Wi-fi speed limited by router port?

[DanWhite]

So if I buy a secondary router to connect to my main routher via cable and use it in access point mode, and it says its ports have 100 / 10 Mbps speed, even if I connect to a 5 Ghz signal generated by this new router, its gonna give me 100 / 10 Mbps speeds anyway?

[Bombastinator]

29 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

So if I buy a secondary router to connect to my main routher via cable and use it in AP mode, and it says its ports have 100 / 10 Mbps speed, even if I connect to a 5 Ghz signal generated by this new router, its gonna give me 100 / 10 Mbps speeds anyway?

It will when you use it as an Ethernet switch. That thing is sort of three devices in one and the 10gb/s rating applies to only one: the Ethernet switch bit.  Possibly the router bit too, or maybe the other way around. though what that means is you can have up to 4 devices talking to each other on rj45 at a theoretical 10gb/s (in reality probably somewhat lower) but if the wan port is 10gb too the window from that lan with 4 machines talking on it is a theoretical max of 10gb wide.  Assuming the thing is ax (wifi6) while the theoretical limit is very high, the practical limit is usually a lot lower.  I wouldn’t expect more than 2 or 3gb/s from wireless connections. 

 

[DanWhite]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It will when you use it as an Ethernet switch. That thing is sort of three devices in one and the 10gb/s rating applies to only one: the Ethernet switch bit.  Possibly the router bit too, or maybe the other way around. though what that means is you can have up to 4 devices talking to each other on rj45 at a theoretical 10gb/s (in reality probably somewhat lower) but if the wan port is 10gb too the window from that lan with 4 machines talking on it is a theoretical max of 10gb wide.  Assuming the thing is ax (wifi6) while the theoretical limit is very high, the practical limit is usually a lot lower.  I wouldn’t expect more than 2 or 3gb/s from wireless connections. 

 

10 gb? watcha mean? 100 Mbps is megabits, 100 megabits download, 10 upload

[Blue4130]

22 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

10 gb? watcha mean? 100 Mbps is megabits, 100 megabits download, 10 upload

Not 100 down, 10 up...

Either 100 or 10 depending on the negotiation speed.

 

But to answer your initial question, Yes, You will be limited to a maximum of 100 mb/s. (both up and down)

You should never get 10mb/s unless something is wrong (bad cable) as that hasn't been used in decades.

 

Really try to find a second router with gigabit ports. They are so cheap these days there is really no reason to get one without. Or better still, get a dedicated AP.

[DanWhite]

2 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Not 100 down, 10 up...

Either 100 or 10 depending on the negotiation speed.

 

But to answer your initial question, Yes, You will be limited to a maximum of 100 mb/s. (both up and down)

You should never get 10mb/s unless something is wrong (bad cable) as that hasn't been used in decades.

 

Really try to find a second router with gigabit ports. They are so cheap these days there is really no reason to get one without. Or better still, get a dedicated AP.

Or better still, find one... I'm from Uruguay and its very dificult to find one that has 5 Ghz option for around 30 usd, well I did find but it seeems that these don't have gigabit ports, like the tp-link archer c20

[Blue4130]

3 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

Or better still, find one... I'm from Uruguay and its very dificult to find one that has 5 Ghz option for around 30 usd, well I did find but it seeems that these don't have gigabit ports, like the tp-link archer c20

What online shop do you have access to? What other router options do you have?

[DanWhite]

12 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

What online shop do you have access to? What other router options do you have?

Mostly "mercado libre" this one seems to have what you said, but seems a bit cheap for what it offers, 24 usd, so I don't know if I should get it

[Blue4130]

17 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

Mostly "mercado libre"

https://www.mercadolibre.com.mx/router-access-point-tp-link-archer-c6-v2-negro-220v/p/MLM15910376#searchVariation=MLM15910376&position=8&search_layout=grid&type=product&tracking_id=f801b644-5dd0-40d7-8b67-5fa7dbfa011c

 

Here's one option. All ports are gigabit.

