Tx Rate low and all over the place

C

CaseyJones

Young grasshopper
Sep 28, 2020
40
12
Live Oak, FL
Anyone have an ideas or suggestions on why my Tx Rate would be so slow and ranging wildly even when accessing the same WiFi network, same 2.4Ghz band from the same location on the same device?

I'm connected to the 2.4Ghz band, I'm too far away from the WiFi router to connect to the 5Ghz band. Other devices will connect just fine and while I don't know their Tx Rate their WiFi speeds are completely adequate (Android Phone, Android Tablet, Samsung Smart TV). Using a WiFi analyzer I can see that all neighboring networks are broadcasting on different channels. There is an Arlo WiFi network operating on the same channel as my WiFi, but it mirrors the WiFi router so if I change the channel in my WiFi router it will change as well. Once I complete my BI setup and PoE wiring, weather permitting should be by next week, then I won't need the Arlo router. There is also another smart device broadcasting a hidden network on the same channel located in the (dead spot) room. I looked into it and you can not change the channel or turn off the hidden network of the smart device and it needs to stay where it's at. But neither of these should explain why other devices are getting a solid connection.

Also the Tx Rate varies wildly during the day. Sometimes the Tx Rate will be extremely low (1, 5, 7 Mbps) and other times it will range from ~30-70Mbps. Currently the Tx Rate is 39 Mbps with an RSSI -69 dBm and noise -96 dBm and I'm getting around 10 Mbps download according to Speedtest.net. The WiFi analyzer shows constant decent signal strength of ~50%. At the Router I'm getting 120 Mbps wired to the ISP Modem.

If I'm right beside the router I get much faster speeds, I haven't sat connected right next the router long enough to see if the Tx Rate varies. Is the problem simply distance between the device and router? The other devices don't seem to have a problem and is signal strength that low (~50%)? My plan is to add a wired WiFi access point closer to the location we spend most of our time when I run the cables for the PoE cams.
 
Wi-fi is an interesting animal. You haven't given a lot of info about what your setup is but that aside, there are a ton of reasons for poor wi-fi performance. Keep in mind also, that your wi-fi performance will typically continue to drop as you add more wi-fi devices to the network and your wi-fi is typically only as fast as your slowest wi-fi client. If you are looking into a new wi-fi system, checkout Cross Talk Solutions on Youtube. He has a ton of networking videos and videos on the Unifi system from Ubiquiti. You will have to be a bit of a student because there are tons of options, settings, antennas, placement, channel width etc. that all need to be addressed so, you are going to need to do a bit of learning in order to get a good performing setup. There's a good chance that an "out of box" Ubiquiti setup - set to "auto everything" will most likely outperform what you have now. Good luck in your endeavors - I'm sure there are many helpful folks on the forum that can help guide you down the path. One more thing, when it comes to cameras, go wired and not wireless.
 
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A complete network diagram with Make and model numbers and the local IP addresses. For wifi devices distant and obstructions to the router/access point

I did a wifi test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a wifi analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate SSID and access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability.
The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
As a side note, it is very easy to jam a wifi network. Wifi is find for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.
 
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2.4 doesn’t have very many options Chanel wise. Channel 1, 6, and 11 are the only real usable channels because the way everything overlaps. Make sure you don’t have it set to on 40mhz because you will just cause more interference in your environment. Keep in mind that regardless of how strong your router or access point is that it will still only be as good as what the client can send back. So super powerful WiFi really isn’t great since it can’t hear the clients that are far away.

2.4g sucks plain and simple. Very few channels, they all overlap, and way to much stuff uses 2.4g.


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I tried various settings and options; I turned MuMimo on and off no real change, I disabled 20/40Mhz coexistence and no change, I turned off Beamforming and no real change, I turned off Bluetooth on the laptop and no real change, I turned off bluetooth on my phone in my pocket and no real change.

After switching all these on an off one by one and testing and retesting, I lowered transmit power from 100% to 75% and that seems to have helped a little. Didn't exactly increase performance to blazing speeds. But it did make it to where I could refresh a page and it not take minutes.
 
Your problem is most likely distance, interference, and saturation. Cameras are uploading nonstop. Your WiFi is half duplex and even with say a decent mu-Mimo the 2.4 usually at best can support 2 streams. So anything else on the 2.4 as soon as things start wanting to transmit your router has to basically deal out the packets like a dealer dealing cards. Most clients and casual users won’t notice it as much. But when you have a constant stream that is already being strained at the limits that client will suffer.


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CaseyJones said:
The RSSI is also wildly fluctuates, it's around -66 dMb when the connection isn't that bad, and -80 when it's really bad.
Click to expand...

Well yeah. That is due to a poor 2.4g environment. Most likely do to obstructions, distance, interference and competing signals.


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