A-nom-nom-nom-aly BSC SSC1d ago

Please boost to try and reach some one far more knowledgeable than me.

Network Speed Issues.

Today I finally had my fibre to the home activated.

But I'm struggling with speeds to some wifi devices.

5ghz band is reporting a connection speed of over 800mb to my mediaserver and main pc... and 650Mb to my phone.

Networks have always been a blind spot for me.

Router is a Fritzbox 7530AX, with an older Fritxbox 7530 being used in mesh.

There are also some powerline adapters in the house to extend wifi out to the converted garage where my mum's bedroom is, and the wifi dongle for the solar/battery system as the signal was too weak to reach from either of the routers.

Current speeds are

Main PC 100Mb down, 65Mb up
Server 120M down 65Mb up
Phone 510Mb down 68Mb up

Fibre to the home is 550Mbps down and 75Mb up.

At first i thought it's signal strength, but that's good. Then perhaps distance from the router... Except other devices in the same room are getting 650Mb connections just fine.

Then I thought it was the wifi dongle, a D-Link DWA X1850 AX1800 Wifi 6 USB adapter.

Both computers use the same dongles, router is wifi 6 as are the dongles. The shield TV box in the room is only wifi 5, but gets 650Mb and the Pixel 6 Pro phone gets 650Mb.

I'm stumped. I've even disconnected the mesh router and forced all connections through the main router which is in the room below... about 3m away with only a wooden floor between.

Any help would be appreciated.

For reference, my previous ADSL connection was only giving me 40Mb... So I had no idea that I was getting such dreadful speeds across my home network.

All PC's running windows 10 Pro

#Networks
#Wifi
#Help
#FediHelp

Show threadA-nom-nom-nom-aly BSC SSC23h ago

Additional info

Checked my mums phone and computer.

Phone is a Motorola G34, so a budget phone that cost about £120 and it's getting nearly 500Mb connection in the same room as the router.

Her computer on the other hand... tested with her wifi dongle (wifi 4) and one of mine (wifi 6).... Doesn't get her above 70Mb.

I'm going to dig out an ethernet cable and plug that in directly to her computer and see if she gets full speed that way.

If it does... then I think the dongles are the likely problem.

EDIT: Ethernet gets full speed of around 500Mb

So looks like some shitty, poorly advertised D-Link wifi 6 dongles... not getting any better speeds than an old TPlink wifi 4 dongle.

Show threadRay McCarthy21h ago

@Anomnomnomaly
Ditch the powerline adaptors because they are really mains powered radios that cause interference.
Run ethernet cable for PCs. laptops. If the distance is more than 100m you can extend by 100m with a cheap switch, 1G router with DHCP disabled or a repeater. I have a cheap 8 port switch in the kitchen between upstairs switch & router and the shed.
WiFi is shared and dramatically affected by walls, floor/ceilings, distance & other wifi.

Many WiFi dongles do 10 Mbps to 150 Mbps.

Show threadA-nom-nom-nom-aly BSC SSC20h ago

@raymaccarthy

That's the plan as soon as possible... I only got them because wifi couldn't reach to my home office a few years ago.

Now the 'office' is directly above the room with the router and signal is excellent.

But I still need a powerline adapter to get a signal out to the other side of the house, my mums bedroom is out in the converted garage, and there's the solar/battery system that connects to wifi too...

Out of the 4 powerline adapters in use, I could probably ditch 2 of them today.

The plan is to run an ethernet cable from the router as it's now by an outer wall instead of in the middle of the house... cable up to the loft, install a switch up there.

I've got ethernet sockets in 2 bedrooms after fitting those during renovations last year. Then I can install a wifi extender from that switch out to the garage.

Then all powerline adapters can be removed.

Show threadRay McCarthy
@Anomnomnomaly
As well as extending ethernet cable at least twice (300m total) more cheaply than a powerline adaptor, you can get budget ethernet fibre adaptors.
Many of our ethernet cables running at 1 Gbps started off 25 years ago carrying 10 Mbps and are only Cat5.
The shed is at the bottom of the garden and the cable there goes into an old Router with DHCP off as 4 port switch + WiFi + Server.The Solar controller is there too, but WiFi & BT are disabled except initially for a FW update.
Mar 26 at 3:04pmWeb
Show threadA-nom-nom-nom-aly BSC SSC18h ago

@raymaccarthy

I've got a 25m roll of external grade cat 8... and the 2 sockets in the bedrooms wired into the loft are also cat 8... and there's probably another 25m of that still up there. Just needs connectors fitting and a switch up there. I've got the tools to fit the ethernet ends and a tester to ensure the cable is good. It's just crawling around in the loft that's the problem... If I can get to the far back side of the loft and drill a hole outside, I can feed the cable out, drop it down and back into the lounge... that's 3 rooms wired then... But the opposite side of the lounge is where the TV and satellite box are and the only way to run a cable at the moment is to nail it to the skirting board and up around a double door frame.

I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to wire the home network with 2.5GB, but be ready for 10GB if needed.

I hate networking with a passion... it never works as it's supposed to... it won't connect for hours or days and then all of a sudden it does... you've not changed anything. Today, I unplugged the powerline adapter to test the wifi network and see if it improved... now 3 of the 4 powerline adapters connect and one doesn't... and After 5hrs today of fucking around trying to make things work properly... I'm about ready to put my foot through the TV... Instead I've said fuck it, I'm not touching it again today.