[DanWhite]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

https://www.mercadolibre.com.mx/router-access-point-tp-link-archer-c6-v2-negro-220v/p/MLM15910376#searchVariation=MLM15910376&position=8&search_layout=grid&type=product&tracking_id=f801b644-5dd0-40d7-8b67-5fa7dbfa011c

 

Here's one option. All ports are gigabit.

I see, btw thats mercado libre for Mexico, you can see it says .com.mx, for my country is .uy. Hmm is this option is the cheapest option I might have to wait for now

[Blue4130]

3 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

I see, btw thats mercado libre for Mexico, you can see it says .com.mx, for my country is .uy. Hmm is this option is the cheapest option I might have to wait for now

Sorry, I just googles and hit the first link. But it does seem that is about the cheapest tier where you start getting gigabit ports though.

[DanWhite]

7 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Sorry, I just googles and hit the first link. But it does seem that is about the cheapest tier where you start getting gigabit ports though.

What do you think bout this one , costs 26 usd on mercado libre, here's its mercado libre page

[DanWhite]

16 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Sorry, I just googles and hit the first link. But it does seem that is about the cheapest tier where you start getting gigabit ports though.

There's also Xiaomi Mi Router 4a , it says it has "2 x LAN 10/100M/1000Mbps - 1 x WAN Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Mbps"

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, DanWhite said:

10 gb? watcha mean? 100 Mbps is megabits, 100 megabits download, 10 upload

Yep and gb is gigabits. GB is gigabytes. It still catches me. I was told recently that the 10 GB I though some ethernet ran at was just 10gb so more like 1.2GB.  Now that I look at it that sounds small though. 10GB is something near 80gb (there will be some overhead and stuff.  I don’t know which way it goes) which sounds large.  Might be correct though.

[Bombastinator]

I alway hated the gb GB thing.  Strikes me as some one going “it’s more accurate…. The fact that it was also transparent marketing weasel wankery designed to screw people and made me this pile of money I’m bathing in is purely coincidental”. Kind of like the whole 3.0 becoming 3.2 gen1 thing

[Blue4130]

19 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Yep and gb is gigabits. GB is gigabytes. It still catches me. I was told recently that the 10 GB I though some ethernet ran at was just 10gb so more like 1.2GB.  Now that I look at it that sounds small though. 10GB is something near 80gb (there will be some overhead and stuff.  I don’t know which way it goes) which sounds large.  Might be correct though.

Please..... You are just adding offtopic stuff that is not helping...

 

34 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

There's also Xiaomi Mi Router 4a , it says it has "2 x LAN 10/100M/1000Mbps - 1 x WAN Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Mbps"

Really, at this price point and use case, they are all really going to be similar. Once you turn on bridge/AP mode, you loose the vast majority of features that you pay for with the more expensive routers. (QOS, vpn etc) If I was in your situation, I'd just grab whatever is the cheapest.

[DanWhite]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Please..... You are just adding offtopic stuff that is not helping...

 

Really, at this price point and use case, they are all really going to be similar. Once you turn on bridge/AP mode, you loose the vast majority of features that you pay for with the more expensive routers. (QOS, vpn etc) If I was in your situation, I'd just grab whatever is the cheapest.

Yeah yeah, thats kinda the plan, if it has what I need to give me more than 100 megabits per second of speed with 5 Ghz I'll take it, I'm just asking if you have anything to say about those like, I don't know "in this case you shouldn't buy that cheap because it wouldn't work that well" or whatever. I might get the Xiaomi Mi Router 4a, that one seems good

[Bombastinator]

15 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Please..... You are just adding offtopic stuff that is not helping...

 

Really, at this price point and use case, they are all really going to be similar. Once you turn on bridge/AP mode, you loose the vast majority of features that you pay for with the more expensive routers. (QOS, vpn etc) If I was in your situation, I'd just grab whatever is the cheapest.

