Why my wifi so slow?
Since many Unifi users have got Turbo speed now, more and more people are asking why their wifi is so slow. Unfortunately many are misled by those AC1200, AC1750, AC2400 numbers so here's a guide to what actual speed you can achieve. Now, just to clarify, this is about WiFi speed not internet speed but in order to get max internet speed, you first have to get your wifi in order.

tl;dr Maximum WiFi Speeds
Here's a tl;dr of the max wifi speed that I've tested. Remember, in order to get max speed, your device must equal or better the wifi router.

	Phone	Laptop	Tablet
2.4Ghz 2x2	91.57 Mbps	92.1 Mbps	-
5Ghz 1x1	240.53 Mbps	244 Mbps	-
5Ghz 2x2	343.66 Mbps	357 Mbps	518.79 Mbps
5Ghz 3x3	-	875 Mbps	-

Gigabit Ethernet: 934 Mbps (for ref)
Faster speeds coming when I test the faster wifi routers.

AC Rating
The first thing, those AC numbers or Rating. These are there to impress help consumers.

The numbers give an indication of the speed of the router but they're mostly there because marketing needed a shorter way to describe the router. So instead of "2.4Ghz 2x2 MIMO and 5Ghz 2x2 MIMO", they use AC1200. Much simpler but just remember no way you'll get 1200Mbps from it.

TM's TP-Link C1200 as an example
Many people have this wifi router since it's a freebie from TM. It is AC1200.

Max 5Ghz link speed: 866Mbps (2x2 5Ghz wifi streams)
Max 2.4Ghz link speed: 300Mbps (2x2 2.4Ghz wifi streams)

So 866+300 = 1200 (yes, marketing did the math)


2x2, 3x3 MIMO
If you wondering what is that 2x2 wifi streams. It's something like this.

2x2 means 2 transmit and 2 receive.
MIMO (multiple in/multiple out) means the wifi can receive,send more than one wifi stream at the same time. Everything is MIMO now.
streams are sometimes called chains. Some people use the term antenna. Not wrong. One stream needs one antenna to transmit. Then you look at the C1200 which is 2x2 but it has 3 antennas. How leh? That one I explain later.

Which brings us to the speed of each stream. It can be more but let's stick to this for now.
One 5Ghz stream = 433Mbps
One 2.4Ghz stream = 150Mbps

Therefore for the TP-Link C1200, for 5Ghz, 2 streams is 2 x 433Mbps = 866Mbps.
Same for 2.4Ghz, 2 x 150Mbps = 300Mbps.
Add these together and you'll get the 1200 in AC1200.


Your laptop, phone
Alright, so your laptop and phone also has the same things. 1x1, 2x2, 3x3 MIMO. In order to get max speed, your phone must equal or better the wifi router.

Now, this is where a lot of questions arises. Some people might have a great router but their laptop or phone not so good. And vice-versa.
1. Most phones are 1x1
2. Some only have 2.4Ghz, no 5Ghz
3. Most laptops are 2x2
4. Some are 3x3
5. Cheaper laptops only have 2.4Ghz

So you see, if you connect a phone with 5GHz AC 1x1 to a C1200 2x2, the link speed will only be 433Mbps.


Link Speed vs Actual Speed
You might think, 433Mbps link speed is damn good already. But when you try, your speeds are much slower. Yeah, you'll never get full link speed. Why? Actually I'm not entirely sure so I'll leave that to Google.


MacBook Pro Retina 2013 3x3 5Ghz Link Speed to a 1x1 hAP AC Lite

As a rough guesstimate for actual speed, I like to use 60% which is already a very optimistic number for the speed that you may get. You may get higher speeds, probably not, but very easy to get lower speeds.
1x1 - Link: 433Mbps - IRL: 260Mbps
2x2 - Link: 866Mbps - IRL: 520Mbps
3x3 - Link: 1299Mbps - IRL: 779Mbps


Other Factors
In real life (IRL), other things will affect the final speed that you get.
1. Distance
2. Line of sight
3. Door
4. Wall
5. Interference from neigbour's wifi

So many things, I'm just going to list 5.


