Getting faster speed from extender even though I am closer to router?!

pierrejo · Post by **pierrejo** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:12 pm

I've been messing with my wireless a lot lately. Hell I compiled an actual document I'm updating with tests I am running.
ISP is TWC, through Arris Modem/router (DG1670A)
My roommate's range extender is repeating the 2g/5g wireless signal using a Netgear Nighthawk Wi-Fi Range Extender.

Running a speedtest via ookla, if I connect directly to the router (which is closer to me than the extender) I get poor speed as seen here:

meanwhile, if I connect to the extender, it's a different picture:

How can that be? I took the time to properly setup router to use the best channel so that there would be least interferences.... can you provide a rationale to explain why connecting to the network extender provides 57megabits/s while connecting directly to the router only throws 5megabits/s?
(tests were 30 s apart, there's 4 of us on the router, I've reproduced the result multiple times)

Thanks!

Post by **Philip** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 2:28 pm

It is possible that the DG1670A has more clients connected to it, so it is being overwhelmed by the wireless traffic. Are you using WPA2 AES with it ? 20MHz channels ? Also, if you use "Mixed b/g" mode on the router, it will limit it to 802.11g speeds. Generally, you may want to double check the wireless settings on the modem/router, look over this article and see if that helps: http://www.speedguide.net/articles/wire ... weaks-5681

pierrejo · Post by **pierrejo** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:28 pm

Hi Philip!
I ran a cple more tests RIGHT NEXT to the router and I get 2G at 80mbps, 5G at 110 mbps.... wired at 300mbps.
DG1670A has about 12 clients on it total. We're using WPA2 AES. I am on channel 1 with 20MHz and there are no conflicting wireless around us around that channel(they are around 6 and 11).
I'm about to try using one of those ethernet over electrical outlet coupling, wait and see

Post by **Philip** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:31 pm

So, close to it you are getting the proper speeds.. They just drop quite rapidly away from it, and with many clients. This is somewhat normal for 802.11n and many clients, 802.11ac with beamforming/mimo is much better at serving them once you get over 5-6 active clients. The repeater introduces quite a bit of noise as well, because it repeats everything that all its client communicate.

pierrejo · Post by **pierrejo** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:48 pm

Would a network extender introduce noise over the whole network or only to people connecting to it? Still haven't gotten the ethernet over outlet thing going.

Post by **Philip** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:32 am

Wireless repeaters/extenders introduce noise over the entire area that is in their range, because they repeat every packet in both directions. This includes wireless communications from all clients associated with the repeater. Essentially, if you have 5 devices connected to the repeater, it will repeat all their packets to the main router, even if they are out of the range of that router. This makes the environment much noisier in the coverage area of the main router (and the clients connected to that main router as well).

In addition, most repeaters/extenders only have one radio for communicating in both directions (with the router and with clients), essentially cutting the speed in half and doubling the noise. This is why access points are a much cleaner solution, with the only inconvenience being you have to run Ethernet cables to them for the connection to the router.

pierrejo · Post by **pierrejo** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 8:06 pm

Thank you for the detailed info, good to know. I've setup a TP LINK internet via outlet.... and it is working superbly, it seem most of the issues I was having were due to wireless signal strength here - I can now get about 45Mbits/s via outlet but the signal is much more reliable / does not drop - better for gaming. Cheers!