Asus RT-AC66U B1 wifi speeds vs WIRED speeds with NEW Modem and New Plan (Spectrum 1GB)

[97tbird]

So I upgraded from Spectrum 500Mbps service plan to 1GB service. Set up the new modem today.
WIRED (laptop connected direct to modem via ethernet cable) the speeds measure around 905 Mbps. Fine. Upload 40 Mbps. Fine,

However, WIFI speeds are wonky. Measured with laptop and iphone 12 Ookla app, speeds only show around 350-400 Mbps.
-Weird thing is, when I had the 500 Mbps service, the Ookla app showed 500-550 Mbps or so consistently. Now the wifi speeds don't even reach 500 Mbps.

Why the drop in MEASURED wifi speed suddenly? It's a gigabit capable router. I did have to make the router "detect" the connection again with the new modem, and had to reboot the modem while it detected the new modem. The settings on the router are still the same as before for 2.5 and 5Ghz wifi networks.

UPLOAD speeds do match theoretical speeds. (40 Mbps)

Also weird: when i use the phone or laptop over WIFI it IS definitely faster, i can just see it, as I know how fast certain websites load usually. Everything loads WAY faster than before for sure. (laptops AND phone). Also the FireTV Cube which I have hardwired to the ROUTER, shows an improvement in loading 4K movies and GUI of the Fire TV.

So why doesn't/can't it MEASURE the new/faster wifi speed? and why does it MEASURE even slower wifi speeds than before?

(all of above relate to the 5GHz channel of router)

Should I do a factory reset of the router?

Thanks IA

 

[tmorris1]

So I upgraded from Spectrum 500Mbps service plan to 1GB service. Set up the new modem today.
WIRED (laptop connected direct to modem via ethernet cable) the speeds measure around 905 Mbps. Fine. Upload 40 Mbps. Fine,

However, WIFI speeds are wonky. Measured with laptop and iphone 12 Ookla app, speeds only show around 350-400 Mbps.
-Weird thing is, when I had the 500 Mbps service, the Ookla app showed 500-550 Mbps or so consistently. Now the wifi speeds don't even reach 500 Mbps.

Why the drop in MEASURED wifi speed suddenly? It's a gigabit capable router. I did have to make the router "detect" the connection again with the new modem, and had to reboot the modem while it detected the new modem. The settings on the router are still the same as before for 2.5 and 5Ghz wifi networks.

UPLOAD speeds do match theoretical speeds. (40 Mbps)

Also weird: when i use the phone or laptop over WIFI it IS definitely faster, i can just see it, as I know how fast certain websites load usually. Everything loads WAY faster than before for sure. (laptops AND phone). Also the FireTV Cube which I have hardwired to the ROUTER, shows an improvement in loading 4K movies and GUI of the Fire TV.

So why doesn't/can't it MEASURE the new/faster wifi speed? and why does it MEASURE even slower wifi speeds than before?

(all of above relate to the 5GHz channel of router)

Should I do a factory reset of the router?

Thanks IA

Is it consistently slower no matter what time of day? You could have some interference at the time of your testing maybe?

 

[TheOilWizard]

Bypass Wifi all together to get a baseline for the router. Plug directly into router and verify you are getting full bandwidth. You already said you are getting full bandwidth on the modem.

Past that, make sure you are getting on 5GHz and not 2.4.

 

[ripcord]

Is wifi included in the modem? Make sure that the wifi is not set to the minimum channel widths and at least wifi 5 is enabled on all devices.

 

[Quattro Pete]

I'm afraid 450-500 Mbps is about the best you can expect from this router over wifi, under ideal conditions.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...band-wireless-ac1750-gigabit-router-reviewed/

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/asus-rt-ac66u-b1-dual-band-gigabit-wi-fi-router

 

[JohnnyG]

And there you go. ^
The only other thing I can suggest is whether your Iphone or laptop is using WiFi6 protocol. I have the same issues, but a much older (Linksys 1900 AC secondary) WiFi router. This modem is not wifi6 capable, but I use it for guests and low demand devices.
None of my tested speeds actually meet the "advertised" Optical speed, but all of them can work at the same time at the speeds they are capable of.

 

[Hall]

I HAD an Asus RT-66 router before Spectrum auto-upgraded us from 300 Mbs to 500 Mbs. It's not capable of supporting 500 Mbs speeds, let alone 1Gbs. Replace your router.

 

[wwillson]

It's unclear whether you replaced the WiFi device. Is this the same WiFi router/AP you had before or is the WiFi router/AP new?

End to end throughput is a very complex subject. Let's get your WiFi environment set up correctly first.

 

[Quattro Pete]

and why does it MEASURE even slower wifi speeds than before?

This could just be a result of testing in non-ideal conditions, such as the testing server being overloaded or some other device accessing the router at the same time, or your test device doing something in the background. Redo the test a few more times at different times of day, and make sure nothing else is hogging up your router's resources while you test.

 

[Quattro Pete]

It's unclear whether you replaced the WiFi device. Is this the same WiFi router/AP you had before or is the WiFi router/AP new?

Given that he wrote "The settings on the router are still the same as before for 2.5 and 5Ghz wifi networks." I'm taking this to mean that he is still using the same router (Asus). He only got a new cable modem.

 

[97prizm]

So I upgraded from Spectrum 500Mbps service plan to 1GB service. Set up the new modem today.
WIRED (laptop connected direct to modem via ethernet cable) the speeds measure around 905 Mbps. Fine. Upload 40 Mbps. Fine,

However, WIFI speeds are wonky. Measured with laptop and iphone 12 Ookla app, speeds only show around 350-400 Mbps.
-Weird thing is, when I had the 500 Mbps service, the Ookla app showed 500-550 Mbps or so consistently. Now the wifi speeds don't even reach 500 Mbps.

