Broadband speed upgrade from 550Mbps to 900 - Is it really worth and yeilding?

[q4quality]

Previous setup (550Mbps fullfibre)

SmarHub Wifi 6 (Router) with 1 Smart Wifi plus Extender
Hub speed (via Ethernet): 550Mbps
Hub wifi speed : 450-550 Mbps
Wifi Extender speed (Ethernet): 550Mbps
Extended wifi speed: 200-350Mbps (depending on the distance)

New setup (900Mbps)

Smart Hub Pro (Router) with 1 Smart Wifi Pro Extender 
Hub speed (via Ethernet): 920Mbps
Hub wifi speed : 620-650 Mbps
Wifi Extender speed (Ethernet): 620Mbps
Extended wifi : 350-550Mbps (depending on the distance)

The physical position of the routers and extenders have not changed.

Key Issue 

Am disappointed that the Wifi extender's Ethernet port via Cat6e cable distributed via a switch is only yeilding 620Mbps. If I connect directly to the main router hub, it is yielding the full 920Mbps speed. Previously with 550Mbps I was getting around  520-550Mpbs on Wifi 6. I thought upgrade is meant to increase the speed in Mbps on a full wireless backhaul setup.

Most devices are only Wifi 6 capable/compatible except one phone that supports Wifi 7.  As you can notice, am not gaining anything extraordinary in speed from the upgrade just about 10-15% overall increase for the devices consuming wired internet via the unmanaged switch.

Is the upgrade really worth or shall I go back to 550Mbps?

Is there anything I can do to get the wired extender speed from EE's branded Pro extender/mesh devices at least close to 720-750Mbps. This will bring some benefit of the speed upgrade distributed to my wired setup that I have via an unmanaged switch from the Pro Extender's port which is feeding a PC, Macbook, Printer and NAS via Cat6/PoE/USB-C cables.

[JimM11]

@q4quality You could run an Ethernet cable between the Pro hub to the Smart Wireless Extender and do wired backhaul for full 2.5Gb/s speed between them both. Wireless backhaul that you are doing may just not give you the speed required, also try moving the Extender position if possible that may improve your wifi signal and throughput. Wifi5 tops out around the 750 and wifi 6 somewhere around the 1Gb/s. You do not say what you have Ethernet port wise but a 2.5Gb/s switch may just be worth getting to keep that Smart Wireless port up....

Your Pro's Advanced Wireless with the web interface and looking at the smart wireless may show you the signal strength you need to be around the -55db to push good speeds, and the 6Ghz wireless backhaul will need to be closer than the 6+ version...

Got nothing at all to do with your cable type off cat6e but those will help quality wise if you do decide to up your unmanaged switch. I push 2.2Gb/s throughout the internal network, but only like you had the FF500 connection external, just no need for anything faster Internet wise. Network and 4node mesh is all wifi6 max.

TL-SG105-M2 | 5-Port 2.5G Desktop Switch | TP-Link United Kingdom

[q4quality]

Thanks @JimM11 

It is not practical to run a physical cable from the extender to setup a wired backhaul. I have a  Netgear unmanaged  8 port Gb switch connected to the extender and 4 devices are on it including a docking station.

My gripe, Wifi 6 extender was giving me a 90% throughput on the available router speed bandwidth when the speed was 550Mbps from the extender wirelessly however Wifi 7 with 900Mbps seems to have gone much lower on performance (only 60%) on the backhaul bandwidth? Is this expected?

I also suspect the EE branded Wifi 7 Extender Pro device may be is doing some kind of internal throttling on the backhaul traffic? When I disconnect the network cable my macbook is attaching to Wifi and gives me a speed of 720Mbps on speedtest.net, which is decent compared to static 620Mpbs via wired setup.

[JimM11]

@q4quality The bandwidth is all shared and if your current switch is 1Gb/s that is the hold back, you proved that by disconnecting, Try a 5 port 2.5Gb/s get from likes off Amazon you can send it back if no improvement, think they are around the £35 mark currently, Your input's will all be at the 1G but the output to the Smart Wireless will sync at 2.5G....

Just think how p'd off you would have been if going to the 1.6Gb/s package.... 