WiFi speed tests
To give you an idea of the speeds, I did a few tests below.

The test is a 30 second iPerf3 TCP test. Data is sent from the server via the respective wifi router to the device.

The command for iperf3 where applicable. iPhones are using an app called WiFiPerf which is iPerf3 compatible.

*Note that these are tests of just the wifi. No internet involved. Get the wifi speed sorted out before worrying about the internet. So, again, this is all local area network,
**I'm lazy to edit it so if you see single chain, dual or triple chain, it means 1x1, 2x2 or 3x3 respectively.

Stuff Used
Server: Thinkcentre M73 - Ubuntu 18.04 LTS - iperf3 3.1.3
Laptop: MacBook Pro Retina 2013 - MacOS 10.13.6 - 2.4Ghz Dual Chain - 5Ghz Triple Chain - iperf 3.6
Phone: iPhone 6s - iOS 12.0 - Dual Chain - WiFiPerf 3.2
Network: Gigabit - Cabling: Cat5e
Distance: Approximately 4ft from device to wifi router.

WiFi Routers (to be tested)
1. Mikrotik hAP AC Lite - 2.4Ghz Dual Chain - 5Ghz Single Chain - AC750 (done)
2. Mikrotik hAP AC2 - 2.4Ghz Dual Chain - 5Ghz Dual Chain - AC1200
3. Mikrotik hAP AC - 2.4Ghz Triple Chain - 5Ghz Triple Chain - AC1750
4. Aztech FG7008GR - 2.4Ghz Triple Chain - 5Ghz Quad Chain - AC2400
5. D-Link DIR-878L - 2.4Ghz Quad Chain - 5Ghz Quad Chain - AC2600

Notes
• RouterOS 6.44beta6 (11/9/2018)
• hAP AC Lite: 3x100M ethernet bonding
*because the hAP AC Lite only has 100Mbps network ports, I bonded 3 ports (300Mbps) to cater for WiFI AC speeds.
• The only tuning I did was lowering transmit power as I was only 4ft away from the wifi routers.
• WiFi chip features such as WMM, adaptive noise immunity, beam forming, or band steering are disabled.

Radio Environment
2.4Ghz Scanner and Frequency Usage
Tests were done in my house in the afternoon on a weekend. Typical double storey intermediate link house. Quite a few 2.4Ghz APs around but still can be considered good.
Since it's a weekend, more people are home and using their phones and laptops. It gets better in the afternoon on a weekday or in the early morning when everyone is asleep.


5Ghz Scanner and Frequency Usage
Very clean. There's only one 5Ghz AP and the signal is very weak.



Ethernet Speed Test (Control)

	Phone 6s	MBPR
Ethernet	94.41 Mbps	934 Mbps

Actually I forgot, I thought my iPhone Lightning-Ethernet was gigabit. It's only 100Mbps.



Mikrotik hAP AC Lite - 2.4Ghz Dual Chain - 5Ghz Single Chain - AC750

	iPhone 6s	link	MBPR	link
2.4Ghz Dual Chain (Early Morning)	91.57 Mbps	144 Mbps	-	-
2.4Ghz Dual Chain (Afternoon)	79.29 Mbps	144 Mbps	92.1 Mbps	144 Mbps
5Ghz Single Chain	240.53 Mbps	433 Mbps	244 Mbps	433 Mbps

hAP AC Lite only has 100Mbps ports so I bonded 3 ports to cater for WiFI AC speeds. I don't expect it to go above 300Mbps.




