Wifi speeds

Having a basic Cisco wireless router and a similar wired speed, I get about 95% of the bandwidth wirelessly. Can you borrow/try a basic wlan router for testing? The Meraki Z1 is a teleworker gateway, is it managed by your employer?

Just try a different WiFi channel.  That's probably all it is.

Or try to configure to 40 mhz the wifi settings

Check the link speed on your MacBook in network configuration.

Hi Gerwin Jansen: thank for your comments.  The Meraki router is one that we are testing as we are intending to roll out the Meraki kit across our corporate network.  I guess that what was behind my initial question is this: my IT support chaps tell me that you can really only expect to have available about 50% of available hard wired speed when using wifi as it is essentially a duplex methodology.  Is that correct? Thanks.

No that's not correct.

Let's say you have a 100Mbps port on the router/AP but you have a 300Mbps wireless link.  That would yield roughly 135Mbps throughput wirelessly.

Dear craigbeck: thank you and understood.  So if I am effectively getting only about 30Mbps and I know that the fibre connection is roughly 80Mbps, the wifi speed could be being throttled by:
channel conflict
router (built-in) wifi speed
anything else?

Thank you again!

Agree with craigbeck. It is not 50% of the wired speed but of the WLAN link speed, that is why I was asking you about the link speed that you have. Did you check that on your MacBook? With a 600Mbps link you should have no trouble getting 80Mbps net transfer rate. I suspect your link speed is around 72Mbps which would roughly be 36Mbps net.

channel conflict: possible but not likely
built-in wifi speed - should be wireless N - could have a limit set in that router (check manual)
anything else - yes: interference in the building

Dear Gerwin Jansen: got it!  I will check that later.  Thank you.

When speeds suffer as much as this it usually is just interference.  Change the channel and try again.

Dear Gerwin Jansen: sorry - where can I check the connection speed on my Mac please?  Thanks.

Hold down the Option key and click on the Wireless icon in the menu bar on your Mac.  You'll see the link stats there.

Can you screenshot that info using Command-Shift-F4 and post here please?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202790

Check 'Link Speed'.

Sorry Craig: I am trying to do this using the Mac's onscreen keyboard as I am at a remote location, but I am struggling.  Could you advise me please?  Thanks again.

Gerwin Jansen: link speed is reporting as 144Mbps.  Speedtest.net is reporting down 22, up 12Mbps.

Thank you!

Those are quite low wrt to the 80mb, can you select a different location in SpeedTest?

Is there any reason why you won't change the channel to test?  Its the easiest thing to try.

Just selected a different server and speeds are similar.  This is typical of the speeds that I have been getting on the Mac when I have run the speedtest since I went live last month. I am wondering if the Meraki might be creating a bottleneck?  Thanks.

Change the channel.

I have just changed the 2.4GHz channel from 13 to 12; 5GHz is set to "auto (44)".  Will test again!

13 to 12 may not yield any positive results.  Try 1 or 6.

I have changed the channel to: 6, 3, then to 1 with either similar or lower speeds.  So can we deduce that channel conflict is not the issue here?  Thank you!

With a reported link speed of 144Mbps, changing channels would not make much sense as the net bandwidth would be around half of that (72Mbps).

Did you try a different site for SpeedTest? You can just click a different location on the map. Also you could try and get a large for downloading for testing. Your ISP may have such a test file available on their own site.

No we can only deduce that there may be too much interference in the area which spreads across all channels.

With a reported link speed of 144Mbps, changing channels would not make much sense as the net bandwidth would be around half of that (72Mbps).

With respect, Wifi is my job.  Changing speedtest sites is going to prove anything whatsoever as we've already confirmed that speeds are acceptable when wired.  As well as that, your statement doesn't make sense.  The reported throughput is considerably lower than 72Mbps and interference can and does cause reduced throughput.

Michael, if you're using VNC you can press the scroll-lock key on your keyboard and press the Windows key to emulate the Option key in a remote Mac session.  I'd like to see the RSSI and SNR values of the link, please.

Dear craigbeck: understood.  I am accessing the Mac through logmein.  Can I get those metrics from the logmein control panel, by any chance?  Thanks again.

