Poor Speed Performance on Wifi vs LAN on WRT1200AC - Advice?

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americanninja
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Joined: 24 Dec 2016
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PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2017 2:25    Post subject: Poor Speed Performance on Wifi vs LAN on WRT1200AC - Advice? Reply with quote
I have a WRT1200AC v2 Linksys router running the latest version I could get my hands on of the Kong build of DD-wrt (Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r31049M kongmv (12/30/16)).

I have it setup with OpenVPN running through PIA's service. It's the best performing router I have used. When conducting the speedtest.net test through my Apple TV app (the apple tv is behind this VPN enabled router), I get speed test results of 121ms / 60.30Mbps down / 47.83Mbps up)

However, when I connect to either the 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz Wifi on this router, I get a speedtest.net test result of 120ms / 9.85Mbps down / 24.34Mbps up.

Any idea why there is a huge discrepancy between these tests? Is it because the router has to do more CPU work when transferring data over the WIFI and doing the VPN encryption at the same time? Is this effecting it? Is there something I can change/modify to get improved speeds while connected to WIFI?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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ATHF
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PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2017 7:02    Post subject: Re: Poor Speed Performance on Wifi vs LAN on WRT1200AC - Adv Reply with quote
americanninja wrote:

Any idea why there is a huge discrepancy between these tests? Is it because the router has to do more CPU work when transferring data over the WIFI and doing the VPN encryption at the same time? Is this effecting it? Is there something I can change/modify to get improved speeds while connected to WIFI?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


If it were a CPU bottleneck, you could just check the DD-WRT main page while doing the speedtest or whatever you are doing, it's probably not that anyway.
What are your wireless settings, channel, width, mode etc?

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WRT Installation,Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes
r52242: WRT3200ACM, WRT1200ACv1 & 1 Velop in bridge mode(IoT subnet), r52242 WRT1900ACv1 AP
Velop:2 WHW0101, RE6500, RE9000(AP)
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americanninja
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PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 0:51    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for the reply. Yes, definitely not a CPU bottleneck issue. Even with the speedtest.net test running and Apple TV streaming a TV program at the same time behind the VPN, the CPU only gets to around 3-5%.

Wireless settings are as follows:
network mode: mixed
channel width: Full 20mhz
channel: 36 5180Mhz

The reason I specify the channel, is because it was behaving strangely if I had it set to auto. The wifi SSID would not show up on my laptops and devices, as if it wasn't broadcasting. I found other people having this issue and they said they had to specific something in the lower channel ranges to get things to work, which appeared to be correct.

Any ideas?
ATHF
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PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 3:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you have all new equipment that is AC capable, change the network mode to AC Only, if you have N devices also, switch it to AC/N, hit save.
Switch the width to 80, hit save, it should have a new drop-down that should already say upper.

I know you are using channel 36, lower channels have a lower TX power due to regulations. You can try the same settings using channel 149, upper or 161 lower, see if it works that way.

I do have Kong's last release for the 1900AC v2, 1/8/17 if you would like to try that to see if the upper channels work on it.

See if that helps

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Tutorial for flashing WRT series
WRT Installation,Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes
r52242: WRT3200ACM, WRT1200ACv1 & 1 Velop in bridge mode(IoT subnet), r52242 WRT1900ACv1 AP
Velop:2 WHW0101, RE6500, RE9000(AP)
Spectrum - 1000/50
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americanninja
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Joined: 24 Dec 2016
Posts: 32

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 4:09    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks ATHF! I will try your recommendations when I get home.

And yes, I'd love to try the new KONG build, but I can't seem to find them anywhere on his FTP server. I have the Wrt1200ac v2. Is your wrt1900 firmware compatible? I have read that they are very similar hardware.
ATHF
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Joined: 14 Dec 2015
Posts: 774
Location: 127.0.0.1

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 4:21    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yeah I started saving all of Kong's WRT1x00 firmwares towards the end, in case someone needed them. Although someone found a link for his last one if you want to get it there instead http://source.wifihell.com/3-DD-WRT-KONG/K3-AC-MVEBU/
_________________
Tutorial for flashing WRT series
WRT Installation,Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes
r52242: WRT3200ACM, WRT1200ACv1 & 1 Velop in bridge mode(IoT subnet), r52242 WRT1900ACv1 AP
Velop:2 WHW0101, RE6500, RE9000(AP)
Spectrum - 1000/50
SysLog Watcher 5, New security Onion box coming soon, Fingboxes, PiHoles, NEMS, Cacti, rpisurv
myersw
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PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 12:41    Post subject: Reply with quote
My experience with Brainslayer builds on both my wrt1900acs and wrt3200acm is the 5GHz is not visible at first if you set it to high channels as the first config. If I then set it to 36 and save will start working and then I can set it to 149, which is what I use without issue. His builds have been like that for sometime for me.
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vit5421
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Joined: 12 Nov 2015
Posts: 413

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 13:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
The http://source.wifihell.com/3-DD-WRT-KONG/K3-AC-MVEBU/ are very old builds from Jan of 2016 with plenty of wireless Marvel bugs. You can use the ddwrt-to-factory files if need it from there.
Please use the latest BS build from ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas and it works great for 1200 and 1900 series with proper configuration and clean wifi enviroment.
I had the same problem with BS build originally with 5ghz and Keep Alive and changed the setting back and forth
americanninja
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Joined: 24 Dec 2016
Posts: 32

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 15:18    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks everyone!

Well, I made the adjustments you mentioned, but unfortunately on the build I am running (: DD-WRT v3.0-r31049M kongmv (12/30/16)), I can't get the 5ghz to work on any of the channels over than 36.

I literally tried changing and applying each channel starting from 165 and go through the list. 165, 161, 149, 144, 132, 128, 120). And for some reason I cannot connect and the 5ghz SSID is not coming up for my Macbook Pro 2012 retina model (which does not support AC. Just g/b/n).

Some of those channel settings, I can see it from my iphone 7 and I can connect, but some channels, the SSID doesn't even show for the iphone.

So I have had to put it back to wireless channel 36.

What will be limited by using channel 36? Why do I want to use the higher channels?

I originally had flashed BS build (the latest) and I was getting issues with the WIFI 5Ghz and also I was getting very poor speeds when connected via the PIA openVPN. For some reason when I flashed this version of Kong build. The VPN speeds were much better.

Since this router has two firmware slots, maybe I should try to flash it again with the latest BS firmware and give it a test again. You are using which version of BS for your 1200AC v2?

Thanks!
americanninja
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Joined: 24 Dec 2016
Posts: 32

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 15:26    Post subject: Reply with quote
btw, I had to change it back to Full 20Mhz mode from the 80mhz. The reason being my speed test results dropped to 5-7Mbps for the Up and down. Once I changed back to 20Mhz, I was getting around 15-20 down and 15up.

Not sure why, but it seems to like being set on 20mhz
ATHF
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Joined: 14 Dec 2015
Posts: 774
Location: 127.0.0.1

PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 9:22    Post subject: Reply with quote
All I can say is try a new build from BS, I have read a few posts about your Macbook and only being able to use lower 5 Ghz channels.
_________________
Tutorial for flashing WRT series
WRT Installation,Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes
r52242: WRT3200ACM, WRT1200ACv1 & 1 Velop in bridge mode(IoT subnet), r52242 WRT1900ACv1 AP
Velop:2 WHW0101, RE6500, RE9000(AP)
Spectrum - 1000/50
SysLog Watcher 5, New security Onion box coming soon, Fingboxes, PiHoles, NEMS, Cacti, rpisurv
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