Mikrotik hAP AC2 - 2.4Ghz Dual Chain - 5Ghz Dual Chain - AC1200

	iPhone 6s	link	MBPR	link
2.4Ghz Dual Chain	-		-
5Ghz Dual Chain	340.88 Mbps	866 Mbps	357 Mbps	866 Mbps

Mikrotik hAP AC - 2.4Ghz Triple Chain - 5Ghz Triple Chain - AC1750

	iPhone 6s	link	MBPR	link
2.4Ghz Dual Chain	87.05 Mbps	144 Mbps	77 Mbps	144 Mbps
5Ghz Dual Chain	343.66 Mbps	780 Mbps	-	-
5Ghz Triple Chain	-	-	420 Mbps	950 Mbps

Aztech FG7008GR - 2.4Ghz Triple Chain - 5Ghz Quad Chain - AC2400

	iPhone 6s	link	MBPR	link	iPad 2017	link
2.4Ghz Dual Chain	-	-	-	-	-	-
5Ghz Dual Chain	304.96 Mbps	-	-	-	518.79 Mbps	-
5Ghz Triple Chain	-	-	875 Mbps	1300 Mbps	-	-

D-Link DIR-878L - 2.4Ghz Quad Chain - 5Ghz Quad Chain - AC2600

	iPhone 6s	MBPR
2.4Ghz Dual Chain	xxx	xxx
2.4Ghz Triple Chain	xxx	xxx
5Ghz Single Chain	xxx	xxx
5Ghz Triple Chain	xxx	xxx

This post has been edited by soonwai: Sep 21 2018, 09:05 AM

Reserved for more stuff

Yet another excellent guide. Will link to this thread on the TM thread. Thank you, and good job.

+1

TQ for making the effort.

I just cant seem to figure out why my device refuses to nego on 3x3 spatial stream.. probably either the aztech 7008 firmware kaput or my note 8 region problem lol (cos i use dfs bands)

This post has been edited by miloaisdino: Sep 17 2018, 11:50 PM

https://www.ekahau.com/wp-content/uploads/2...Analysis_WP.pdf

Read part 1, ignore part 2.

EDIT: The pdf has simple explanation on why it is impossible to get full wifi link speed.

This post has been edited by JohnLai: Sep 17 2018, 11:57 PM

Thanks for that. Very informative. I think I understand better now.

Very good PDF guide. Cheers. Will be a bit too technical for newbies though

+1

excellent guidelines.

Wow...now I understand

Thank you for making the effort to do this, I learned quite a bit.

See the link on my signature to read more.

Click the link on my signature to learn more.

and 1 more thing, for the 5Ghz band, let the router decide the best channels.5Ghz band channels are quite tricky compared to 2.4Ghz.

Set it to auto and I managed to get 400-500Mbps constant on my Macbook.

This post has been edited by Xefron: Sep 19 2018, 11:03 PM

Added results for Mikrotik hAP AC2, hAP AC and Aztech FG7008GR.

Conclusion. Mikrotik wifi sucks. OK, it's average lah but still, I was hoping for more. The hAP AC Lite is actually quite OK but the ports are 100 Mbps.

hAP AC has a big problem, 50% CPU usage when pushing 400Mbps from ethernet to wlan. Everything goes through a weak CPU. I think it's gonna have problems routing 400Mbps and pushing that to wifi.

hAP AC2 no problem, 5% CPU usage. I kinda like this guy even if you use it just as a router. It has a very capable CPU but wifi is just so-so.

Aztech on the other hand impresses me. 875 Mbps over a 30 sec period. If go for a shorter period, I think can get more impressive results as I see a few 901 Mbps over 4 sec intervals. Can't really expect more for RM145 (Lazada 9/9 sale price).

iPhone 6s seems to be stuck at a max of 300Mbps. I can't tell but it looks like it's only using one chain (433 Mbps) with the Aztech. That's why the Aztech results has an iPad in it. iPad connects fine with the Aztech at 2x2 resulting in 518 Mbps.

Yeah, I gave up trying to "chase the channel" long time ago. Everything's on auto channels now.

Great detail l, very good knowledge for those who newly got turboed

Nice guide 👍

using my galaxy s8+ / laptop / tenda ac18

i get:
s8+
2.4ghz - dl 100mbps ul 110mbps

5ghz - dl 430mbps ul 212mbps

laptop(killer 1435)
2.4ghz - dl 100mbps ul 100mbps

5ghz - dl 400mbps ul - 200mbps

both are 2x2 mimo... and maximum i can get...

See my signature for more.