Are you using the 2.4GHz SSID or the 5GHz SSID?

I'm seeing low channel numbers above so you would have the 2.4Ghz selected. Can you try a 5Ghz SSID?

To get some more details on the current connection: hold down the option key and then click on the WiFi menu icon.

Having a look at the wireless diagnostics may help you determine what's wrong: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202663

Dear Gerwin Jansen: the wireless setup is as per the attached file.  How do I force the devices to connect using the 5GHz band?  Thanks.  I have reverted to channel 13 which was where it was before we started tinkering today.  Thank you.
2015-11-24_16-39-47.pdf

You should enable a second SSID that is using 5 Ghz channels and adapt the existing to use only 2.4 Ghz. Give the 2nd channel a new name like PWLOCAL5 for testing your setup.

Sorry if I am being thick but I don't see how I configure this router to force a specific SSID to deploy 5GHz channels...

You can't on the Z1.  You can't use band steering either.

You have WPA1 and WPA2 enabled.  Set it to WPA2 only.  AES encryption is MANDATORY for 802.11n MCS rates to be used.  If you mix WPA1 and WPA2 you could be allowing use of TKIP which can reduce throughput (54Mbps is the fastest possible data-rate using TKIP).

Is there a Windows machine you can use at the location to do some diagnostics using a Wifi scanning app?

Am testing "WPA2 only".  Thank you.  I don't have a windows machine at that location sadly and no windows laptop either.

Any result from the Apple wireless diagnostics?

The Option click on the wireless icon would show something like this:

Sorry.  Will try again tonight.  Am out of office today.  Thank you!

Michael, you posted a comment but deleted it again?

I am so sorry.  I have uploaded the wireless report from my Mac.  Thank you again.
Screen-Shot-2015-11-27-at-08.53.45.png

Your TX rate is 65Mbps.  How far from the AP is the Mac?

Very close.  In the next room.  Thanks!

Can you get the Mac in the same room and give us the same screenshot again please?

Do you have a Thunderbolt-Ethernet adapter? If so, can you check the wired speed?

OK.  Attached is the diagnostics report when the Mac is positioned bang next door to the router.  
When using the wired connection to the router, I am getting 57 Mbps down and 18 Mbps up (from Speedtest.net).  Thanks again.
Screen-Shot-2015-11-27-at-21.48.18.png

If I connect a Mac wired to my router, I get about above 95% of the downlink bandwidth. So are you sure your ISP bandwidth is 80Mbps? From your wired result, it looks more like you have a 60Mbps downlink. Either that or your router is limiting bandwidth. Any router status page that has something about up/downlink speed? Or a limit bandwidth setting somewhere?

What do you get wirelessly on a speed test with the Mac next to the AP?

When the engineer installed the fttc connection six weeks ago, he told me that I was getting close to the advertised 80Mbps download speed. I guess that the only way to check if the meraki router is causing a bottleneck would be to test the wired connection using a different router?  Thanks again.

Hi Craigbeck: do you mean on speedtest.net? Thanks.

Yes, try another router, as I was suggesting in my first comment :)

But 'close to the advertised' is something you should be able to lookup in the report that the engineer left for you. Fttc connections are measured by the engineer before they deliver to the customer. And 60Mbps is not close to 80 Mbps, that's 75% of what is promised (and what you pay for).

I will find another router to test it out with. Of course the engineer didn't leave me anything useful like a commissioning report!

Why try another router? Wired is fine.  We're going in circles here.

Yes, try a wireless speed test with the Mac close to the router.

>> We're going in circles here.
I don't think so, how can you be sure that there isn't an issue with the Z1 router itself?

Since this is a new fttc connection, I'm thinking the link itself is just around 60Mbps and not the 80Mbps as advertised.

Another option would be to connect the MacBook directly to the modem itself, wired.

Just to summarise: we have shown that the wireless speed does not improve by siting the Macbook next to the router (about 30Mbps).  The wired speed is about 60Mbps.  

How can I connect the macbook directly to the modem without going via the router?  The modem is locked down in pass through I believe.  Am happy to try anything.  

