topic Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

bales1983 — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 17:17:41 GMT

Hi Guys,
Just thought id pose a question for the technical types Ok I used to be on a Netgear DG834 for quite some time until it chucked in the towel Since then for the last few months ive been using an old TalkTalk Huawei HG523 router, To be fair it did its job and i had no real issues with it to speak of.
My Hub One arrived a couple of days back and I have set it all up with my preferred SSID and settings etc but the one niggle i have is my TP-Link WN722 USB wifi adaptor doesnt seem to be too keen on it! Its only Wifi-N 150mbps but when connecting to the Hub One it maxes its link at 65mbps?
Previously it would connect to the TalkTalk router at a steady 150mbps with no issues. My fibre is due to be installed on tuesday and Im not expecting much over 30mbps due to my line quality but 65mbs link is going to bottleneck me for sure.
Ive tried the obvious options, Ie making sure no B or G devices connected and also WPA2 only so its not throttled. Even sitting next to the Hub it still will not sync over 65. Tried inssider to look for channel congestion and its on the clearest channel in my area.
Ive managed to make a quick fix by bridging another old TT router (HG532) via Ethernet and i can link to that at 150mbps with no issues
Anyone have any further ideas or is it some sort of limitation with the Hub? Unfortunately the only other WiFi adapter to hand to test with is G so not much help c:)
Thanks in advance for any advice
Lee

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

ejs — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 18:55:15 GMT

That is more or less the expected behaviour. The 150 Mbps wifi link rate requires using 40 MHz of bandwidth, which takes up more channels than using the standard 20 MHz width. The 2.4 GHz band tends to be quite crowded, the channels are spaced 5 MHz apart, and typically channels 1, 6 and 11 get used, so that networks don't partly overlap each other.
WiFi Alliance certified hardware is supposed to be configured to only use 20 MHz channel width by default on the 2.4 GHz frequency range. It's probably possible to configure the Hub One to allow 40 MHz channel width on the 2.4 GHz frequency band, although the useful speed you get from using 40 MHz won't necessarily be better than sticking to 20 MHz only, it will depend on what other networks and the devices in them it has to co-exist with.

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

nanotm — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:23:22 GMT

Quote from: bales1983
My fibre is due to be installed on tuesday and Im not expecting much over 30mbps due to my line quality but 65mbs link is going to bottleneck me for sure.

if your wifi is going at 65meg and you expect a fixed wan side of 30meg your wan will be the bottleneck not the wifi .....

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

bales1983 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 17:36:55 GMT

No the wifi link speed is 65mbps, the actual throughput on the application layer will be much less maybe 25 - 30 meg

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

nanotm — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 18:14:03 GMT

unless the hub one has changed significantly from older hub generations issued by BT, the wan transition speed governs the speed at which all internet traffic moves from the client to the router to the wan and vice versa, so again your connection will be the bottleneck.

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

legume — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 16:34:59 GMT

The trouble is that WiFi advertised speeds are half duplex and include lots of overheads over IP whereas FTTC speeds are closer to IP and full duplex.
It was many years ago since I tested but IIRC on 54meg WiFI actual tcp throughput was more like 18.
That was with a clean channel, close and one user - once you start getting contention/collisions = packet loss it gets worse, especially as "normal" tcp expects a robust link layer and that any packet loss indicates congestion, so it backs off.
On that basis a 65meg WiFi could/will be the bottleneck.

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

nanotm — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 16:48:32 GMT

not really your down speed will be 30 your up speed will be 2
your wifi will be able to send /receive at 30 each way the wan side will rate limit the wifi to match its throughput rate so instead of giving you 25/25 your going to get 30/2 on the adaptive rate
that's not to say you wouldn't benefit from a different wifi adaptor in the pc for stability reasons, but In the most basic terms the limiting factor will be the wan connection.

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

VileReynard — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 19:37:54 GMT

The Wifi standards such as 54Mbps were based on, under optimum conditions,
they can just manage 27Mbps down & 27Mbps up - but not simultaneously.
But 27+27=54Mbps
Obviously the title of the standard was written by marketing.

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

nanotm — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 19:40:10 GMT

wasn't that why they started using the words dual band or mimo in the product name ?

Re: Wifi Link Speeds - Hub One

VileReynard — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 20:45:50 GMT

No.