Need help on my wifi speed

The speed can depend on the access point/router age and speed rating. Many older switches or routers topped out at 100 Mbps. Also the quality of the cable and length of runs can degrade performance. For wifi the speed is dependent on the number of connections to the router, distance from the router and band connected to. You'll get higher throughput with 5GHz than 2.4GHz, but the falloff will be greater as you move away from the Wifi point, while 2.4GHz has a greater transmission range.

quote:

---

After that, I disconnected the laptop, plugged the Ethernet cable back into the modem, and then took my computer to the access point and plugged in via Ethernet into that unit and ran the speed test off of that. The highest I ever got was about 100 Mbps and a few times much less than that (30-60). If I’m hardwired via Ethernet from the main modem to this access point, why do I have such a drop in speed? Again, this example is no WiFi, all Ethernet connections. TIA

---

Two guesses:

1) That AP only has 100 Mbps ethernet jacks and not gigabit. If that's not the case, make sure the cable you use from laptop to AP is at least CAT5.
2) The AP doesn't have the processing power to handle above 100Mbps speed. How old is this AP? What's the model?


As to your slow wifi that could be numerous things. On your phone/laptop validate your wifi connection. Are you connecting on 2.4 or 5 GHz? There are several wifi 802.11 protocols it could be using (a,b,g,n,ac) which determine the max possible speed.

You want to be using n or ac as they both support at least 300 Mbps while the others are 54 Mbps or less. When you look at your wifi connection it should say what your link speed is.

It's also possible you have a ton of interference on the channel that your AP is using. Moving it to another channel could help. Most APs that are set to auto will figure out the best channel to use but not always fool proof.

Is your second AP on the same channels as your primary AP?

(no message)