First World Problems

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
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Hagothsen
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Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 12:30 pm
Location: Henderson, NV USA

First World Problems

#1

Post by Hagothsen »

At the modem, speedtest.net measures 105 Mbps (Cox Cable). Directly out of the MX64, speedtest.net measures 103 Mbps. In a clerk's office, behind a cheap Monoprice switch, through a garbled patch panel, and easily 200 feet away, speedtest.net measures 101 Mbps. Standing 5 feet away from the MR33, plugged directly into the MX64 (7 ft cable), but for the Ubiquity POE injector, 48 Mbps. The same laptop was used for all tests. Now, I know that wired Ethernet is always faster than WiFi. I wasn't expecting a 50+ percent difference. Still, the new MX64s blow the doors off the old Cisco 881s.

My Stake Presidency is aggressively trying to establish a robust effort in family history work in our stake. Two nights ago, one of our wards held a Family HIstory Indexing workshop. With 28 laptops, all in varying stages of activity, I measured the same ~48 Mbps, and, got a lot of thumbs up from the leaders and many in attendance. Last night, a smaller familysearch.org workshop reported a less than ideal experience, despite the fact I had the same MR33 resting on the table in front of them. In this case, the MR33 was behind 200+ feet of cable, and the best measurement on speedtest.net was ~ 39 Mbps. I realize that indexing vs research on familyhistory.org are two drastically different things and the likely cause of any delay of the latter is server-side related and should be expected. I'll try and be there in person next Wednesday when they do it again.

Is the Meraki system throttling speed tests? I've read that one of the features included in the Meraki management is the ability to keep abusers from hogging bandwidth. I suspect this to be the case because despite measuring 48 Mbps, I couldn't stream a YouTube video in any quality over 360P (via WiFi) when I was the only person in the building. The Cisco 702s are no longer available in the church store. We've got more than a year until the full Meraki rollout is complete worldwide. I don't expect to see additional MR33s anytime soon. And even if/when we do get more, it's not going to improve WiFi speed, just coverage. I think it's time to tell everyone (including and especially myself),

"This is as good as it's going to get. It's better than most, just do the best you can."
russellhltn
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Re: First World Problems

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Hagothsen wrote:And even if/when we do get more, it's not going to improve WiFi speed, just coverage.
Not necessarily.

WiFi is a shared network bandwidth. But if you have two APs working on two different channels, then while that may not improve the speed for any one person, the shared bandwidth per channel will be split between two groups instead of one.

Also, at least on the 2.4GHz side, the entire network may be affected if a device that can only support an older standard shows up. I think the new Merakis support 5GHz where you're less likely to find old devices.
Hagothsen wrote:I couldn't stream a YouTube video in any quality over 360P (via WiFi) when I was the only person in the building.
And you could via wired? Normally you can't stream YouTube at all, but that restriction is turned off in the weeks surrounding General Conference.

I wouldn't expect the Meraki to limit the bandwidth that much if you're the only user.
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CalS201
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Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:59 pm
Location: Herriman, UT

Re: First World Problems

#3

Post by CalS201 »

Maximum wifi throughput is limited when just one client (older) PC in a group of PCs is operating in a lower bandwidth "mode" like A, B, G. Cisco has a speed testing procedure https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/wire ... -p/3143894 that may help you determine where the limitation is. Note the freeware pgm they use in step 8 (IPerf).
Hagothsen
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Location: Henderson, NV USA

Re: First World Problems

#4

Post by Hagothsen »

russellhltn wrote:And you could via wired? Normally you can't stream YouTube at all, but that restriction is turned off in the weeks surrounding General Conference.

I wouldn't expect the Meraki to limit the bandwidth that much if you're the only user.
Wired computers are at full speed, even on the other side of the building. That's why I was so puzzled as to the 50% loss in speed. The WiFi status window on my Windows 10 Laptop showed my connection speed to be north of 125 Mbps. I hope it's just the Meraki throttling individual users as part of its management.
CalS201 wrote:Maximum wifi throughput is limited when just one client (older) PC in a group of PCs is operating in a lower bandwidth "mode" like A, B, G. Cisco has a speed testing procedure https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/wire ... -p/3143894 that may help you determine where the limitation is. Note the freeware pgm they use in step 8 (IPerf).
Good Stuff! Thanks for the link, I'll try it out. If it were up to me, I'd eliminate A, B, and G.
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sirbryan
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Re: First World Problems

#5

Post by sirbryan »

I know this is an old thread, but here’s where your 48/39 results are coming from (most likely).

You can expect most WiFi radios to perform at about 50%-70% of RF speed. At 802.11g, the max RF speed is 54Mbps, making actual throughput 22-25Mbps. 802.11n max on 2.4 is 150, if that MCS mode is active. Typically, at home, my 802.11n 2.4 network maxes around 50Mbps, even with 250+ coming in.

On 5GHz, however, there is a lot more available, especially if wider channels are used. 802.11n on 5GHz can get up to 300Mbps over the air, with 150-200 actual throughput. I run 802.11ac at home, and within a few feet the radios run 867-1130Mbps on 5GHz with 80MHz-wide channels and are generally not the bottleneck.

As already mentioned, other users, interference from other AP’s, and server factors can change the expected results. There is a serious issue though (interference or congestion) if you only 2-3Mbps.
oscope1
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Re: First World Problems

#6

Post by oscope1 »

In one building in my Stake I measured 20Mbps one 1041 AP and 40 Mbps on another 1041 AP The ISP provides ( measured 96 Mbps) On a wired connection. I hope this helps. The thing I find interesting is that Meraki rates the MX64 at 50 users. and some say that it will throttle all reduce the speed when you go over the 50 users . Take a look at http://www.meraki.com and take a look at the specs on the MX64
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