So you take me to task for something and then when I reply to that it’s off topic.  Either neither is or they both are.

[Bombastinator]

26 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

Yeah yeah, thats kinda the plan, if it has what I need to give me more than 100 megabits per second of speed with 5 Ghz I'll take it, I'm just asking if you have anything to say about those like, I don't know "in this case you shouldn't buy that cheap because it wouldn't work that well" or whatever. I might get the Xiaomi Mi Router 4a, that one seems good

I’m saying it doesn’t work that way.  They all use the same protocol set, and they’re basically packet radio transceivers. There might be a feature or something like MIMO that might make a difference, but transmission power is capped by the fcc, so the only real variable that can affect range (because at the end of the day this is about range.  The farther away they are and the more stuff between the two antennas define how many packets make it through in a sufficiently unmolested state which amounts to bandwidth) is antenna. I’ve seen weird folded horn antennas the size of a motorcycle that would throw wifi for miles, but you don’t get those.  So it’s mostly about what parts are in the device and what the manufacturing quality is like.  Your question was does this claim have anything to do with wifi?  No.  It’s about ethernet. For wifi every situation is different because every layout is different, so it’s pretty hard to guarantee much of anything.

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

I’m saying it doesn’t work that way.  They all use the same protocol set, and they’re basically packet radio transceivers. There might be a feature or something like MIMO that might make a difference, but transmission power is capped by the fcc, so the only real variable that can affect range (because at the end of the day this is about range.  The farther away they are and the more stuff between the two antennas define how many packets make it through in a sufficiently unmolested state which amounts to bandwidth) is antenna. I’ve seen weird folded horn antennas the size of a motorcycle that would throw wifi for miles, but you don’t get those.  So it’s mostly about what parts are in the device and what the manufacturing quality is like.  Your question was does this claim have anything to do with wifi?  No.  It’s about ethernet. For wifi every situation is different because every layout is different, so it’s pretty hard to guarantee much of anything.

What are you even talking about? His question was will having a 10/100 port bottlekneck the 5g speed... Yes it can (as long as the internet package paid for is higher than 100mb/s, the link speed is less than the wifi 5 potential and will be the bottlekneck)

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, DanWhite said:

Yeah yeah, thats kinda the plan, if it has what I need to give me more than 100 megabits per second of speed with 5 Ghz I'll take it, I'm just asking if you have anything to say about those like, I don't know "in this case you shouldn't buy that cheap because it wouldn't work that well" or whatever. I might get the Xiaomi Mi Router 4a, that one seems good

Pretty much anything WiFi 5 / AC with Gigabit ports should be able to handle above 100Mbit, though I'd make sure it has 2x2 MIMO at least on the 5Ghz otherwise it might drop below that quite fast as you move further away.

Some really dirt cheap routers have CPUs so weak they might struggle at 300Mbit which limits the maximum speed regardless of the WiFi link rate, or might only be 1x1 MIMO which means the speed of the WiFi itself will be a lower and reception likely worse too.  A slightly more expensive one might do twice that.  Basically WiFi depends on the signal (a 2x2 MIMO client can do up to twice the speed of a 1x1 one if the router supports and will therefore maintain a higher speed further away), the ethernet ports (the maximum speed in/out of the router) AND the CPU (the maximum speed the router can move between the ethernet ports and WiFi itself), any one of those can bottleneck you.

With 1x1 antenna chains, go through a few walls and you can easily end up below 100Mbit again.  But of course the other factor is the client, you'll still have this problem if the device you are trying to use is only 1x1 even if your router supports 2x2.  So it can get complicated.

 

The Honor Router 3 for example has pretty insane WiFi for its price, though it does have one weird quirk that devices on its WiFi do not always see IoT devices on the main routers WiFi.  It also doesn't allow you to use the other ethernet ports when in Access Point mode, though this can be worked around in router mode if you know what you are doing.