The 6+ was 5Ghz backhaul, the Pro is 6Ghz backhaul, NO 6Ghz would ever work for me, 50's style home with solid brick walls 6Ghz would just not get through that very well, suggestion to try moving either the Hub or the Smart wireless closer to each other may yield a better result also.... 

WiFi analyser and look at the signals, see what the Hidden ssid is mac address and band should be 6Ghz backhaul.

Until you look you will never know, my mobile syncs at 1200/1200Mb/s wifi6 and the wifi 5 laptop is 1733/1733Mb/s so no holding back on wireless at all. Link below shows what wifi5 device can do if allowed and can.

Re: Anyone actually getting anywhere near 900MB? - Page 3 - The EE Community

[JimM11]

@q4quality Have tagged @Profile closed to your conversation, he has now upped to the Pro / Smart wireless and can put his tuppence in, afraid i am no longer an EE user, and all my gear is Asus. Forget about throttling that is NOT going on for sure.

[JimM11]

@Profile closed Not sure reading back he/she with that reference, if i got it wrong my bad. Jim

Glad i got it right then....🤣🤣

[Profile closed]

All good im a Guy , it could get confusing i know lol

[Profile closed]

Only thing i can think here is when you had the smart hub 6 you were on a good uncluttered WIFI channel & with the Pro somehow its ended up on a channel thats not so well optimized ? , see i have an extended next to an old laptop that has a really crappy WIFI chip in it that only gets say 150Mbps tops , so i have an extender next to laptop & a cat 6 from extender to laptop , i get the full connection 930Mbps from hub to extender & extender to hub , also my phone gets the full 930mbps anywhere in my place (Wifi6E) My Other laptop gets the full 930Mbps (WIFI6E) , only thing that did not get it was my Nvidia shield 2017 it only go about 300Mbps , just old WIFI tech not as fast, see you are only getting 650Mbps wifi speed from hub  so what sort of distances & what is the device you are taking the measurements from & with what method of testing witch website are you using ? i have always uses speetest.net 

https://www.speedtest.net/

It will give the the most accurate browser based test 

it all depends on a lot of things , device used for testing , distance , & equipment  , i can assure you the Hub & the extenders are more than capable of 1Gb as i get the full benefit of them with all but 1 device & thats down to the device , id be looking into what channel the WIFI is on , this can have a big affect on things , im in a fairly small place so im never more than 30 feet away from one of my WIFI devices so anything at a long distance will affect things , i mean i have had one router (not EE) in past where having 2.4Ghz & 5 Ghz both on slowed the 5Ghz & turning it off improved speeds (it was the BT Smart Hub) but i have no such issues with any of the EE equipment i have all 3 of them on here (2.4Ghz - 5.0Ghz & 6Ghz)  , so im interested in how you are getting that measurement of 650Mps from the hub? , the device might not be capable of measuring much more than 600Mbps like my Shield 2017 wont do any more than mid 300s wireless.

[JimM11]

@Profile closed Thanks for the reply, needed someone with a good Pro/Smart wireless mesh running well on a wireless backhaul to say it's all working well and capable off doing so, do suspect the OP has a poor 6Ghz hidden ssid backhaul issue location wise, and as trying to Ethernet it then 2.5Gb/s switch to up the throughput off it may just be the end all required.

Edit:- Or OP can just drop the FF900 and back down to FF500 if he/she so wishes and EE does not play hardball, always a potential option.😶🙄

[Profile closed]

Yeah mine has always run well with EE gear ive been on both setups  (Smart hub 6 & 7 Pro +both sets of extenders) TBH i dont really need extenders beyond the one i use for that laptop but they were part of the package , im in a medium flat/Apartment & the & pro hub is more than capable of good WIFI everywhere when i had the smart hub 6 i only had one extender (to use with that laptop) , but when i upgraded for some reason the orders got confused & 2X smart hub 7 Pros & 4x Extender Pros turned up here & i was told by EE i could keep them as spares , so i just decided to add another extender as i had one spare ,  it definitely could be a hidden backhaul or a crappy WIFI channel hard to say , im in a fairly small place & with my 7 Pro & two WIFI extenders could it be that im running so much power in a small place im cutting through any other WIFI interference & getting full speed ? , possible but the hub is in fact built for 2.5Gb speeds so i would imagine even in the most larger places & setups 1gb wireless should be achievable ?, problem with WIFI is there are so many different variables that an ethernet cable just dispenses of.