Yes, that is expected, and normal.

so.. in short

Users who have 300, 500 and 800Mbps Unifi, and wants WiFi to reached at least 500+Mbps
they need

Router
- Gigabit Ethernet
- dual chain or above Wifi AC 5Ghz

Their Phone, Tablets and Laptops
- 2x2 chain or above compatible WiFi AC on their device (usually newer, higher end models)

This post has been edited by squall0833: Sep 23 2018, 12:16 PM

this is awesome my dawg!

just curious
what is the distance like?

shifu here, i have roughly 15 tenants are staying 3 apartment units of mine, and I am staying unit 4, i have an unifi 50mbps which will be turbo-ed very soon.. so my question here, if im about to setup a wifi for them, what is the cheapest & best way to do so ? change my current modem to an expensive 1 ? or set up multiple wifi extender ?

P.S : i have a 24hours online pc, any way to setup a wifi for them & not slowing down my speed ?


your help is much appreciated ! thank you rclxm9.gif

depan router around 1 meter....

how bout 10-15 feet?

on 1st floor i can get

5ghz DL 300mbps, UL 150mbps
2.4ghz DL 80mbps, UL 90 mbps...

On my 500mhz Unifi, and tplink ac1750,
Dl:380Mbps, max UL 100Mbps
With IPhone X

whats your router?

Ac86u

https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/review-asus...ormance-preview
Nothing beats aztech fg7008gr(ac) beast. Not even asus ax router in wireless bridge

D-Link DIR-878L - 2.4Ghz Quad Chain - 5Ghz Quad Chain - AC2600
iPhone 6s MBPR


2.4Ghz Dual Chain xxx xxx
2.4Ghz Triple Chain xxx xxx
5Ghz Single Chain xxx xxx
5Ghz Triple Chain xxx xxx


any update test result

need upgrade my current router ws880 to dir 878

speed test 5ghz - 6s less 200 mbps
- mba less 250 mbps

now with unifi 500mbps

Very good thread. Thank you TS!

SO what exactly do I have to do to get at least full 500mbps or 800mbps speed from unifi using wifi?

Sit right next to my 802.11ac router with my device? lol

No point. Get a decent router and have a device that can support it. No point sitting next to your router.

1)upgrade your router as per recommendations in this forum (refer router guide unifi thread)
2)get a 3x3/4x4 card for your pc (pce-ac68 400rm new/250rm used; pce-ac88 450rm new)
3)then optimize router location

This post has been edited by nrw: Oct 6 2018, 04:25 PM

Hi Soonwai,

Can you teach me or give me a hint on how to setup the 3 LAN bonding or binding?

I m using WS880 as main router connecting mikrotik as ap with a LAN cable.

I m thinking to pull another LAN cable if that help.

Additionally is that possible to bond/bind the wlan1 (2.4ghz WiFi) with LAN to increase throughput?
Since I need to use 5ghz WiFi only.

Thanks

Moderator

This thread should be pinned, many ppl will need thos useful info for their internet turboed

It's already pinned. Just that so many lazy to come here read and keep asking the same questions over and over again at other threads.

Lol no wonder i click pages did not see it, it's already on top pinned

Anyone using tplink archer c5400 +asus pce-ac88 combo?

Can max 1gbps on wifi?even 800mbps is good enough.

This post has been edited by beetch: Oct 9 2018, 08:19 PM

I’m using iPhone X too... 10 inches from the router using TP-Link AC3150. Max I can get is just below 300mbps

I'm using ASUS RT-AC55UHP, technically it should able to achieve 1 GB in wired and 300xx on 2.4g and 866 in 5g.

With Cat 6 cable, in both wired and wireless max i only can achieved 2xx closed to 300mb.

Is it because of the router itself or ??

Is there someone else use this router can achieve more than 500 mb?

Technically, on LAN, this should be able to go all the way to 800Mbps and more. It has the same CPU as the Mikrotik RB960PGS. Just make sure that you have Hardware NAT enabled and anything that may affect it, such as QoS, disabled.

A result of 300Mbps sounds like HWNAT is turned off.

