Slow Wi-Fi performance for FTP transfers
Slow Wi-Fi performance for FTP transfers
I recently upgraded my router to the Orbi rbk853, a Wi-Fi 6 ax6000 kit with a built-in router and two satellites. My internet speeds are satisfactory, but my laptop equipped with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 chip is capped at around 160 Mbps when positioned near the router. I’ve performed a fresh Windows installation and updated all drivers. My file transfer of a 1Gb file moves at roughly 600 Mbps over a 200-foot Cat6 cable. I’ve noticed others achieving up to 800 Mbps with Wi-Fi 6 setups, but my connection remains far below that. Additionally, I have a mesh access point about 15 feet away in the form of a Netgear Nighthawk AC2350, which I connected after switching to mesh networking. My signal strength on the Orbi remains consistently around 1.2 Gbps. If you can offer advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
How much do the Orbi satellites sit from the base station? How are their links to each other—through a wired or wireless backhaul? Are you linking via the 5GHz client band or the 2.4GHz client band when your laptop achieves a 160Mbps connection? Why switch to the Nighthawk when an Orbi mesh is already in place? Which radio channels are active on both the Nighthawk and the Orbi mesh? Do these channels overlap? The speeds listed are just the best-case figures; actual performance will be lower. Check the FAQ sticky thread for more details.
Testing speeds involves using iperf, checking channel utilization, measuring the physical speed, confirming Wi-Fi activity from other devices.
The channels don’t overlap; the nighthawk runs on channel 157 and the orbis on 48. I’m consistently linked to 5GHz, and the orbis stay within 30ft of each other. The web interface confirms the backhaul operates above 5GHz and is functioning well—this is the maximum performance it can achieve. The nighthawk was installed incorrectly, which caused the slowdown issue I expected from being too far from the router. It didn’t improve things, and I’m the sole user on the network. I understand the advertised speeds aren’t realistic, but I need at least 500mbps since I’m connected to 1.2Gbps over Cat6.
I'm checking with my FTP server which shows speeds around 600mbps over a 200ft Cat6 cable. The channels aren't being used by anyone else because there are no neighbors within 500ft. I've run iperf and it confirmed the same numbers, so I suspect the issue is on the laptops side.
@smokedporkroast The Orbis and Nighthawk devices are likely connected to an ISP router. I’m not sure of the exact make or model, but they probably share a common SSID across both networks. You can use WiFi Analyzer to view the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band results and get the visual report.
The SSID varies across each network, even though the OBI has merged the 5 and 2.4GHz bands. Additionally, none of the devices I use are linked to the 2.4GHz frequency, instead connecting to the 5GHz band.
I receive gigabit speeds when near, but there are two 8-port switches in between causing some latency that reduces performance. This also happens during transfers of many small files, which might indicate a server-side hard drive issue. I’m not overly concerned about the 600mbps rates, but the Wi-Fi isn’t delivering close to what it should.
They're operating at full capacity (80/15), but disconnecting the modem and using LAN would drastically slow down file transfers.