Slower Fibre speeds on devices?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Slower Fibre speeds on devices?

thecripplernz

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#175775 11-Jul-2015 14:53

Hi

I have the Orcon 100/20 Fibre plan. On my macbook over wifi I get 85 down, 22 up...
But on every device, iphone 5, iphone 6, ipad 2, and Playstation 4 I only manage to get 42 something down and 22 up...

Does anybody have any ideas on why this is slower on these devices?

im using the netcomm NF4V white modem from Orcon

thanks

michaelmurfy

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#1341145 11-Jul-2015 15:04

All the wireless devices you've quoted are not that good on WiFi - also you're using 2.4GHz WiFi.

The PS4 especially.

You need to use Ethernet if you want the best performance out of your connection.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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freitasm

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#1341164 11-Jul-2015 15:58

WiFi doesn't offer the same speed in all devices. Some have antennas in the wrong place, some have too short an antenna, others have bad drivers.

Then there is interference. Too many devices and speeds slow down. Too many WiFi access points around your area and speeds go down. Turn the microwave oven or use an old cordless phone... You get the picture.

You will never get consistent speeds on WiFi.

thecripplernz

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Ultimate Geek

#1341207 11-Jul-2015 17:18

thanks, i just thought it was odd that all the devices were on the same speed

Jase2985

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#1341328 11-Jul-2015 20:10

the 42 down is a likely indicator they are only connected to the access point at 65mbps as thats about the max a 65mbps connection will do.

i have the same with one of my access points at home. though where it is im not to worried about the speed more the coverage. The living areas have AC and 5GHZ N coverage.

eXDee

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#1342078 13-Jul-2015 12:11

A different amount of antennas and wifi 'streams' affects your total throughput. So does the total channel width but to keep things simple we'll assume 20mhz mode here especially since apple devices are involved in the 2.4ghz band.

For the purposes of this you can essentially say 1 antenna = 1 spatial stream.
Your netcomm access point is a 2 stream device - or more specifically 2T2R (two transmitting streams, two receiving streams), also written as 2x2.

Most mobile devices are small, and only have 1 antenna and therefore 1 stream. Most likely 1x1. This means the max speed you'll see is a theoretical 65-72Mbps which is the connection rate. Now because this is a theoretical maximum and there's a bunch of overheads and other complicated reasons, you'll typically see up to 60% of this figure. This lines up with the 40mbps you're seeing in tests.

Your macbook will be a 2x2 device if its an older model or a Macbook Air. If its a newer macbook pro or iMac it'll be 3x3.
This means it can take full advantage of the 2x2 offered by the router and connect at 130-144Mbps

This table is going to look complicated, but look at the lowest figure in the spatial streams column for each number, and then look across at the figures in the 20mhz channel category.
eg line 7 and line 15.

The rest of the data will take a lot more to explain, but the short version is all the lower figures above that figure are what is used when the connection is weaker or has interference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009#Data_rates

Also you can also have 1T2R and other such combinations where the device can receive data with two streams but only transmit with one. And you can have multiple antennas which only operate 1 stream. But the above is the "simple" version!

I can't however explain the PS4, it could be a case of interference/pool signal resulting in a lower negotiate rate. Looks like its a Marvell 88W8797 chip from early 2011, same as in the original Surface Pro. This should be 2x2 but who know what configuration sony used. A lot of people experience issues it seems.

thecripplernz

252 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1356031 31-Jul-2015 13:48

thanks for that detailed response