Please explain Mesh wifi speeds to me!
Discussion
Afternoon all.
I live in an extended 30s semi with solid walls. My study is in our loft conversion, and the broadband comes in our ground floor extension, pretty much straight down through the walls!
I had no realistic way of moving things around much, so bought a Tenda Nova MW3 AC1200 Mesh system. It has done a great job - really easy to set up, and has just worked perfectly - but having recently moved from standard 76Mbps BT wifi to 500Mbps FTTP, suddenly the Tenda boxes have become a real bottleneck. Connecting my phone or laptop to the BT router via wifi gives me consistent speeds of 300Mbps+, whereas the Tenda maxes out at sub 100 Mbps even when I'm stood right next to the box connected directly into the BT hub.
Of course, I rarely need more than 100Mbps anyway, but by the time I get up to my study, the speed has dropped to at most around 40Mbps, and at times it'll drop below 10Mbps, which starts to become a major issue using Zoom and Teams all day long! Given that I've got the much higher speed coming into the house, therefore, it doesn't make sense not to be using it.
Where I'm struggling is in understanding what to go for in terms of extra speed. As I understand it, the AC1200 part of my current Mesh systems's spec means in theory a maximum speed of 1,200Mbps? I get that this has to be shared between all the devices connected to it, but if I went for, say, the BT Whole Home standard discs which are AC2400, would the speed I get in my study, all other things being equal, be doubled compared to my current AC1200? If I went for the AX3700 BT Premium Whole Home, would it treble it?
Given that the only speed rating I can find for any of these sodding products is a theoretical one which is way faster than the broadband coming into the house, it's a right pain trying to understand what I need!!!
I live in an extended 30s semi with solid walls. My study is in our loft conversion, and the broadband comes in our ground floor extension, pretty much straight down through the walls!
I had no realistic way of moving things around much, so bought a Tenda Nova MW3 AC1200 Mesh system. It has done a great job - really easy to set up, and has just worked perfectly - but having recently moved from standard 76Mbps BT wifi to 500Mbps FTTP, suddenly the Tenda boxes have become a real bottleneck. Connecting my phone or laptop to the BT router via wifi gives me consistent speeds of 300Mbps+, whereas the Tenda maxes out at sub 100 Mbps even when I'm stood right next to the box connected directly into the BT hub.
Of course, I rarely need more than 100Mbps anyway, but by the time I get up to my study, the speed has dropped to at most around 40Mbps, and at times it'll drop below 10Mbps, which starts to become a major issue using Zoom and Teams all day long! Given that I've got the much higher speed coming into the house, therefore, it doesn't make sense not to be using it.
Where I'm struggling is in understanding what to go for in terms of extra speed. As I understand it, the AC1200 part of my current Mesh systems's spec means in theory a maximum speed of 1,200Mbps? I get that this has to be shared between all the devices connected to it, but if I went for, say, the BT Whole Home standard discs which are AC2400, would the speed I get in my study, all other things being equal, be doubled compared to my current AC1200? If I went for the AX3700 BT Premium Whole Home, would it treble it?
Given that the only speed rating I can find for any of these sodding products is a theoretical one which is way faster than the broadband coming into the house, it's a right pain trying to understand what I need!!!
I have 50Mb download speed coming into my house. ( I have a TP Link with 1200 speed )
On various parts of the house with mesh - I get 30 - 35Mb down.
If you need super fast speeds sending files across your house - you will likely notice it.
Talking to the outside world.... Take your broadband speed - and take a percentage of it.
The benefit for me- mesh has gotten rid of wifi dead zones. ( which is why I bought it )
On various parts of the house with mesh - I get 30 - 35Mb down.
If you need super fast speeds sending files across your house - you will likely notice it.
Talking to the outside world.... Take your broadband speed - and take a percentage of it.
The benefit for me- mesh has gotten rid of wifi dead zones. ( which is why I bought it )
Edited by Troubleatmill on Wednesday 22 July 18:27
Troubleatmill said:
I have 50Mb download speed coming into my house. ( I have a TP Link with 1200 speed )
On various parts of the house with mesh - I get 30 - 35Mb down.
