, on the other side of the house.
The details:
Bell Giga Hub modem/router. 1.5Gbs down, 940Mbps up
When I run a speed test from the modem itself, the plan holds true. 1.73Gbps down, 963Mbps up with a bit of variation whenever I run the test.
I have wifi disabled and have it connected to the main ZenWiFi router from the Giga Hub’s 10Gbps ethernet port to the ZenWiFi’s 2.5Gbps port via a short Cat6 cable.
Speed tests run from the ZenWiFi’s admin show nominal loss. Roughly 1.4-1.6Gbps down, 700-800Mbps up.
If I connect my computer via ethernet to the ZenWiFi (MacBook Air M1 with Anker 2.5Gbps ethernet adapter) I get a pretty solid 900+Mbsp up and down, which I imagine is as close to a theoretical max I’m going to get from a Gigabit ethernet port.
So far so good.
The ZenWiFi Node is fairly far away and using the second 5Ghz channel as its dedicated backhaul. Despite being pretty far away, it shows a solid connection and what I think are pretty good speeds, if I’m reading it right. 1360 transmit rate, 1440 receive rate.
Where things get confusing is when I connect to the second node. If I connect the same MacBook (with 2.5Gbps ethernet adapter), I get 7-800Mbps up and down. Again, that’s great, but with the PHY rates between the two nodes, I would have expected rates similar to when I was connected to the main router, or more considering on the second node, I’m using the 2.5Gbps port.
Additionally, I have a NAS plugged into the second node. It’s using 2xCat6 cables plugged into 2 regular Gigabit ports, but bonded as a single connection. I would have assumed that would also give me higher than 1Gbps rates. When I do an iPerf test between the NAS and the MacBook (using the 2.5Gpbs port), I get a Bitrate of ~940Mbps and transfer rates of ~112 MBps. This is only a tiny bit faster than when I use a regular Gigabit ethernet adapter.
So… questions:
PS When I connect the MacBook directly to the 10Gbps port on the modem, I get 1.6Gbps down and 900+Mbps up so I know my ethernet adapter is working properly.
The basic setup is a Bell Giga Hub modem/router connected to a ZenWiFi AX XT8 with a second ZenWifi AX XT8 node one floor up, on the other side of the house.
The details:
Bell Giga Hub modem/router. 1.5Gbs down, 940Mbps up
When I run a speed test from the modem itself, the plan holds true. 1.73Gbps down, 963Mbps up with a bit of variation whenever I run the test.
I have wifi disabled and have it connected to the main ZenWiFi router from the Giga Hub’s 10Gbps ethernet port to the ZenWiFi’s 2.5Gbps port via a short Cat6 cable.
Speed tests run from the ZenWiFi’s admin show nominal loss. Roughly 1.4-1.6Gbps down, 700-800Mbps up.
If I connect my computer via ethernet to the ZenWiFi (MacBook Air M1 with Anker 2.5Gbps ethernet adapter) I get a pretty solid 900+Mbsp up and down, which I imagine is as close to a theoretical max I’m going to get from a Gigabit ethernet port.
So far so good.
The ZenWiFi Node is fairly far away and using the second 5Ghz channel as its dedicated backhaul. Despite being pretty far away, it shows a solid connection and what I think are pretty good speeds, if I’m reading it right. 1360 transmit rate, 1440 receive rate.
Where things get confusing is when I connect to the second node. If I connect the same MacBook (with 2.5Gbps ethernet adapter), I get 7-800Mbps up and down. Again, that’s great, but with the PHY rates between the two nodes, I would have expected rates similar to when I was connected to the main router, or more considering on the second node, I’m using the 2.5Gbps port.
Additionally, I have a NAS plugged into the second node. It’s using 2xCat6 cables plugged into 2 regular Gigabit ports, but bonded as a single connection. I would have assumed that would also give me higher than 1Gbps rates. When I do an iPerf test between the NAS and the MacBook (using the 2.5Gpbs port), I get a Bitrate of ~940Mbps and transfer rates of ~112 MBps. This is only a tiny bit faster than when I use a regular Gigabit ethernet adapter.
So… questions:
- Are my expectations realistic?
- Is there anything I can do to reduce the drop from modem to primary router node even more?
- Is there anything I can do to squeeze more out of the second node?
- When using the 2.5Gbps WAN port on the second ZenWiFi node, does it operate at 1Gb or 2.5Gbps?
PS When I connect the MacBook directly to the 10Gbps port on the modem, I get 1.6Gbps down and 900+Mbps up so I know my ethernet adapter is working properly.