Drastic speed drop - PC ethernet to Wifi

powerful_Rogue

I'm with Virgin Media and had a Hub 3 that was connected to a Tenda Nova MW6. Next to my PC which is in the same room I had a Tenda Nova MW5 which the PC connected to via ethernet. (PC has no WiFi built in). Im on VM200 and easily got this speed.

I puchased a TP-Link AC600 (Archer T2U Nano) WiFi dongle. With that plugged into the PC and just using the new Virgin Media Hub 5 Wifi, I'm lucky to get a speed of 20mb. However sitting at the PC and doing a speed test on my phone, i'm getting the full 200mb.

I've had a play around with the settings, but not much joy, as it will then just say 'No Interent'. Turning off 'VHT 2.4G IOT' increased the speed from 2mb to 20mb!

Any tips at all?!

debitcardmayhem

Where is the Virgin Hub? Why don't you use the Tenda wireless ? Bit confusing to be honest if the tenda is in the same room is the phone using the Tenda wireless ? More info is needed to be able to give tips

powerful_Rogue

debitcardmayhem said:

Where is the Virgin Hub? Why don't you use the Tenda wireless ? Bit confusing to be honest if the tenda is in the same room is the phone using the Tenda wireless ? More info is needed to be able to give tips

Virgin hub is about 6m away in the same room. I'm currently trialling the Hub 5, so not allowed to use the Tenda wireless.

Everything seems in order, but there is clearly something stopping the WiFi dongle from getting a better speed.

debitcardmayhem

Head scratching time for me, that suggests it is connecting at 433.3 Mbps!!!

My windows PC is currently being re-built but I will borrow the wife's PC so I can check a few things soon.

debitcardmayhem

Oh what does wireless mode say ?

debitcardmayhem

debitcardmayhem said:

Oh what does wireless mode say ?

moot point that question , the last screen shot says ac so that should answer that.

[Deleted User]

Why don't you just use your Tenda Nova MW5 in bridge mode?

Exactly the same as plugging in a Wifi adapter to the PC - it won't invalidate your trial.

powerful_Rogue

Unable to use bridge mode and also not permitted to use any mesh system! Seems like it's a common issue with slow speeds with the T2u Nano. Might have to give something else a try.

[Deleted User]

powerful_Rogue said:

Unable to use bridge mode and also not permitted to use any mesh system!

You have misunderstood me. You don't need to put the Virgin Hub 5 in bridge mode.

I'm talking about the Tenda Nova MW5 going into bridge mode only.

It isn't a mesh system in bridge mode, it acts exactly the same as your USB wifi adapter - except it is at the end of an ethernet wire instead of a USB - it will act precisely like a wifi adaptor.

Put the MW5 back exactly as it was, ethernet connection to the PC, activate bridge mode on the MW5 and it will work as a wifi adapter. Don't need to connect the MW6 at all.

Then connect the MW5 to the VM Hub exactly like any other wifi device / adaptor. Bridge refers to bridging wifi to ethernet in this case, that's all.

Money saving option - no cost - use existing equipment and it will be fast.

powerful_Rogue

Deleted_User said:

powerful_Rogue said:

Unable to use bridge mode and also not permitted to use any mesh system!

You have misunderstood me. You don't need to put the Virgin Hub 5 in bridge mode.

I'm talking about the Tenda Nova MW5 going into bridge mode only.

It isn't a mesh system in bridge mode, it acts exactly the same as your USB wifi adapter - except it is at the end of an ethernet wire instead of a USB - it will act precisely like a wifi adaptor.

Put the MW5 back exactly as it was, ethernet connection to the PC, activate bridge mode on the MW5 and it will work as a wifi adapter. Don't need to connect the MW6 at all.

Then connect the MW5 to the VM Hub exactly like any other wifi device / adaptor. Bridge refers to bridging wifi to ethernet in this case, that's all.

Money saving option - no cost - use existing equipment and it will be fast.

Many thanks for that. I've given it a go and still only getting 20MB. MW6 is unplugged and not connected to anything. MW5 plugged back in and connected via ethernet cable to the PC.

I did notice when I was using the Wifi on the PC, it showed a '2' after the SSID - as in the pic below. Didn't know if this meant it was connecting to something else with the same SSID, so changed the name of the Tenda Nova SSID placing the word old after it.

PC still managed to connect via the MW5 despite this change, however for the wired connection it shows the original SSID of the Hub 5. (I changed it to the SSID of the hub 3 so I didn't have to alter every device.)

This is what I have in the Nova app.

AstonSmith

powerful_Rogue said:

Seems like it's a common issue with slow speeds with the T2u Nano. Might have to give something else a try.

I agree. I've personally found tiny WiFi dongles (in general) to be rather poor in both performance and ability to maintain a connection to the access point/router. I don't think they have enough physical space for a good antenna configuration, nor space for the advanced chippery required for noise rejection etc.

Alfa manufacture dongles with external antennae, and I have found them to work very well. It might be overkill considering you're in the same room though, so as a rule of thumb, any dongle that's about the size of a USB pen drive will probably work better than the nano-thing.