WiFi speed drops significantly within the local network (<4Mbps), while external connections remain fast (>500Mbps).
WiFi speed drops significantly within the local network (<4Mbps), while external connections remain fast (>500Mbps).
I'm facing a problem on my network that I'm trying to understand. Initially, streaming local media from my Emby server to Wi-Fi clients caused constant freezing when speeds exceeded 5Mbps. I assumed the issue was with Emby, but it seems to be my own network. During testing, I moved a 60GB file from the server to a PC, which resulted in a wireless connection speed of 780/650 Mbps on all bands and 144/144 on 2-band. When transferring the file over Wi-Fi, the speed remained around 4Mbps. The same problem appeared when using the 2G band. If I transfer the file via a wired connection, it exceeds 700Mbps. On my PC, an internet speed test over Wi-Fi consistently shows speeds above 500Mbps (wired >900Mbps). I don't notice any issues with streaming services on any device, even though they're regularly exceeding 5Mbps. I've also tested with a Netgear XR500 router running DumaOS, but the results matched what I got with the ATT fiber router—up to 4Mbps after isolating the devices and turning off the Netgear. My server is a Windows Server 2012, and the PC uses Windows 10. The devices connected are Nvidia Shield 2019 and Pro, SamsungTV, Chromecast.
Could the NIC on the server behave differently when switching from wire to wireless? The issue might stem from how the device adapts between those modes, possibly managed by the Wi-Fi router itself.
I ran iperf3 checks and everything worked until I switched from Wi-Fi to Ethernet on the PC. The same happened on my Android phone. It seems a network interface might behave differently depending on the connection type. For Windows 8.1, a USB NIC could be a good option.
WiFi depends on many factors; a wired link offers better stability and speed. Which router and adapter models are in use here? What are the router’s wireless configurations? Make sure you’re on a non-shared 5GHz band.
I also tried another setup with the TPLINK on a third PC and performed the same tests. The speeds were around 300Mbps in both configurations. Of course, since both systems are Windows 10 and not Server 2012, it raises a question about whether a different USB device might improve performance.