WiFi Speeds with ac router

[dclaryjr]

I needed a new router a few months back, and a picked up an ac model even though I didn't have anything with an ac adapter. I'm waiting on delivery of a SP3 and I'm curious to know what kind of experiences folks have had that use a dual-band ac router with it. How well is it working for you.

 

[Jazmac]

Its fast. My thing is if the speeds exceed my level of patience for what I'm downloading, I'm good. But what your router can do vs what your network (cable) can do are two completely different things. I pay for 50Mbps speeds. What cable speed are you getting?

 

[Laura Knotek]

What Jazmac says is correct. Where your router is located (are there physical barriers), congestion (neighbours' networks using same channels), RF interference from other devices in your house will all affect your speeds.

 

[dclaryjr]

I have 50mb service from my cable company, and my router is about 15 feet away with direct line of sight. When I run speed tests on my iPad, I typically get around 24mb down. Although I rarely have any problems streaming, it would still be nice to maximize the connection.

 

[enthuz]

I was wondering the same thing. Now that my DL speeds are approximately 120 Mb/s I was thinking of upgrading to an AC WiFi router. My neighbor's routers haven't had any interference in my home thus far over the years. Also my home is newly ran with all CAT 6a cabling and the weakest area only drops one bar on signal strength with the N router I have now. All of my devices are pretty fast now, but I want to upgrade for an even better connection with all of my AC devices. Now that I'm adding the SP3, I really want to upgrade.

​So...

1. What are others seeing in speeds and issues?
2. What AC Routers are recommended with the SP3 and Lumina devices?

 

[Jazmac]

The best thing to do is to make sure your router isn't sitting on the same port as your cordless phone. There is an app you can download that will look at your connection and show you the best possible port your router should be set on. After that, its all physics. I.E. you're at the mercy of whatever server you are downloading from, number of hops between them and you.

As an aside, AC speeds, like N and G are great for things going on inside the house. File transfers, backing up files to local shares, file sharing between computers, video and music casting etc. Outside the house, its not much help between the modem and the location switching station. There you would need a good DOCSYS 3 spec modem.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The best thing to do is to make sure your router isn't sitting on the same port as your cordless phone. There is an app you can download that will look at your connection and show you the best possible port your router should be set on. After that, its all physics. I.E. you're at the mercy of whatever server you are downloading from, number of hops between them and you.

As an aside, AC speeds, like N and G are great for things going on inside the house. File transfers, backing up files to local shares, file sharing between computers, video and music casting etc. Outside the house, its not much help between the modem and the location switching station. There you would need a good DOCSYS 3 spec modem.

I use inSSIDer Home to check channels. It is free software. There are also paid versions. It's great for me, since I live in an apartment building, so I don't want to use the same channels that all my neighbours are using.

Buying a good DOCSYS 3 modem will also save money in the long run, since it will eliminate paying the cable company for modem rental.

 

[ytrewq]

I get 70 Mbps with an n router. If you only have a 50 Mbps internet connection, the bottleneck is your ISP speed, not your wifi. You can max out your internet speed of 50 Mbps with a wireless n router.

 

[anon(7901790)]

I needed a new router a few months back, and a picked up an ac model even though I didn't have anything with an ac adapter. I'm waiting on delivery of a SP3 and I'm curious to know what kind of experiences folks have had that use a dual-band ac router with it. How well is it working for you.

I'm getting excellent through put on my Netgear R6300 dual band (ac) router. I used inSSIDer and learned that there were close to a dozen 2.4GHz networks within 100 yards. The problem is inSSIDer doesn't show if there are any non-WiFi 2.4GHz radios (i.e. cordless phones and wireless speaker systems) in the area.

At any rate, I'm getting just over 30Mbps download speeds (I'm paying for up to 25Mbps) connected to the 5.8GHz band, so I can't complain.

P.S. 5.8GHz band's range is shorter than 2.4GHz band. But the upside is you'll likely have less interference from neighbors and over all faster through put.

 

[enthuz]

I use inSSIDer Home to check channels. It is free software. There are also paid versions. It's great for me, since I live in an apartment building, so I don't want to use the same channels that all my neighbours are using.

Buying a good DOCSYS 3 modem will also save money in the long run, since it will eliminate paying the cable company for modem rental.

