Slow Wifi thinking about replacing router

[Socalcoachman]

I've been having trouble with the internet download speeds lately.  I had 100Mbps service but noticed that my speed was getting 20Mbps with only 3 devices logged on.  I thought it was the modem and replaced along with getting faster service of 400Mbps.  Directly plugging the modem into the computer I was getting 340Mbps, but connected to my four year old Netgear R8500 I only got 24Mps.  I tried the speedtest again with an ipad that was within sight of the router(about 6 feet).  The ipad results were the same at 23Mbps.  Would replacing the router get me anywhere near 100Mps via wifi?  My wife has been using Zoom with audio drop outs so fixing network is priority.  I live in a 900 square foot two story condo with about 30 other wifi signals detected(not surprising with 350 units in complex).  When I first got the R8500 router, it did get 100Mbps speeds, not sure if it dying or neighborhood wifi arms race is to blame. I am thinking about replacing it with a gaming router but not sure what I should get?

 

Thanks and sorry about the rambling of an old man

[Samfisher]

Use the 5GHz band on the router?  If you're using 2.4, it could also be the case that a very old device like a Nintendo 3DS which only supports 802.11g which will pull your entire network down to support G.

[Socalcoachman]

Using both networks, I recently tried reset password so I could  test it with only my wife's computer and my computer on the network and I got the same results.  One of my friends recommended that I look into Mesh type system.  I'm not so certain that this would be useful in a 900 square foot condo with loft.

[Chris Pratt]

"Gaming" routers, like pretty much everything with that moniker, are marketing BS, for the most part. It's basically just QoS, which virtually every router from the cheapest budget one has. The only real difference is that at least some (can't even tell you if all of them do this) will auto detect "gaming" devices based on their network profile, and then prioritize traffic to them, like an Xbox or a specific WiFi chipset like Killer. It's not going to guess every device, and it may not even be making accurate decisions based on what you really need. For example, if you're working in the office, you don't necessarily want your kid playing Xbox in their bedroom to get all the traffic, just because it's a "gaming" device. Sure, you can go in and customize the QoS, but once you've done that, then you're back to something you could have done with virtually any router on the planet.

[Falcon1986]

On 8/12/2020 at 4:58 AM, Socalcoachman said:

I live in a 900 square foot two story condo with about 30 other wifi signals detected(not surprising with 350 units in complex).  When I first got the R8500 router, it did get 100Mbps speeds, not sure if it dying or neighborhood wifi arms race is to blame.

What you’re describing is likely due to just that: your wireless router is competing with all the other WiFi networks in the complex especially if they’re using the same broadcast channel.

 

The 2.4GHz band is notorious for congestion and network overlap. If there is lots of overlap, then traffic on each network will have to wait for the busy ones to go quiet before resuming their own activity, analogous to a busy intersection. On 5GHz, however, there are more channels to utilize which means less likelihood of signal interference from overlap.

 

No replacement wireless router will get around a congested wireless airspace like yours. Even if you turn up the antenna power or use an access point with higher gain, it’s like trying to talk louder in an already noisy room; signals get distorted the “louder” you go.

 

Please run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer (download for free from the Microsoft Store) and post the output from the ‘Networks’ and ‘Analyze’ tabs (for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios). Let’s see who you’re competing with and how you can optimize what you have already.

 

Honestly, in these kinds of environments, it helps to wire in as many devices to the router as possible, segregate your 5GHz SSID and connect to that SSID on the remaining devices. Legacy and low priority devices can still use 2.4GHz because speed/latency is not critical.