Slower speeds over WIFI AP (Netgear WAX214v2)

[alans]

Hi there! First time poster coming in hot with a potentially nooby question.

I've recently just got into homelabbing, and therefore OPNsense. I'm running OPNSense baremetal on a Lenovo Thinkcentre M93q (Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570T CPU @ 2.90GHz (2 cores, 4 threads) + 8GB Ram) which seems to run around 5% CPU usage when using the web, so the hardware feels fine.

I've basically left the configuration as default on OPNSense as not to mess around too much, but have disabled IPv6 on WAN due to my ISP having issues with this protocol: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=23682.0. I did try these tests with and without it enabled and it didn't affect speeds. The only other thing I changed is the Netgear AP web UI is running with a static IP, just seemed easier to manage, but again it was using DCHP to no avail.

I have gigabit speeds on all my equipment, from the ISP, to the lenovo, to the switch, to the AP. Here are the speeds connected to the router directly:



The speeds connected over LAN through the switch:



Finally, the speeds using the WIFI:



Here's a quick list of things I've tried:

• Updating OPNSense to latest firmware
• Updating AP Firmware
• Trying to connect over LAN/Direct to router (which gives me better speeds, like above)
• Static/DCHP settings on AP Web GUI
• Making sure I'm on 5GHz WIFI
• Using two different devices and getting the same issues
• Previously, before setting up my own router, the provided one from the ISP and connecting to WIFI gave me around 700

Future thanks for any and all help. This might be a more NetGear issue vs OPNSense but thought I'd try here first given the community seems friendlier.

EDIT:
Forgot, it shouldn't matter (I don't think), but here is the topology. Right now the phone connected to the WIFI is my computer but everything remains the same. The proxmox servers are all idle with nothing on them, sorting this one out first before the others.

[Monviech (Cedrik)]

It depends on your access point and on your phone.

Theoretically for 802.11ac connection between phone and access point, when both access point and phone have 1 antenna:
- 433 Mbps per spatial stream on a 80 MHz channel with 256-QAM.
- You can easily reduce 30-40% from that theoretical level and then you come to the real world performance of around ~300 Mbps.

Theoretically for 802.11ax connection between phone and access point, when both access point and phone have 1 antenna:
- 600 Mbps per spatial stream on an 80 MHz channel with 1024-QAM
- Reducing that by around 30-40% from that theoretical level and then you come to the real world performance of around ~400 Mbps.

The only way to get more speed is if your access point AND your phone have multiple antennas, so for example both sport MU-MIMO-2x2.

Then the access point and the phone could have 2 parallel spatial streams at the same time, doubling the speed to a real world performance:
- 802.11ac to around ~600Mbps
- 802.11ax to around ~800Mbps

Example from personal experience:

Im using Zyxel NWA210AX accesspoints, and in my PCs are Asus-PCE-AX3000 cards. Both have MU-MIMO with 2 antennas for 802.11ax and with iperf of speedtests I get around 750-800Mbps real world performance.

[alex303]

This issue has nothing to do with OPNSense. Everything you described clearly points to access point issue/missconfiguration. You need to check your AP settings. Are you connecting via 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz wifi? How are your wifi channels configured and how many SSID`s are in your surrounding area. What are the wifi connection capabilities of your wifi clients. There are so many factors that can cause the issue you are seeing.

[alans]

It depends on your access point and on your phone.

Theoretically for 802.11ac connection between phone and access point, when both access point and phone have 1 antenna:
- 433 Mbps per spatial stream on a 80 MHz channel with 256-QAM.
- You can easily reduce 30-40% from that theoretical level and then you come to the real world performance of around ~300 Mbps.

Theoretically for 802.11ax connection between phone and access point, when both access point and phone have 1 antenna:
- 600 Mbps per spatial stream on an 80 MHz channel with 1024-QAM
- Reducing that by around 30-40% from that theoretical level and then you come to the real world performance of around ~400 Mbps.

The only way to get more speed is if your access point AND your phone have multiple antennas, so for example both sport MU-MIMO-2x2.

Then the access point and the phone could have 2 parallel spatial streams at the same time, doubling the speed to a real world performance:
- 802.11ac to around ~600Mbps
- 802.11ax to around ~800Mbps

Example from personal experience:

Im using Zyxel NWA210AX accesspoints, and in my PCs are Asus-PCE-AX3000 cards. Both have MU-MIMO with 2 antennas for 802.11ax and with iperf of speedtests I get around 750-800Mbps real world performance.

Sorry, I had the wrong topology, the PC via LAN isn't there anymore and the Mobile Phone is essentially my PC now. I have an Intel AX200 Wifi Card that handles 802.11ax and according the spec sheet, so does this Netgear.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/189347/intel-wifi-6-ax200-gig/specifications.html
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/48321-netgear-wax214-200eus/

I appreciate the help though, still learned something about the 802 bands which I never knew. Its definitely something I've configured wrong and seems like its probably more a Netgear thing so I might try their forums.

This issue has nothing to do with OPNSense. Everything you described clearly points to access point issue/missconfiguration. You need to check your AP settings. Are you connecting via 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz wifi? How are your wifi channels configured and how many SSID`s are in your surrounding area. What are the wifi connection capabilities of your wifi clients. There are so many factors that can cause the issue you are seeing.

I answered some of these in my post but appreciate it was a long one, but just to reconfirm:

• I made sure I was on 5Ghz
• There's a lot of noise here (apartment building), but made sure I was on a quiet channel and scanned to make sure this was the case

Ta!

[axsdenied]

I realize this is probably because you started troubleshooting after the fact but I noticed you show evidence for all scenarios except for the historical one:

Previously, before setting up my own router, the provided one from the ISP and connecting to WIFI gave me around 700

Like others have mentioned, I can't think of any scenario where OPNsense would be impacting your wireless AP's performance or your phone's wifi performance.  Another thing to consider is that wifi situations can change.  You get a new tenant in the building = more/different cross talk.  I'm guessing no, but did you move your AP after you swapped?  Is the environment the same?