Strange WiFi Issue - Suggestions Welcome

[ryanallan]

I recently purchased the Asus PCE-AC68 WiFi adapter for my PC thinking the WiFi AC speeds would be at least double those of my exiting 2.4GHz network. That did not pan out. I'm thinking there is a hardware compatibility issue between the WiFi card and my motherboard.

Has anyone seen something like this before?

When on the AC network:
I have my computer sitting directly next to the router
Computer shows the AC link at it's highest ratting of 1300mbps
Computer shows the signal strength at a strong -30db
So far so good,
Now I try to transfer a large file from my PC to my NAS (which is wired to the router), the throughput fluctuates between 2MB/s and 20MB/s, I was expecting a consistant throughput of at least 40MB/s like most of the reviews show.
When i hard wire my computer to the router I can write to the NAS at 50MB/s.
When I connect to my network on the 2.4GHz band I get a constant 18MB/s write speed to the NAS.

So the 2.4GHz side is fine,
Distance and line of sight are not a problem,
I've replaced the WiFi card once already,
My router is AC compatible,

Help diagnosing the issue is welcome!

[Mitsu3000gt]

Is your NAS a USB 2.0 external hard drive? It will only ever be as fast as the weakest link. It doesn't matter how fast the data transfers between your PC and router if the router can only write at USB 2.0 speeds, for example.

Also the AC68 is known for having very slow USB 3.0 speeds, if you're using the USB port on the router itself to connect your NAS, that is probably why.

[firebane]

Most USB ports on a router aren't good enough to really sustain large transfers. I have a few and they all suffer horribly.

I've mentioned it before but if your curious about signal strength and other wifi issues look at a program called inSSDer.

[01RedDX]

.

[pheoxs]

If you have another computer try hardwiring the other computer to the router and transfering to that. Hard to say if its the NAS or if its actually the AC connection. Could be transfering too much and then the NAS is getting overwhelmed and lagging a bit.

My analogy would be think of filling oil in a car. If you get just the right speed is pours right in nice and quick. If you pour too fast, the funnel fills up then you have to slow down and play catch up.

[ryanallan]

The NAS is connected to the router via Ethernet.

Transfer speeds:
Computer ----- cat5e ------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = 50 MB/s
Computer ----- 2.4GHz ------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = 18 MB/s
Computer ----- 5.1GHz------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = fluctuating between 2 and 20 MB/s

Because of this, I think the issue is not the NAS, but the connection medium.

I'll have to double check my router setting tonight, but they are the default settings.

I've used a wifi snooping program and am the only 5GHz network on my street, so shouldn't be an interference problem. Also the router is directly next to the computer.

I guess I'm confused at why 5GHz the link rate says 1300mbps but I get the same throughput as the 2.4GHz side when its link rate only says 300mbps.

[firebane]

Is the NAS capable of properly running on the 5ghz band? If not that could be your issue. Or perhaps the NAS is getting bottlenecked by the 5ghz band and that is the fluctuations you are seeing.

[jacky4566]

Very strange. firebane the wireless method is not interfacing with the NAS so that shouldnt be a problem.

First suggestion is to update to cat 6a :rofl:

But there may be other devices on the 5ghz frequency messing with it.
Do you have 5ghz wireless phones?

[ryanallan]

No home phones, nothing around that could be causing interference on the 5GHz band. It must be a hardware issue somewhere.
I'm going to try playing around with PCI ports.

[thetransporter]

I find that many versions of the new standards still do not work well together.

Try changing bandwidth to 40ghz in the AP
disable proprietary options (speedboost, etc)


I do have the ASUS version - even in 5ghz there is latency and slowness, but using a different manufacture solved all issues. Why I do not know.

[ryanallan]

Thanks for the suggestion.

The issue was my NAS.

I tried transferring the same file to another computer on my LAN and saw the fast transfer speeds that are advertised.

Transfer speeds now look like this:
Computer ----- cat5e ------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = 50 MB/s
Computer ----- 2.4GHz ------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = 18 MB/s

Computer ----- 5.1GHz------ router ------ cat5e ------ NAS = fluctuating between 2 and 20 MB/s
Computer ----- 5.1GHz------ router ------ cat5e ------ random computer on LAN = 70 MB/s