Pro 500 WiFi Upload Speed faster than Download Speed? How to Fix?

[DFM]

On the 100 Fibre (FTTP) package my Router on Ethernet and my WiFi Speed for Download and Upload were all in the about 109Mbps range

After upgrading to the Pro 500 package at the Router and on Ethernet the speed is correct at over 500 Mbps

But on WiFi the Download Speed is about 190Mbps while the Upload Speed is about 260Mbps regardless of how close the computer is to the Router. That 30% difference was never apparent on the 100 Plan

I am not able to find any reason that Download is slower than Upload and I do not know if that is common or correct. 

Any ideas on improving the balance between Upload and Download the would be appreciated

[DFM]

Thank you for the reply

I understand that I am not going to have 500Mbps over WiFi - for a start my Wifi Link Speed is 433Mpbs

But I do not understand why Upload speed on WiFi is around 275Mbps while download speed is around 200 to 225Mbps. Everything that I have managed to find to read suggests that Upload and Download speed should be more similar and about the same. With Ethernet LAN the speeds are about the same within a very small difference  around 540Mbps and certainly not reflecting the 30% variation found on WiFi

The reasons given to me by Support that it is a computer software issue do not add up as logical in my thinking. The same software has to deal and does deal with 540Mbps. That I am overloading the Router also does not add up as I have tried turning off all devices other than one computer and changing the computer to use only the 5Ghz AC channel - that has no effect on the Wifi speed. I have tried checking early morning at about 5am and later at 10pm - makes no difference to speed during the day.. From what I can see the router is potentially aware of 5 other nearly users on 2.4Ghz on other networks such as Sky and BT and one 5Ghz Sky user - but on  very different channels to my Wifi channel number and quite weak  signal strength

What I am trying to discover is why when upload is reasonably consistent at about 275Mbps why download is less consistent and about 30% slower - the same factors presumably affect upload and download speed?

[Jayach]

I understand your conundrum, and if it was happening to me. I would have the same confusion.

I doubt anybody is going to be able to give you a satisfactory answer, and yes what support said is a bit of a cop out, but they are in the same position.

The thing is, whatever the cause, is it has probably always been there, but your upgrade has made it noticeable.

The only real way to tie it down would be to swap bits of the hardware to try and find where the slowdown is occurring, but as your upgrade has improved your hardwired speeds by 5x and over Wi-Fi by 2x is it really worth the hassle.

One thing that does occur to me is you are now on Pro, so presumably you are using the booster. What happens if you turn the booster off? Does anything change?

[DFM]

Thank you for the reply

I did a speed test, turned off the booster, did a test, turned on the booster did a test. If there is any sense in the results the speeds with the booster connected were better than with the booster turned off. The tests were all done connected to the Router with WiFi

part of the problem is not knowing what to expect in terms of speed and yes around 200 on WiFi is better, but two of the Support people I have spoken with say Upload and Download should be the same - so 275 download would be good if it is available given that upload has that speed. 

The last support person I spoke to was going to check with City  Fibre if there was a reason for the faster upload speed as he thought that there should be a closer balance. Will need to wait for the result

Reducing the Router to being connected to one item only - had no benefit to WiFi speed. I can understand that 275 is maybe the best I can get with my equipment and environment - but I do not understand why upload would be faster than download and that I can find no explanation for or any suggestion that it is correct, 

[Jayach]

Assuming the testing is being done on the 5Ghz band, I wasn't suggesting that is is not strange that the upload and download are so different as it is. If it was using the 2.4Ghz, it would be expected.

SSID: vodafone0403xx
Protocol: Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Network band: 2.4 GHz
Network channel: 6
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 144/72 (Mbps)
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::5112:d2d7:434b:44e1%4
IPv6 DNS servers: fe80::d635:1dff:fe04:35c%4
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.17
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.1
DNS suffix search list: broadband
Manufacturer: Qualcomm Atheros Communications Inc.
Description: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
Driver version: 3.0.2.201
Physical address (MAC): 74-DE-2B-7E-2B-xx

[Jayach]

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@DFM wrote:

The last support person I spoke to was going to check with City  Fibre if there was a reason for the faster upload speed as he thought that there should be a closer balance. Will need to wait for the result

It can't be anything to do with CityFibre, as the Ethernet speeds are the same.

[DFM]

Thank you for the reply  - I would expect the problem is Router related

Reason for saying that it is as follows

When I subscribed to the Fibre by Copper wire plan I suddenly found that my older computer was able to have download speeds on  the 24Ghz channel around 70Mbps my other computer had a different WiFi card and was not able to achieve the same speed and needed a USB dongle.

With dongles on both computers when I upgraded to the 100 FTTP plan with the USB dongles I could get a bit over 100Mbps on both computers for up and down but where before I had 70Mbps on the 2.4 channel with the new router the 2,4 channel speed had dropped to about 25Mbps and where the 2.4 channel would reach further before the upgrade after the upgrade I had to use a powerline extender. Then a software or firmware upgrade was run on the Router and the 2.4 channel speed improved to around 50Mbps. I do not believe that something changed in my environment it  the time it took to change routers from the Copper Line Fibre Router or during the update of the FTTP router to account for the speed changes. So I would believe that the Router is causing the difference in Upload and Download speed with the 500 Plan. I may be wrong but my logic is that if 275Mbps is possible for Upload then Download should be more similar to that than it is. I cannot prove that and I may be wrong but surely the same environmental factors must affect both?

Your help is appreciated

Regards

[Jayach]

I actually think you are probably right, but getting a new one from Vodafone because your Wi-Fi speed is low is never going to be easy. Perhaps if it stopped working completely they would send a new one.😉

[Jayach]

@Windlown The OP says the difference is only on Wi-Fi, not Ethernet, so I don't think it is contention.

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@DFM wrote:

Yes - the difference in speeds is only noticeable on Wi-Fi and not on hard wired

On Ethernet, router speed, upload and download are all very close if not the same

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The OP probably needs to spend a couple of weeks repeatedly testing at a couple of different times of the day, and logging it, to get a full picture.  (Busy time/quiet time) They need to use the same device at the same spot. There is likely more than one factor here. 1) Contention is likely to be one of those factors at peak times, 2) WiFi tests are notoriously fickle, even if you are testing in exactly the same spot when you do it. ( I just now  did six consecutive tests,  sitting in the same spot, on my Samsung S10+. The upstream ranged between 480Mb and 670Mb whilst the downstream ranged between 320MB and 715Mb. 3) Some of the OP's perception could be to do with scale. Any difference between upstream and downstream is likely to be greater  on a 500MB connection than a 100Mb connection. 

EDIT:  I just did some speed tests on a high-powered ASUS Netbook. The upstream was consistently slower than downstream.  The mean difference over six tests was 88.2Mb. This was with the netbook only two metres away from the VF router. The test server was the same throughout. 

[DFM]

Thank you for your reply and information and test results  which at least show that my variation is not unique. The only issue that I find strange is that Upload is faster than Download with the higher speed connections.. From searching on Google the information is that with Fibre the speeds  should be more or less the same, but in the real world that does not appear to be the situation.

The only solution would appear to be to accept that Upload is faster than Download and be happy with that before I drive myself to distraction.