Checked my hardware NAT is enabled, but just c't more than 300mb

I am currently using a ASUS RT-AC1300UHP wireless router. I have already upgraded the LAN cables from BTU to router for Gigabit. Unifi has been turboed to 500Mbps. Checked wireless channels and configure it to use a channel where it is not congested. I haven't tested the LAN cable yet but I am absolutely sure it can hit close to my targeted 500Mbps. WiFi 5Ghz max I got was 280Mbps and then I found out that my phone's WiFi hardware, it is only single streaming at 433Mbps so it is about right. 2.4Ghz I can get around 70Mbps to 80Mbps (connected at 92Mbps).

Phone is a Huawei Mate 9 Pro. Haven't tested with my laptop yet for both LAN and wireless.

This post has been edited by shinjite: Oct 11 2018, 09:27 AM

Configure to a channel that is not congested? 1, 6, or 11? Your phone wifi is not streaming at 433Mbps though, as that is a theoretical max value of 1x1 MIMO. You should try a speedtest on your phone to see real value. By the way, the max speed on wireless for the router is only 300Mbps, so you might need to change router.

This post has been edited by SilentVampire: Oct 11 2018, 10:37 AM

But this router's WiFI is 2x2 MIMO for 5ghz at 867Mbps, so theoratically real world speed I should be able to get higher right? I feel that my WiFi speed is limited to my phone's Wifi capabilities since it is only 1x1 MIMO. I'll need to get a 2x2 MIMO WiFi phone to test and see if I can breach 300Mbps on WiFi at home.

This post has been edited by shinjite: Oct 11 2018, 11:28 AM

Yes, thereotically you should get higher. Set the channel bandwidth for the router to 80MHz, and see if that change things.

I have set mine to 80Mhz....still maxed out at 280Mbps XD but yeah will wait till I can get a better phone to test then I can do some conclusions. Cheers

No worries. Just to let you know that the AC1300UHP does max out at 300Mbps. If you still can't go any higher than 300, it is expected. Click the link to my sig and see list of compatible routers for the 500Mbps speed.

I am getting better speed on my old HTC 10, almost 420Mbps. All setting checked.

Android --> ~420Mbps
Thinkpad Laptop ---> ~400
Iphone X ~380

Funny ehhh

Hi bro, your phones WiFi 5ghz definitely have two spatial streams (2x2 MIMO). I was surprised that my Huawei Mate 9 Pro only has one spatial stream

Yes, only one so max speed will only be 433Mbps unfortunately.

Yeah very saddening.....

420 / 433 or even 380 is not that bad for my 500Mbps line. Can always use wire to get full esp when updating iphone lol

Here’s the ideal environment speed test via 5GHz WiFi with my iPhone X. In line of sight around 10m away from router. Unifi 800mbps using ASUS RT-AC86U.

Hey bro, just saw a YT video confirming that the RT-AC1300UHP can even be used for Unifi 800Mbps. My doubts has been answered

Just achiwved 860mbps ish via wifi.

Oh yeah no more lan cables.

asus router?

Standing infront of Tenda AC18 router , 5ghz , 500mbps unifi, Speedtest.net TELEKOM MALAYSIA server

Huawei Honor 10



Samsung Galaxy S8



Xiaomi Mi6



This post has been edited by Boy96: Oct 21 2018, 11:29 PM

hi guys,

just a quick question, im using stock TM wifi c1200, my package is 300mbps.. i only can get ard 150-200mbps only.. both side ( router archer c1200 + receiver archer t4u ac1200 ) should got more than 300mbps. not sure what i missed. is the the router is not good? floor plan is apt house, range ard 10-15ft from pc to router.

even tested using my mate 10 pro also never got 300mbps..

This has been such a great informative topic but being an old man, I can't quite wrap my head around some of the terms so I appreciate any help that I can get.

In relation to my parents' place, they are currently on the Maxis 100 mpbs package (just upgraded) with the default modem/router combo. Primary use of internet is more for browsing and streaming videos via youtube, malaysiakini, etc.

