topic Re: WiFi speed over eero devices in Fibre

WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 09:58:05 GMT

Hi All,

Can you please advise what are you wifi speeds over eero pro devices with Full Fibre 900 ? I am not getting more than 500mbps whatever I do. Cable connection is fine - getting over 900 however I cannot run the cables to every device I need fast internet.

Any ideas on what can speed it up ? Not happy to pay for the half of the advertised speed.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:23:02 GMT

The Full Fibre 900 package often means that customers do achieve the speeds that they think they should (obviously around 900Mbps). This is very often not an issue or design of the 900Mbps service, but the connection between their devices and the router. The Wi-Fi network adapters in these devices often cannot deliver speeds as fast as the fibre service can.

Take the example of some older Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) adapters that might work at speeds up to 433Mbps, when used in a perfect wireless environment, which most homes are not. When an internet speed test is performed, the speed achieved is down to the slowest link in the chain, namely the 433Mbps Wi-Fi adapter. Speed tests in this case might achieve somewhere around 400Mbps or less.

Older Ethernet connections can suffer as well. If a device only supports the 10/100Mbps standard, not the normal 1000M (1Gbps) or even the newer 2.5Gbps available on some desktop PCs, they are likely to only record 100Mbps on a speed test.

To get the 900Mbps on a speed test, that device must either have a minimum of a 1Gbps Ethernet connection or if wireless, a much faster WiFi adapter. This would be a higher specification Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) or Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) adapter. Even so, at these wireless speeds, signal quality must be near perfect (signal strength with very little Wi-Fi interference).

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

Debbie-TalkTalk — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:31:16 GMT

Hi GenMaxiu

I'm sorry to hear this.

Have you tried powering down the eero and ONT for 30 minutes and then running the speed test again?

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:11:02 GMT

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the reply.

Cable connection - decent quality cat6 cable from Openreach box to eero. Then from eero decent quality cat7 cable up to the 1st floor PC - getting nice 900+ Mbps

Now WiFi part.

I have tested the speed on multiple devices:

MSI X570 chipset motherboard with dual antenna Intel WiFi6 AX200 - max 2.4 Gbps
Samsung S22 Ultra - 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4G+5GHz+6GHz, HE160, MIMO, 1024-QAM - max ~800 Mbps
Lenovo laptop with MediaTek WiFi 6 MT7921 Wireless LAN card - max 1.2 Gbps
Dell laptop with Intel Dual Band Wireless AC8265 - max 867 Mbps
Gigabyte B650M chipset motherboard with Realtek 8812AEWireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC - max 1.2 Gbps
Realtek 8832BU Dual Antenna Wireless LAN WIFI 6 USB NIC (connected to USB 3.0) - max 1.8 Gbps

None of the devices above can reach more than around 500Mbps which is just half of what is advertised by TalkTalk.

I also contacted eero support, and although they didn't explicitly say that these devices are unable to reach 900 Mbps, I got the impression that this might be the case from what they implied between the lines.

I'm fairly familiar with Wi-Fi networks and their limitations, as I've been working in IT for over 25 years. Also with the tests, you agree with me that it is clearly visible that connection is "hitting the roof" while testing - and this is the case on all of the above devices.

I am now awaiting 3rd eero device from TalkTalk , didn't want it but support insisted so thought OK, lets try, but don't have much hope.

Any other suggestions? I am happy to test different scenarios and options.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:12:10 GMT

Hi Debbie,

Yes, I have restarted all, swapped eero device each other (as I have 2 of them). Eero support have checked it too, couldnt find anything wrong with devices.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:18:02 GMT

Hello,

Thank you. Do all the eeros have the most recent software updates?

Michelle

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:19:47 GMT

Hi Michelle,

yes, they are both on the latest V7.43-7 software version.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 05:22:30 GMT

Morning,

Thanks for confirming,

@KeithFrench Do you have any additional suggestions?

Thanks

Michelle

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:28:08 GMT

Hi @Anonymous

I have already made some comments on here earlier. I think that the customer is waiting for a third Eero

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:31:35 GMT

Morning @KeithFrench ah sorry, I must have missed that. Thank you 🙂

Michelle

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 08:35:43 GMT

No worries @Anonymous

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:49:21 GMT

Hi @GenMaxiu

There are some basic checks that you can do to ensure that your devices have the best chance of achieving these higher speeds:-

1) Check that these devices are connected to the 5GHz WiFi band, not the 2.4GHz band and as you presumably have the eero Pro 6, then as many devices as possible should be using the 5GHz (High) band.