Nice application. I just downloaded it and will do a check this weekend. Thanks. Also not paying that monthly fee is another driving factor.

 

[David Horn]

Best I've been able to get with the Netgear AC6800 is about 30MB/s. Wonder if the SP3 is just a dual-channel adapter.

 

[dclaryjr]

I get at or near 50mbps downloads on my hard-wired desktop, and 25mbps on my iPad. How that a function of my ISPs speed and not WiFi?

 

[RaymondDijkstra]

I only have 100Mbit internet connection. My sp3 uses all (and a little bit more ) bandwith when downloading from internet.
I only have 2.4 and 5Ghz N network, network speed do not exceed 12-13 Mbytes, so upgrading to 200Mbit has no use.
Although: wired (with a usb3.0 network card) I can get around 115Mbytes.

 

[Gunbust3r]

If the router does 2.5 and 5GHz on the same SSID you stand a good chance of the SP3 being an ***** and giving to 10megabit max. Heck you will be lucky to get past 75 even if it syncs at 270. The sp3 wireless chip is terrible.

 

[anon(7901790)]

If the router does 2.5 and 5GHz on the same SSID you stand a good chance of the SP3 being an ***** and giving to 10megabit max. Heck you will be lucky to get past 75 even if it syncs at 270. The sp3 wireless chip is terrible.

You can set the SSIDs separately. For example, soopernethigh for the 5.8GHz and soopernetlow for the 2.4GHz. For the record, a dual band router is actually 802.11 b/g/n/ac. The b/g/n uses the 2.4GHz band, and the ac uses the 5.8GHz band.

Depending on the router model, you can set multiple SSIDs. The higher end routers allow you to have up to 10 separate SSIDs.

 

[Gunbust3r]

Depending on the router model, you can set multiple SSIDs. The higher end routers allow you to have up to 10 separate SSIDs.

I realize that but setting 2 SSID's is not an option when you are on someone else's wifi at a business for example. It's a flaw that Microsoft really needs to fix. I can see it having trouble on a $200 tablet but this is a $1k+ device. No room for a derpy wifi chip and driver.

 

[QuentinJ]

I'm on SP1 with an n router and pay for 120Mb down/10 up
On the 2.4GHz network I get about 40-50/10Mb
On the 5GHz I get 100-120/10Mb speeds. The SP1 does not have ac but it wouldn't be faster for me. If I upgrade to 200Mb down speed, I will update this post with the speeds on n band

 

[anon(7901790)]

I realize that but setting 2 SSID's is not an option when you are on someone else's wifi at a business for example. It's a flaw that Microsoft really needs to fix. I can see it having trouble on a $200 tablet but this is a $1k+ device. No room for a derpy wifi chip and driver.

Could you explain a little better? I'm not understanding what you are talking about. Are you talking about the SP3 not being able to connect to multiple SSIDs or the router that it is trying to connect to?

 

[anon(7901790)]

I'm on SP1 with an n router and pay for 120Mb down/10 up
On the 2.4GHz network I get about 40-50/10Mb
On the 5GHz I get 100-120/10Mb speeds. The SP1 does not have ac but it wouldn't be faster for me. If I upgrade to 200Mb down speed, I will update this post with the speeds on n band

Partly true. The SP1 is 801.11a compliant meaning it can connect to an 802.11a or 802.11ac wireless network.

Microsoft Surface Pro specifications | Surface Pro specs

802.11ac incorporates both 802.11a and 802.11b/g/n technologies.

IEEE 802.11ac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So any device that is 802.11a/b/g/n capable can connect to an 802.11ac wireless network on either of the frequency bands.

 

[QuentinJ]

Partly true. The SP1 is 801.11a compliant meaning it can connect to an 802.11a or 802.11ac wireless network.

Microsoft Surface Pro specifications | Surface Pro specs

802.11ac incorporates both 802.11a and 802.11b/g/n technologies.

IEEE 802.11ac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So any device that is 802.11a/b/g/n capable can connect to an 802.11ac wireless network on either of the frequency bands.

Thanks for the explanation.
The settings show a 802.11a protocol.
However my Technicolor TC7200U modem is set as "Greenfield 802.11n" for the 5GHz WiFi radio (40MHz bandwidth).
Not sure how it's set, but I enjoy the speeds very much