The next logical step to me would be to swap the router for another one although I appreciate that there is no guarantee that this will deliver better results.  But at least it might prove if the incoming speed is truly 60 or 80 or if the bottleneck is the meraki router.  I would hope that the modem is not causing a bottleneck as this was supplied by the utility.

Thank you.

If I can borrow another router to test from my tech support people then great.  If not (next questions please) what is the best router to deploy please?  Thanks.

Any (old) wireless NAT router you can borrow for testing should be fine.

Do you know the brand and type of your ftth modem?

Can you ask for that test or technical report? That should mention the speed of your line. It is still strange that you have such a low link speed to that Meraki router wireless.

Since this is a new fttc connection, I'm thinking the link itself is just around 60Mbps and not the 80Mbps as advertised.

So what?  That's not the issue here.  The issue is that wireless doesn't match wired speeds.  If the circuit is an "up-to" 80Mbps service (as advertised), a slower service is often provided based on line length.

Gerwin, several times we have already covered that the wired speed is fine, so yes we are going in circles.

Folks: can any of you recommend a router that I can try that will give me good throughput speeds and good coverage in my house?  Thanks.

Well, 'good' throughput and coverage is subjective of course. I just have a few basic Linksys/Cisco routers in the $100 price range, they perform quite well.

http://www.linksys.com/us/c/wireless-routers/

Thank you. Is there any point in getting an ac router and I'm not sure that this will work with a Mac anyway? Thanks again.

Should work just fine, the Apple Airport extreme is an AC router.

Linksys are no longer a Cisco brand.

There's no reason why an 802.11ac router would be a bad idea.  They're all backwards-compatible anyway.

@craig - Linksys/Belkin if you like ;)

OK thanks!  Will follow up and let you know how it goes.  But in essence an 802.11n device connecting to an 802.11ac router will NOT slow it down for all connections, will it?  Thanks.

No.

Great thanks.

One more question please: I have ordered a new Linksys router.  Is it better to connect it directly to the incoming FTTC connection or should I continue to use the utility-supplied modem in pass through?  Thanks.

If the router has a built-in modem you don't need the utility a supplied one.

Use the existing connection from the utility modem that you now have connected to the Meraki. Which device did you order? If your new Linksys would have a modem it would be advertised as modem/router.

It's a Linksys WRT1900ACS so will need the separate modem.  Thank you.

Hello everyone. I've installed my squeaky new router and I've configured 2.2GHz band as n and 5GHz as ac, both with WPA2 only encryption. Does that sound good?  Thanks.

Yes.  Make sure you use AES instead of TKIP.

Yep, what about the transfer speed you're getting wired and wireless?

Ok so this is where I am at now:
On Macbook: 62Mbps wired
29Mbps on 2.4GHz (n)
On iPhone 5GHz 53Mbps (ac)
2.4GHz 20Mbps (n)

So it seems that the only improvement that I am seeing is when using the ac on the IPhone.  

How do I specify AES in preference to TKIP please? WPA2 is selected.

Thanks again.

AES is the encryption method.  If you can't see that option WPA2 is probably using it anyway.

The wired transfer speed on the MacBook is what I expected, can you check the "Option click" on the wireless icon for the link speed? Thanks.

Here it is.  Thank you.
2015-12-07_20-54-09.pdf

Your RSSI is excellent, yet you're only connecting at 26Mbps.  You have serious interference issues at 2.4GHz.

OK thanks.  Is there anyway I can diagnose that please?

You need a WiFi scanner.  There aren't many options for Mac.  I'd recommend Inssider.

I will give it a whirl.  Thank you.

How is the marked answer "the answer"?

Michael, how did you solve the issue you had?

You've marked the last comment above as the solution but that comment contains some questions for you to answer.

Well it's not the answer but I keep on being hassled by EE to close off the dialog hence why I accordingly did so.  I have not yet managed to test out as per your request and am more than happy to respond once I have done so.

Thanks.

Why were they hassling you to close?  If you don't have an answer, don't close the question.

If you're paying for the service you're quite entitled to keep the question open for as long as it takes to get a suitable answer.

Michael, you can Request Attention on this question, explain that you want to keep it open for a while. A moderator will assist you then. Post a comment below that you need more time, you should be fine then.