2) Which eero Pro 6 is each device connected to, it should always be the gateway or closest/fastest extender node. The more extender nodes that you go through to get to the gateway, the slower the speed will always be. In fact, you will probably need to be connected to the gateway to have any chance of these speeds.

3) To aid with step 2, is "Client Steering" enabled within the eero app, as well as "Local DNS Caching"?

4) Have you checked for WiFi interference, a topic that I can provide a lot of help with?

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 10:42:39 GMT

Keith,

I have done all of the suggested with eero support person, no improvement whatsoever.

Tests were made a meter away from the gateway device which should eliminate any possible interferences, but again, I am open to any suggestions - can you please shed more light on the WiFi Interference bit.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 11:54:45 GMT

Sorry but that does not eliminate the effects of WiFi interference at all, it can be bad in some properties, with varying amounts in different rooms, including right next to the router. What are the AX classes of your devices, as it is not just do they support WiFi 6, but at what speeds? I appreciate that you may have done some of this before, but if you want my help, I need to know what I am dealing with.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 13:17:39 GMT

Hi Keith,

Please see below AX classess for each device I was testing WiFi on:

Intel WiFi6 AX200 - AX3000
Samsung S22 Ultra - 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
MediaTek WiFi 6 MT7921 Wireless LAN card - AX1800
Intel Dual Band Wireless AC8265 - dont know (WiFi5)
Realtek 8812AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac - dont know (WiFi 5)
Realtek 8832BU Dual Antenna Wireless LAN WIFI 6 USB NIC - AX1800

With regards to the interferences - newly built house with most of the walls being hollow walls and the 1st floor made of timber.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:07:53 GMT

Hi @GenMaxiu

I can't find any information about your phone, as to the AX class that it supports, but I have found out about the rest of them:-

AX210 - supports up to 2402Mbps
Samsung S22 Ultra
MediaTek WiFi 6 MT7921 Wireless LAN card - AX1800 - that is 1201Mbps
Intel Dual Band Wireless AC8265 - dont know (WiFi5) - that is 867Mbps
Realtek 8812AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac - dont know (WiFi 5) - that is 867Mbps
Realtek 8832BU Dual Antenna Wireless LAN WIFI 6 USB NIC - AX1800 - that is 1201Mbps

In reality, the only card that might stand a chance of reaching 900Mbps is the AX200, but even then, if you get this as its data link speed, the wireless protocol overheads will drastically reduce the speed test figures. The AX (or AC) classes represent the combined speeds of the 2.4GHz & 5GHz data rates that they support.

One of the biggest challenges I think you may suffer from, is the construction techniques that can be found in modern new build houses. I assume all of the internal walls contain insulation, like the external ones? Apparently, it is quite common for that insulation to be encased in a metal foil, which will drastically reduce WiFi signals passing through them & also present reflection of the WiFi signals all over the room, none of which will help you.

Then we come on to the subject of WiFi interference....

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:28:52 GMT

Thanks for your response Keith. I do not believe the problem I am having lies with the devices/construction of the building.

I have been researching online and found a lot of articles mentioning that around 550Mbps is the maximum real-world speed for the eero Pro 6 over WiFi. I'm hoping this isn't true, therefore I'm planning to run some tests using the ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12 – I'm hoping to borrow this set from a friend to see how it performs at my place as I know you can get over 1Gbps on this setup.

Thanks
Michal

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:30:03 GMT

I can only guess without a WiFi analyser.

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

GenMaxiu — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:38:14 GMT

Good idea! I'll test the coverage with WiFi Analyzer today when I get back home and will try to post the results here. Is there any specific information you'd like to see in the screenshots, or any particular scenarios you'd like me to test?

Re: WiFi speed over eero devices

KeithFrench — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 15:24:43 GMT

Which WiFi analyser?

Generally the AP view, 2.4 & 5GHz channels plus signal strength over time graph run for 5 mins. However, best is always WiFi Scanner if Windows, capturing a snapshot & report.