AX1800 10x slower than modem

[BashDashovi]

I just installed a new PW-AX1800 plugged into my AT&T gateway/router. Devices using wifi on the AX1800 have about 1 tenth the speed of the devices that are directly connected to wifi on the AT&T gateway. The range is also about 75% smaller which means devices on the other side of the house can’t connect to the AX1800.

Is there anything I can try to boost the signal?

[support]

What speed are you getting and how big is your house?

[BashDashovi]

I’m getting about 500 with the gateway and about 50 with the AX1800 while in the room with both of them. I can’t connect anymore at about 63 feet away (through 2 walls) on the same floor with the AX1800, but no problem connecting to the AT&T gateway.

[support]

There might be some RF interference going on. Can you turn off the WiFi on the AT&T gateway for testing purposes? Alternatively, you can try putting the WiFi on different channels. E.g., put the AT&T on channel 48, the AX1800 on channel 36 or vice versa.

[BashDashovi]

I tried everything I could think of, including turning off the AT&T gateway’s wifi. The connectivity of the AX1800 is about 50% behind 2 walls and the speed is maybe a tenth of what it is right next to it. I did not attempt to individually test 5Ghz vs 2.4Ghz but if one was better than the other, I would have expected my devices to switch to it. While the AX1800 might work in an apartment, I just could not make it work in my house.

I truly love pcwrt. If there is a more powerful router someone can recommend that I could load the firmware on, I’d be happy to try it.

[support]

You should be able to get above 500Mbps (if your ISP speed is more than that) with the device in the same room as the router, on the 5GHz band. You should exceed 60Mbps even on the 2.4Ghz band and several rooms away from the router.

[CZ]

Hello. I’ve also been testing the new AX1800 since it arrived yesterday. On WiFi, I’m getting approximately 1/20 of my ISP speed on 5GHz and even lower speeds on 2.4GHz around 1/40 of my ISP speed LoL. I’ve already tried many different configurations, adjusting channels, transmit power, and other settings. For comparison, I have another router that delivers speeds nearly matching my ISP’s rated speeds with a very similar configuration. It’s definitely the router. Does anyone know of a solution or have any suggestions?

[support]

@cz How is the router connected to your ISP? What are your numbers in Mbps?

[CZ]

The 5GHz network appears to be functioning correctly now.

Answering to your question. My primary router is connected directly to the modem. I have adjusted the 2GHz channels and widths based on the least congested zones and optimal configurations identified by a WiFi analyzer. Despite these optimizations, I am consistently receiving extremely low download speeds, specifically around 0.08 Mbps, while upload speeds remain relatively high at 20 Mbps.For diagnostic purposes, I introduced a secondary router and conducted tests on its 2.4GHz band, which I got significantly better results than my primary 2GHz connection. Interestingly, when I disabled the 2.4GHz band on the secondary router, the performance of my primary 2GHz network degraded again, dropping to an abysmal 0.01 Mbps for downloads. I conducted tests at a very close proximity approximately one foot from the primary router, and the issue persisted. Furthermore, using the Ubiquiti UniFi app, I confirmed that the WiFi signal strength around the router is strong, indicated by a “green” status. Another point to note is that the problematic network is currently configured as isolated.

I am not sure how I can resolve this issue?

[CZ]

I was not correct about the 5GHz. It is still only providing about 15% of the speed I should be getting. It worked fine with the secondary modem, but the main issue remains with the 2.4GHz, which is delivering less than 1% of my expected speed. Here is my current network setup:
Modem → AX11000 (Primary) → 2nd Router
All routers are connected via Ethernet cable.

For the speed test I am using:
https://speed.cloudflare.com/

[support]

Your modem does not have WiFi right? For comparison test, please replace the AX1800 with the other router instead of piggy backing to it.

For the 2.4GHz band, 0.08Mbps means it’s not working at all. Can you do a ping test to see the % of packet loss?

What speed are you getting with the 5GHz band (in Mbps)?

Also, please do a speed test with Ethernet connection to a computer. That’ll establish your baseline speed.

[CZ]

Modem from provider does not have WiFi.
For ax1100 router %packet loss is around 3.5% the 3 times that I run the test.

For my secondary router speed is much faster with 50mbps on 2.4ghz and and 500mbps on 5Ghz no packet loss.

[CZ]

BTW. I forgot to mention that the test with my secondary router was made directly connected to the router.

[support]

What’s the speed for 5GHz band for the AX1800? Did you have 3.5% packet loss for both bands?

Did you get a chance to test the AX1800 with a wired connection?

[CZ]

Speed on AX for 5Ghz is ~60mbps, no packet loss. Much better than 2.4 but 10x slower than my fiber capability.

[Author]

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