Help a drunk guy out with home network

This might be very unhelpful information but here goes.

Upstairs bedroom has fiber coming in. Modem is connected to an Apple Airport Express and run throughout the house. It goes down into the theater and is connected to a switch and an Apple AirPort Extreme.

When I hardwire to the modem I get 343 Mbps down. When I connect to the airport express I get just shy of 80. I also get 80 when I connect to the switch and when I connect to the Extreme.

I don't know shit about the express or extreme but I do know I should be getting the same speeds as if I am wired to the modem. What is going on with the express that would make it only produce speeds around 79' 80 ?

Everything is brand new from the equipment to the wiring.

You got a bad apple

The Pantry wrote:You got a bad apple

And it's spoiling the bunch ?

Apple routers are terrible for throughput........ the only thing they have going for them is an easy to use interface... but quality wise, they are not well regarded.

RokEmSokEmRobot wrote:Apple routers are terrible for throughput........ the only thing they have going for them is an easy to use interface... but quality wise, they are not well regarded.

How is it that bad though. Should be around 300 and I am at 80 ?

I don't know much about Apple, but I looked up the specs for the Airport Express and it's WAN port is a 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet port. So, with your airport express connected to your fiber modem through its 10/100 WAN port your connection is being throttled down to a maximum of 100Mb/s. Combine that with an imperfect wireless connection and 80Mb/s seems fairly simple to explain.

On the other hand, the Airport Extreme has a 10/100/1000 Mb/s WAN port. But you have that connected to your home theater system so it isn't doing any good since it's connected to a throttled AP. If you want more than 100Mb/s, then you will need to connect the Extreme to the fiber modem and use the Extreme as the wireless AP. At least then you won't be throttled by a low speed WAN port.

That being said, all of the Ethernet ports on the Express are 10/100 Mb/s. So, if you use the Express with your Home Theater system, it will still be limited to 100Mb/s. So, your only shot at getting more than 100Mb/s to your home theater system would be to have an Extreme on it as well.

I don't know what kind of device you are using to measure your wireless performance, but assuming that you have a normal laptop, chances are you aren't going to see high levels of performance anyway since the average 802.11n device only supports a couple of transmit and receive antennas and typically only 2 spatial data streams, whereas the maximum throughput of 802.11n requries 4 transmit antennas, 4 receive antennas, and 4 spatial data streams. Thus, if your measurement device is inherently throttled by its WIFI radio, then it will limit the wireless performance you will see.

Even if you put Extremes on both ends, I would be surprised if you got the full throughput on a consistent basis. It all depends on what other wireless devices are in your area taking up channel space as well as what levels of interference exist that cause errors and limit data rates.

IMO, 802.11 wireless is an ok performing convenience, nothing more. I would never rely on it for high performance network throughput.

GirbaudJeans wrote:This might be very unhelpful information but here goes.

Upstairs bedroom has fiber coming in. Modem is connected to an Apple Airport Express and run throughout the house. It goes down into the theater and is connected to a switch and an Apple AirPort Extreme.

When I hardwire to the modem I get 343 Mbps down. When I connect to the airport express I get just shy of 80. I also get 80 when I connect to the switch and when I connect to the Extreme.

I don't know shit about the express or extreme but I do know I should be getting the same speeds as if I am wired to the modem. What is going on with the express that would make it only produce speeds around 79' 80 ?

Everything is brand new from the equipment to the wiring.

Need moar fiber. Add another apple product.

Code_Warrior wrote:I don't know much about Apple, but I looked up the specs for the Airport Express and it's WAN port is a 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet port.  So, with your airport express connected to your fiber modem through its 10/100 WAN port your connection is being throttled down to a maximum of 100Mb/s.  Combine that with an imperfect wireless connection and 80Mb/s seems fairly simple to explain.

On the other hand, the Airport Extreme has a 10/100/1000 Mb/s WAN port.  But you have that connected to your home theater system so it isn't doing any good since it's connected to a throttled AP.  If you want more than 100Mb/s, then you will need to connect the Extreme to the fiber modem and use the Extreme as the wireless AP.  At least then you won't be throttled by a low speed WAN port.

That being said, all of the Ethernet ports on the Express are 10/100 Mb/s.  So, if you use the Express with your Home Theater system, it will still be limited to 100Mb/s.  So, your only shot at getting more than 100Mb/s to your home theater system would be to have an Extreme on it as well.

I don't know what kind of device you are using to measure your wireless performance, but assuming that you have a normal laptop, chances are you aren't going to see high levels of performance anyway since the average 802.11n device only supports a couple of transmit and receive antennas and typically only 2 spatial data streams, whereas the maximum throughput of 802.11n requries 4 transmit antennas, 4 receive antennas, and 4 spatial data streams.  Thus, if your measurement device is inherently throttled by its WIFI radio, then it will limit the wireless performance you will see.

Even if you put Extremes on both ends, I would be surprised if you got the full throughput on a consistent basis.  It all depends on what other wireless devices are in your area taking up channel space as well as what levels of interference exist that cause errors and limit data rates.

IMO, 802.11 wireless is an ok performing convenience, nothing more.  I would never rely on it for high performance network throughput.

Appreciate the help. This whole time I assumed the express was capable of those speeds. Just a note all the speeds I reported were hard wired on a laptop using speedtest.net. I realize wirelessly I am not going to get those speeds. I think I am going to replace the express with another Extreme, that way I had great coverage and speed throughout the house.

Thanks