Google Wifi and internet speed

Joined
Jul 11, 2015
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Location
New England
Hi,

Xfinity just increased my internet speed in home from around 400->600 Mbps. A speed test within google wifi router shows 525 great!

If I connect to the google wifi mesh router that is connected to Cable modem directly I achieve roughly nearly 500Mbps via speedtest. If I do a speed test on same iPhone connected to another mesh router it only does 364Mbps.

I have an $80 16 port switch that is 1Gbit compatible and I think Cat 5e wiring. The backhaul between google mesh routers is running hardwired over this network.

I just tested a wire directly to 2nd mesh router and my computer and found the speed to be nearly 500 Mbps wired vs 364 Mbps wifi. So I imagine there is some slowness happening in the mesh routers? Is this normal?
 
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WiFi throughput is highly subject to many variables. 364Mb/s is probably darn good for your setup. I use bonded 5Ghz (VHT80) and can get up to 700Mb/s throughput about 2 feet from the access point. Move away from the AP and the throughput rapidly goes down. If you download two simultaneous session, you won't get an aggregate of 700Mb/s, instead both slow way down as congestion kills WiFi throughput. Cellular protocols are much better at handling congestion, not that any of us can use private cellular at home :)
 
Short answer: YES.

Depends on which component is the bottleneck.
Sounds like may be the Wifi Mesh is the bottleneck.

In the grand scheme of things, you probably will not feel the slowdown unless you are transferring big files computer to computer that is in the opposite sides of your dwelling.
 
Depends on the distance and reception, mesh by itself uses 1/2 the bandwidth to repeat things between 2 places. So your 525mbps bandwidth to internet would requires at least 1050mbps on wireless bandwidth to go between your phone to your mesh then to your main router / cable modem.

Also don't forget most people use mesh because one router won't reach from one end to the other, so most likely you will have some loss wireless strength and the code rate has to reduce to compensate for that already.
 
this ignores some basic options such as Tri band mesh but otherwise pretty spot on.
in network wifi latency is usually around 1-10ms
it doesnt double the overall latency of traffic to a website for example.

For mobile devices you will never really notice 375Mbit vs 600 mbit.. i'd leave it alone and not chase speed.
 
Depends on the distance and reception, mesh by itself uses 1/2 the bandwidth to repeat things between 2 places. So your 525mbps bandwidth to internet would requires at least 1050mbps on wireless bandwidth to go between your phone to your mesh then to your main router / cable modem.

Also don't forget most people use mesh because one router won't reach from one end to the other, so most likely you will have some loss wireless strength and the code rate has to reduce to compensate for that already.

For mesh nodes running in a wireless setup this would be true. I think in this case he has the mesh nodes set up with wired backhaul (Cat5e) so the loss should be negligible.
 
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