If you need super fast speeds sending files across your house - you will likely notice it.
Talking to the outside world.... Take your broadband speed - and take a percentage of it.
The benefit for me- mesh has gotten rid of wifi dead zones. ( which is why I bought it )
I've already done all of that, but as I said in the OP, getting 8x faster broadband into the property hasn't increased the speed in my study because the bottleneck is now my AC1200 Mesh system, and it's definitely an issue when I'm on video calls.On various parts of the house with mesh - I get 30 - 35Mb down.
If you need super fast speeds sending files across your house - you will likely notice it.
Talking to the outside world.... Take your broadband speed - and take a percentage of it.
The benefit for me- mesh has gotten rid of wifi dead zones. ( which is why I bought it )
I know there's no point replacing it with another AC1200 system, but just want to understand if AC2400 or AX3700 are realistically going to give me 2x / 3x the speed up in my study, or if there's anything else I need to take into account?
Kermit power said:
I had no realistic way of moving things around much, so bought a Tenda Nova MW3 AC1200 Mesh system. It has done a great job - really easy to set up, and has just worked perfectly - but having recently moved from standard 76Mbps BT wifi to 500Mbps FTTP, suddenly the Tenda boxes have become a real bottleneck. Connecting my phone or laptop to the BT router via wifi gives me consistent speeds of 300Mbps+, whereas the Tenda maxes out at sub 100 Mbps even when I'm stood right next to the box connected directly into the BT hub.
The MW3 will never do more than 100 mbps, as it's got 100mbmps wired connections into the router.However, you may find the more distant nodes in the mesh give you a rather larger fraction of that 100mbps if you turn off the built in wifi on the BT router, as there's a possibility they're "shouting over each other" for want of a better term.
It may not help, it may help significantly. It's really cheap and easy to try.
edit:whatever you do, try and put the mesh units as near as convenient to things like stairwells, so they've got the least structure in the way of the unit to unit mesh in order to get the best performance at the end of the chain.
Edited by xeny on Thursday 23 July 06:06
xeny said:
The MW3 will never do more than 100 mbps, as it's got 100mbmps wired connections into the router.
However, you may find the more distant nodes in the mesh give you a rather larger fraction of that 100mbps if you turn off the built in wifi on the BT router, as there's a possibility they're "shouting over each other" for want of a better term.
It may not help, it may help significantly. It's really cheap and easy to try.
edit:whatever you do, try and put the mesh units as near as convenient to things like stairwells, so they've got the least structure in the way of the unit to unit mesh in order to get the best performance at the end of the chain.
Thanks! Would that apply even with nothing connecting to the BT router, do you think?However, you may find the more distant nodes in the mesh give you a rather larger fraction of that 100mbps if you turn off the built in wifi on the BT router, as there's a possibility they're "shouting over each other" for want of a better term.
It may not help, it may help significantly. It's really cheap and easy to try.
edit:whatever you do, try and put the mesh units as near as convenient to things like stairwells, so they've got the least structure in the way of the unit to unit mesh in order to get the best performance at the end of the chain.
Kermit power said:
xeny said:
The MW3 will never do more than 100 mbps, as it's got 100mbmps wired connections into the router.
However, you may find the more distant nodes in the mesh give you a rather larger fraction of that 100mbps if you turn off the built in wifi on the BT router, as there's a possibility they're "shouting over each other" for want of a better term.
It may not help, it may help significantly. It's really cheap and easy to try.
edit:whatever you do, try and put the mesh units as near as convenient to things like stairwells, so they've got the least structure in the way of the unit to unit mesh in order to get the best performance at the end of the chain.
Thanks! Would that apply even with nothing connecting to the BT router, do you think?However, you may find the more distant nodes in the mesh give you a rather larger fraction of that 100mbps if you turn off the built in wifi on the BT router, as there's a possibility they're "shouting over each other" for want of a better term.
It may not help, it may help significantly. It's really cheap and easy to try.
edit:whatever you do, try and put the mesh units as near as convenient to things like stairwells, so they've got the least structure in the way of the unit to unit mesh in order to get the best performance at the end of the chain.
