bottleneck: router or wireless card? [SOLVED]

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

Hi guys,

I recently got a NAS and I wired it to my router ASUS RT-AC68U. If I wire my box to the router and connect to NAS, I get upload speeds (to NAS) of 50MB/s and download speed of over 100MB/s. However, if use my wireless card intel 3165 I get upload speed of 7MB/s and download speeds of 8.5MB/s. I am testing with a 1.6 GB single file.

I am using the 5GHz frequency connection to the router and my laptop is 6 feet away from it. Nothing else is on the router, and the router has the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.385.20632 ).

I think the wireless numbers are pretty low, and I am trying to figure out if the bottleneck is the router configuration or the wireless card configuration.

Any help is always appreciated,

Efo

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6727

100MB/s is normal for gigabit ethernet and 8-12MB is normal for 65-135Mbps 802.11n. Is your hardware rated for higher?

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

Hi Ant P.,

I agree with the ethernet speeds, but the wireless connection seems slow to me. I cant find actual benchmarks. Here is what I have:

Router ASUS RT-AC68U:
1300 Mbps 802.11ac at 5 GHz gives Gigabit wireless data rates, while Broadcom® TurboQAM™ technology super-charges 2.4 GHz 802.11n performance from 450 Mbps to 600 Mbps with compatible devices.

Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless AC 3165:
TX/RX Streams 1X1
Bands 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz
Max Speed 433 Mbps
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED* 802.11ac
Compliance FIPS, FISMA
Bluetooth Version 4.2
Integrated Bluetooth Yes

I was unable to find benchmarks, but 7-8MB/s seem low to me. If that's the expected performance, then it is what it is.... I just would like to know I am getting a fair performance out of the hardware.

Thanks for helping,

Efo

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:08 pm Post subject:

It seems we have two threads about the same topic. See: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1117590.html

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

Hi Mike155,

Thanks for the info. I will try to answer your questions here so not to hijack the other thread if that's ok.

I think I already run the tests at the beginning of that thread. Here is the other info:

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 4:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the data.

Link Quality=69/70 - good
Signal level=-41 dBm - good
Frequency:5.745 GHz - good
Bit Rate=86.7 Mb/s - NOT good. But it's in agreement with your measurement results 'upload speed of 7MB/s and download speeds of 8.5MB/s'.

The 'Bit Rate' value should be much higher.

Next step: let's try to find out which bit rates and capabilities your router offers. Please run either

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

Thanks Mike155, I am learning something :)

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 9:29 pm Post subject:

A wild guess: it could be related to channel 149, which can be a bit special, depending on the regulatory domain. See: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Local_Area_Network#Nutzungsbedingungen. It's in German, unfortunately. But you can see that channel149 is forbidden in some countries and power-limited in Europe. Try to set your router to channel 48 or 108 and retry.

'iwlist scan' doesn't tell us everything. Please post the output of

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

... not that easy then :)
Ok, here we go:

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 10:00 pm Post subject:

Ok, so your router supports both HT and VHT - and your laptop as well. Regulatory domain info doesn't seem to be valid. In which country do you live?

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 10:12 pm Post subject:

I guess that switching to channel 48 didn't help, right?

Does https://medium.com/@arjuna.deltoso/slow-wifi-connection-on-ubuntu-18-04-bionic-with-intel-wireless-3165-dual-band-wireless-ac-3165-fd5895fa30d6 help?

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

Sorry about that, no channel 48 didnt help

I tried:

mike155 · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2020 11:11 pm Post subject:

You could also try the parameters suggested at https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/397370/wireless-network-slow-speed-inconsistant-connection-intel-dual-band-wireless
in the 'answer' section and also in the comment below the answer. It might be necessary to reboot and load the iwlwifi kernel module with the new options during system boot.

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

I tried

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

I tried to compile the driver in the kernel with

Efo · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 468

It turns out it was the router. I installed the Merlin firmware and followed
L&LD instructions.
Now I get between 30 and 40MBps upload and download, not the nominal 1300Mbps claimed by the 5GHz band, but I think it is reasonable.
Thanks for the help!