Wireless is much slower than wired

[blakslee720]

Hello everyone,

 

I recently moved my desktop from one room to another. Previously I was able to hardwire it and got 350-400 mbps down on Speakeasy Speed test. In my new spot, I'm having to go wireless. I have a strong 5ghz connection with an Asus AC56 ax card, an steam can download in the low 20's mb/s BUT, if I try to download on steam and stream video (youtube, peacock etc,) the video buffers endlessly. Speakeasy wireless speeds seem to vary but it goes between 175-350 depending on who is doing what in the house. Even regular web browsing is REALLY slow while downloading stuff on steam. Any tips outside of upgrading everything to wifi 6 or 6e?

 

PS: the antenna are on the card, I can't find the satellite connector to move the antenna away from the tower. As the crow flies, I'm maybe 30 feet from the router, just sheetrock and wood in between

[Ralphred]

Get a "wireless survey app" on your phone and make sure no one else is stomping all over your chosen frequencies.

Also

5 minutes ago, blakslee720 said:

just sheetrock

Is it foiled backed and possibly earthed? Is it damp? (water is a very good microwave RF blocker).

[MedicTim78]

Update the WIFI card's drivers recently?

 

Also you could try ethernet over your power lines if the WIFI is still an issue after all the troubleshooting.

 

[blakslee720]

8 minutes ago, MedicTim78 said:

Update the WIFI card's drivers recently?

 

Also you could try ethernet over your power lines if the WIFI is still an issue after all the troubleshooting.

 

I do have that, also running to a wifi extender. Hardwired to the powerline thing is only 115ish

[blakslee720]

10 minutes ago, MedicTim78 said:

Update the WIFI card's drivers recently?

 

Also you could try ethernet over your power lines if the WIFI is still an issue after all the troubleshooting.

 

no clue about the foil. Do you have a particular app you like. First one that pops up is Ubiquiti Wifiman

[MedicTim78]

2 minutes ago, blakslee720 said:

I do have that, also running to a wifi extender. Hardwired to the powerline thing is only 115ish

Yikes, that's a pretty big hit too. If your in a urban area, maybe play around with the channels and see if one works better than the others... 

 

1 minute ago, blakslee720 said:

no clue about the foil. Do you have a particular app you like. First one that pops up is Ubiquiti Wifiman

You have Ubiquiti AP's? If so they have a built in diagnostic in the controller to read the area and figure out what channel is least cluttered. 

[Sir Asvald]

8 hours ago, blakslee720 said:

I do have that, also running to a wifi extender. Hardwired to the powerline thing is only 115ish

That would explain your slow speeds. Wi-Fi uses half-duplex which cuts your speeds in half. Better to get an AP connect to your network. That is what I'm running.

 

[wseaton]

5ghz is also not going to punch through walls. 

 

We also have a desktop wifi adapter which are the worst in terms of reception. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

15 hours ago, wseaton said:

We also have a desktop wifi adapter which are the worst in terms of reception. 

Only if you have the antennas on the back, they're the exact-same chipsets as most laptops.

But like you said, depending on the situation you can lose half your speed thorough a single wall.

 

Its not always "the worst" though, I can get 100Mbit through several brick walls on my phone if I'm facing the Access Point.  That is over WiFi 6 though and I never got round to checking 2.4Ghz, but I suspect it wouldn't be any better.

Granted, that's compared to 500-900Mbit in the same room as the AP.