Why the drop in MEASURED wifi speed suddenly? It's a gigabit capable router. I did have to make the router "detect" the connection again with the new modem, and had to reboot the modem while it detected the new modem. The settings on the router are still the same as before for 2.5 and 5Ghz wifi networks.

UPLOAD speeds do match theoretical speeds. (40 Mbps)

Also weird: when i use the phone or laptop over WIFI it IS definitely faster, i can just see it, as I know how fast certain websites load usually. Everything loads WAY faster than before for sure. (laptops AND phone). Also the FireTV Cube which I have hardwired to the ROUTER, shows an improvement in loading 4K movies and GUI of the Fire TV.

So why doesn't/can't it MEASURE the new/faster wifi speed? and why does it MEASURE even slower wifi speeds than before?

(all of above relate to the 5GHz channel of router)

Should I do a factory reset of the router?

Thanks IA

Don't reset the modem. Go in an look for a software update first.

 

[Analog-1]

About 500 MBPS is all you will get with wifi 5 routers using wireless. Not to mention your AC66 is listed as End Of Life by Asus and should be replaced.

 

[Rand]

Don't reset the modem. Go in an look for a software update first.

how do you suggest he do that?

Also how would that speed up his wireless which is on an EOL Asus router..
when he is getting full speed wired.

Critical Thinking People!!!

 

[OVERKILL]

I'm afraid 450-500 Mbps is about the best you can expect from this router over wifi, under ideal conditions.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...band-wireless-ac1750-gigabit-router-reviewed/

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/asus-rt-ac66u-b1-dual-band-gigabit-wi-fi-router

This post is pretty much /thread.

Always wise to make sure you have the latest firmware, which appears to be November 13th, 2024:
https://www.asus.com/networking-iot...ac66u-b1/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=RT-AC66U-B1

(assuming this is B1 hardware).

The unit is 6 years old (first firmware release is 2018), I'm surprised it's performing as well as it is.

 

[Hall]

Always wise to make sure you have the latest firmware, which appears to be November 13th, 2024:

I had the same router running Merlin f/w. It's simply not capable of the OP's paid-for speeds. I went from 300 Mbs to 500 Mbs and couldn't break 400-425 Mbs on speed tests with that router.

 

[DemoFly]

You have a pretty slow router. For those that don't know, the speed rating of a router is the theoretical link-rate sum of both bands.

It is not a gigabit capable wireless router. It's a wireless router with a gigabit switch, so you'll get gigabit speed over wired WAN/LAN.

If upgrading and want great value, I recommend Dynalink DL-WRX36. Tried and true off-the-shelf qualcomm chipset with a skinned OpenWRT firmware. No BS.

 

[97tbird]

Thanks for ALL the replies. Excellent info. I will probably upgrade, but very confused why the speed DROPPED compared to before. I understand now (after reading an excellent reply above) that the router cannot do more than 500 Mbps over wifi BUT how did it do 500-550 BEFORE the new modem (even if it's at EOL)? I am not worried about the actual speeds, per say but I don't understand how it suddenly got WORSE with the new modem.

Some clarifications if my OP was unclear:

-I will test the hard-wired to router speeds to check what speeds i am getting. So far I only hard wired to the modem.
-ONLY change is the new modem (and the new 1 GB plan)
- WIFI Speeds were BETTER, BEFORE the new modem and upgrade of plan (from 500 Mb to 1Gb). That's my biggest confusion. With the 500 plan, iphone ookla app measured 500-550 Mbps. And now only around 350-400. Why the SLOWER speeds with faster plan? (as I already said MODEM is fine and performs as advertised when connected directly to laptop, with speeds 950-990 Mbps)
- I measured the 5Ghz channel, as I always do, and have done a dozen tests. Nothing changed in this regard.
- Router has the latest FW
- Yes, iphone12 does use wifi6 protocol ... but again, it did before the new modem, too...

 

[DemoFly]

Thanks for ALL the replies. Excellent info. I will probably upgrade, but very confused why the speed DROPPED compared to before. I understand now (after reading an excellent reply above) that the router cannot do more than 500 Mbps over wifi BUT how did it do 500-550 BEFORE the new modem (even if it's at EOL)? I am not worried about the actual speeds, per say but I don't understand how it suddenly got WORSE with the new modem.

Some clarifications if my OP was unclear:

-I will test the hard-wired to router speeds to check what speeds i am getting. So far I only hard wired to the modem.
-ONLY change is the new modem (and the new 1 GB plan)
- WIFI Speeds were BETTER, BEFORE the new modem and upgrade of plan (from 500 Mb to 1Gb). That's my biggest confusion. With the 500 plan, iphone ookla app measured 500-550 Mbps. And now only around 350-400. Why the SLOWER speeds with faster plan? (as I already said MODEM is fine and performs as advertised when connected directly to laptop, with speeds 950-990 Mbps)
- I measured the 5Ghz channel, as I always do, and have done a dozen tests. Nothing changed in this regard.
- Router has the latest FW
- Yes, iphone12 does use wifi6 protocol ... but again, it did before the new modem, too...

https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

Start here. Lots of variables. Speedtest results are always dubious. It's pretty suspicious your previous wifi speeds measured higher than most reviewers were able to achieve on transfers over LAN.

 

[ripcord]

Frankly, unless you've got lots of simultaneous users on your Wi-Fi network, you are way past the point of diminishing returns with your Internet speeds. There are very few things on the Internet that will serve you content faster than 350 MB unless you are constantly downloading huge files.

 

[97prizm]

how do you suggest he do that?

Also how would that speed up his wireless which is on an EOL Asus router..
when he is getting full speed wired.

Critical Thinking People!!!

Go into the router settings and click on look for software updates. I did this with my Netgear and TPLink routers.