Kermit power said:
Thanks! Would that apply even with nothing connecting to the BT router, do you think?
Beacon intervals (https://www.revolutionwifi.net/revolutionwifi/p/ssid-overhead-calculator.html) cost you some airtime even with no devices associated, and at short enough range you tend to get some interference even across radio channels when you're trying to receive from a distant device on the same channel.The suggestion of getting a MW6 to connect to the router might well be a good option.
I went for running a network cable down the boxing in for a central heating pipe, so if there's anything like that available it would give you the best possible experience.
Reading back to your OP, is there any pattern to when the wifi speed drops away?
Kermit power said:
I've already done all of that, but as I said in the OP, getting 8x faster broadband into the property hasn't increased the speed in my study because the bottleneck is now my AC1200 Mesh system, and it's definitely an issue when I'm on video calls.
I know there's no point replacing it with another AC1200 system, but just want to understand if AC2400 or AX3700 are realistically going to give me 2x / 3x the speed up in my study, or if there's anything else I need to take into account?
Yes these numbers are theoretical bandwidth but also note they are split between the bands 2.4 and 5Ghz - roughly ~800 on 5Ghz and 300 on 2.4Ghz your device will only connect to one band and the further away the device the more likely it will connect to 2.4Ghz.I know there's no point replacing it with another AC1200 system, but just want to understand if AC2400 or AX3700 are realistically going to give me 2x / 3x the speed up in my study, or if there's anything else I need to take into account?
Tenda is dual band and a tri-band system will add another 5Ghz band, so if your connecting to the 2.4Ghz you'll not gain at all and to complicate it further still some mesh systems use this additional band for the backend and not for clients.
And although in theory these numbers do offer theoretical double or triple the bandwidth, this dramatically falls with distance and not linearly, so your 10 will not go to 30 but more likely 15.
The MW box arrived, and with it now connected, I am getting 300Mbps in the lounge, and 50-70Mbps both up and down in my study upstairs, so a definite improvement, thanks to all who helped!!!
One thing left confusing me now is the seemingly completely random choice it makes over connecting devices at 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz. I'm assuming it's better to have 5Ghz whenever possible, so why does it pick the lower option? My phone and laptop are both within a metre of the same node in my study, yet my phone is connected on 2.4, and my laptop on 5. The last time I looked, it was the other way around!
One thing left confusing me now is the seemingly completely random choice it makes over connecting devices at 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz. I'm assuming it's better to have 5Ghz whenever possible, so why does it pick the lower option? My phone and laptop are both within a metre of the same node in my study, yet my phone is connected on 2.4, and my laptop on 5. The last time I looked, it was the other way around!
matt666 said:
Part of the benefit of mesh wifi though is it should automatically connect to the best signal and only drop to 2.4Ghz if 5Ghz is out of range. That's what mine does anyway. There should be no need for different SSIDs
That was my understanding, hence being a little bemused by two 5Ghz capable devices the same distance from the same node seemingly randomly taking it in turns to connect at 2.4Ghz instead! 
It doesn't seem to be making much if any difference in real world speed, which is now perfectly acceptable on both, so just an academic curiosity really.
matt666 said:
Part of the benefit of mesh wifi though is it should automatically connect to the best signal and only drop to 2.4Ghz if 5Ghz is out of range. That's what mine does anyway. There should be no need for different SSIDs
yeah, but, technology! On paper you are correct, in reality alot of people split the channels for just this reason. I don't, but people do!
matt666 said:
Part of the benefit of mesh wifi though is it should automatically connect to the best signal and only drop to 2.4Ghz if 5Ghz is out of range. That's what mine does anyway. There should be no need for different SSIDs
AIUI the client ulimately picks the network it connects to - the network can nudge, but not control.Also - the OP probably doesn't want the last mesh node that close - you ideally want the gap between each of the nodes and then the clients in the office to be as even as possible so you get the best performance along the "chain".
You'll probably see fewer "bars" on the clients, but the pass the packet between the mesh nodes should be quicker.
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