New install, question about older WIFI clients performance

[Ipse]

New here, have been on cable (Rogers or TPIA) for the last 10 years and got fiber installed this week. Talk about good timing wrt the Rogers outage 😁

Everything seems to be working fine (I'm in PPPoE passthrough mode) except for an older iPad and a Chromebook... they used to get maximum speed (300Mbps down) on Rogers but only get ~150Mbps down now.

Newer wifi6 clients get 6-700Mbps up/down so it's not the WiFi setup.

Few peculiar things: the same happens if I connect them to my own router or to HH4000. But in both cases the UPLOAD is fine (considering they are ac clients) at 300-350Mbps.

Question then: is Rogers employing a better buffering mechanism on their side whereas Bell prioritizes latency and therefore the slower clients get overwhelmed and the TCP window drops to the point where I see performance drop? I noticed that latency under load is not going up by much according to Ookla.

Any explanation is welcome...I know,first world problem, but I'm curious more than anything, given that I work in the telecom industry for a manufacturer.

[Paladin · Accepted solution]

---

Everything seems to be working fine (I'm in PPPoE passthrough mode) except for an older iPad and a Chromebook... they used to get maximum speed (300Mbps down) on Rogers but only get ~150Mbps down now.

Newer wifi6 clients get 6-700Mbps up/down so it's not the WiFi setup.

Few peculiar things: the same happens if I connect them to my own router or to HH4000. But in both cases the UPLOAD is fine (considering they are ac clients) at 300-350Mbps.

If these devices are very old they might actually use 2.4Ghz and be 802.11n devices... There are only 3 channels which do not clash (do not overlap) with each other at 2.4 Ghz, 1, 6 and 11... Your router and HH4000 might actually be on the same channel as your router at 2.4Ghz and this can cause slower speeds...

Try to put them on different channels and see if it makes a difference...

Good luck and have a nice day!

[Ipse]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I did mention that without ANY changes to wireless setup, the same devices get maximum d/l speed (300Mbps) on Rogers.

But just to address your suggestion: the devices are on 5GHz and I always hardcode the channel in the router after running a site survey. In the SAME channels, my phone gets 7-800Mbps. The most bizarre thing that made me question the Access Concentrator buffer settings is that using the HH4000 WiFi I get the same behavior- when my gear is totally out of picture.

BTW: in normal mode, the HH4000 WiFi is off, and  I went as far as moving the hidden TV SSID on a different channel anyway and reducing it's power to 10% (it can't be disabled).

[Paladin]

---

I did mention that without ANY changes to wireless setup, the same devices get maximum d/l speed (300Mbps) on Rogers.

I read that paragraph but that could have simply meant that the Rogers router was on a different Wifi channel... It was not incompatible with the problem being that the HH4000 and your router were possibly on the same channel...

BTW: in normal mode, the HH4000 WiFi is off, and  I went as far as moving the hidden TV SSID on a different channel anyway and reducing it's power to 10% (it can't be disabled).

---

I too do not use the HH4000 Wifi as I already have access points through the house and the HH4000 is actually in what I would consider an untrusted zone... I use PPPoE passthrough to connect my router (pfSense) to the Internet.

I hope one day we will be able to turn off that TV Wifi (why on earth is it on when the modem knows we do not have service is beyond me) and that they will eventually fix the problem that the regular Wifi turns back on after a reboot...

Someone had said in some forum that the problem was fixed, it sure is not for me...

Have a nice day