Our issue is mainly due to reception as the router is awkwardly placed in a room on one end of the house (not centrally). Unfortunately, relocating the router is not an option. As a result, some rooms on the other end of the house get really lousy wifi reception (walls, various other interference, etc.).

I'd like to know:

1. Would upgrading to a better, more powerful router help?
2. If yes, what router do you recommend? Importantly, can it work with Maxis?
3. Do you know of any company/consultant who can provide advise and possibly assist on installation?

Thank you and keep up the knowledge sharing.

You hit the nail on the head. Your router is not good enough.

1) Yes, it will.

2) All if not most router will work with Maxis. As for what router, depends in your budget. Do you use Maxis VoIP/phone as well? If you do, it will be a bit difficult to configure.

3) Try to Google and see, but keep in mind they won’t be cheap.

Thanks so much. I plan to get the Asus RT-AC86U. Should be OK for my purpose?

Also, the Maxis does come with the VoIP/phone but hardly anyone uses it.

Should be more than enough. If no one uses it, I wouldn't bother with it then. If you still want to use it, you have to bridge it to the Maxis router.

Cheers again. Will do a bit more research before pulling the trigger.

Am currently choosing between buying a powerful router or a wifi mesh system (i.e. Asus Lyra).

Decisions ...

If it is a normal two-storey home, a powerful router would suffice, unless you want full wireless connectivity and have cash to burn.

is Tenda AC10U good enough ? or got anything below rm200 that suffice for that use.. thinking to get new router but need a good advice

I was wondering will iPhone Xs/Max obtain full gigabit wifi speeds with 4x4 MIMO (in real life)?

Nope. It is only 2x2 MIMO. See here: https://www.apple.com/my/iphone-xs/specs/

802.11ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO

4x4 MIMO is only for LTE.


This post has been edited by SilentVampire: Oct 24 2018, 11:48 AM

Im using same router as you for my time bb 500mbps , on WIFI 5GHZ my huawei p9 plus only able to reach 250mbps but my old nexus 6p able to reach 320mbps and samsung galaxy s7 edge 480mbps while my dell inspiron 13 5370 laptop max 320mbps

This post has been edited by xperia090180: Oct 25 2018, 06:53 AM

For those using dual band routers, do you guys disable the 2.4 Ghz wifi? (assuming that all the devices at your place can use 5Ghz)
Just wondering if there are any benefits in doing so, other than somewhat helping (less interference) your neighbors who are still using 2.4 Ghz.

disable just to reduce the processing power or work load on the router. mine i disable 2.4 band since no use.

Nope, I didn't disable 2.4Ghz band because my parents HP doesn't support 5Ghz. Another reason would be the signal itself as certain areas of my house the 5Ghz has terrible reception.

This budget router not bad.

hey OP. How does MU-MIMO affects the link speed / actual speed?

From your guide, I can assume these speeds on WiFi: (paired with the corresponding wifi adapter)
AC1200/1300 - N300+AC867 (2x2 5GHz) - 500Mbps
AC1750/1900 - N450+AC1300 (3x3 5GHz) - 7xxMbps/800Mbps
... (4x4 5GHz) - 1Gbps

Am I right?

See here for a quick guide: https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html

Yah asus ROG gt5300 router.

This is my speed test with phone the other day.


Receiver for pc i use asus pcie card pce-ac88. Sap sap water 8xxmbps via wifi.

Satisfy enough

I am using AC10U for my Unifi 100Mbps, replacing my old TM supplied router. Hit 100Mbps easily using wired and 5G channel.

yeah i thnk my current setup can easily get 100mbps.. coz currently i can only get ard 180-200 for my 300mbps. your old tm router is tplilnk c1200 as well?

D-Link L7-N-R2000

i already terminate wifi...

Read already. It doesn't talk about MU MIMO.

Parked.

I'm on Unifi 300Mbps...Will this Tenda AC10U be suffice to get the max speed or should I get something else. 😀😀

See my signature for a better suggestions for list of compatible routers for 300Mbps. I recommend another router, preferably the Tenda AC18.

Cool... Thanks bruhh .. 👍👍