G3100 Degraded Speed Via Wireless

[dmarzo1]

I would be grateful for any thoughts…

Just upgraded to Fios Gigabit service and I have a G3100 router.

I get consistently strong speed at my PC connected via ethernet.

For the first two days, I got consistently strong speeds throughout house on wifi.

Today (third day), I noticed degraded speed via wireless (50-75 Mbps) but still strong on ethernet computer.  I power cycled with no change.   Wireless in steady 50-75 Mbps range.

I stumbled across this discussion forum.  I disabled SON Wifi  and I renamed my 5Ghz connection so I could uniquely identify it.

2.4 GHz mode is in legacy mode

5 Ghz is in compatibility mode

When I connect to 2.4 Ghz, I am still in the 50-75 Mbps range

When I connect to 5 GHz, I get strong speed (500+Mbps)

When I change 2.4 GHz to compatibility mode, I go from the 50-75 Mbps range to ~125 Mbps

As an aside, I have an Airport timecapsule router chained into my G3100.  Unplugged that and it made no difference.

I also have an output from my G3100 to one of those powerline adapters.  

Would appreciate any thoughts on tweaking my 2.4 Ghz network to get higher speed…or should I just move all my connected devices to the 5 GHz network?

Thanks for any and all advice.

[Cang_Household]

2.4 GHz 802.11n (Compatibility Mode) should achieve around 75-175Mbps.

Do not use legacy mode. 802.11g is capped at 54Mbps single stream.

5.0GHz 802.11ac (Legacy Mode) should achieve 350-400Mbps.

Haven't tested myself, 802.11ax (Compatibility Mode) should achieve at least 600+Mbps on 2 x 2 MIMO to be considered an improvement over 802.11ac.

Don't use SON. For fixed wireless devices, always tell them what band to use, so they don't roam around aimlessly. For mobile devices, they should be smart enough to decide what AP to use if you happen to have more than one AP at home.

[dmarzo1]

Thank you!  So at least in my case, my performance is exactly as expected after i split thw 2,4Ghz and 5GHx apart,  I thought 2.4 Ghz was capable of higher/faster,   Appreciate this clarification very much.

[Cang_Household · Accepted solution]

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@dmarzo wrote:

 I thought 2.4 Ghz was capable of higher/faster

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No and yes. In general, 802.11b/g/n operate on 2.4GHz and 802.11a/ac/ax operate on 5GHz. Since 802.11ac/ax are faster protocols than 802.11b/g/n, it is usually considered that 5GHz WiFi faster than 2.4GHz counterparts. Nonetheless, 802.11n/ax can operate both on 5GHz and 2.4GHz, which eliminates any difference in speed.

2.4GHz is an over-used band these days, which may be plagued with congestion and interference, which in turn reduces the transmission speed. 5.0GHz is typically regarded as the faster frequency band.