Question Help resolving why 1 of 3 identical access points is slow (NETGEAR Nighthawk R6700v2)

[calvin2376]

I would appreciate your help in diagnosing and resolving an issue I'm having with one access point being slow (while the other two are fine):

Hardware

• Internet: Verizon Fios Gigabit internet
• Modem: Verizon Fios G3100
• Access Points: Three NETGEAR R6700v2 Nighthawk AC1750 routers, firmware V1.2.0.62_1.0.1, all in access point mode
• Cabling: All Cat5e or Cat6

Setup

• Internet comes into the G3100 modem
• The three NETGEAR routers are spread out far apart in different parts of the house, all hardwired back to the modem
• All three NETGEAR routers have both 2.4G and 5G networks transmitting, and they're all transmitting the same SSIDs (e.g. "Network" and "Network 5G")

Issue
Two of the NETGEAR router access points work fine and are giving me about 300 mbps in wireless download speed and over 500 mbps in wired download speed. However, one of the access points is only giving me about 70-80 mbps in wireless and wired download speed.

There is nothing different about this access point to my knowledge - it is not farther away from the modem than the others, it's using the same cabling, etc. I set up all three access points in exactly the same way, setting each up as an access point in the setup wizard and then generally not fiddling manually with other more advanced settings (other than changing SSID and password), so the same default settings generally apply to all three access points.
I have tried swapping this problematic access point out for another identical R6700v2 Nighthawk configured the same way as above and am still getting the same issue, so I don't think it's the router hardware itself. I'm hoping that changing a setting or two will help me resolve this.

I would appreciate any help, insight or experience. Let me know if any other information is helpful. Thank you!

 

[Fallen Kell]

Have you tried swapping the “problematic” one with one of your working ones to see if the problem follows the router? It could easily be an issue with the hardwire run or even the physical location of the router (heat, interference, etc.).

If you swap a known good one with the one acting up you can prove if the problem is the router (as the problems will simply move with the bad router). If the issues do not move with the router, then you know you have some kind of problem with that location, most likely a bad network cable run (usually a poor crimp on an end connector with a custom run cable).

 

[calvin2376]

Have you tried swapping the “problematic” one with one of your working ones to see if the problem follows the router? It could easily be an issue with the hardwire run or even the physical location of the router (heat, interference, etc.).

If you swap a known good one with the one acting up you can prove if the problem is the router (as the problems will simply move with the bad router). If the issues do not move with the router, then you know you have some kind of problem with that location, most likely a bad network cable run (usually a poor crimp on an end connector with a custom run cable).

Thanks for the response. That's exactly what I did - I swapped out the problematic one for a working one and the issue remained, so it does not appear to be the router hardware itself.

I can try swapping out the cable. Are there other things you'd recommend I try? As far as heat/interference, those shouldn't be issues (the problematic one isn't located in a cramped/hot space or near other electronics, certainly no moreso than the other two working access points).

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well usually the culprit in a case like this is the cable run that you have to that spot. If you can, I would suggest buying a commercial CAT6a cable that is long enough to reach the location and temporarily just run it through the house (don’t bother going though walls unless you have easy to access conduit). If that fixes the problem then you know for sure it is the cable run that you have.

I don’t recommend purchasing a network cable analyzer, (and given the question here, I suspect you do not own one) but it is the only way to truly know the problem with the cable. Your best option if you ran the cable yourself is to replace/re-do the end connections on the cable. If it was run by a “professional”, I would contact them and if they would typically stand behind their work and come out to fix it. Otherwise, you can hire a professional to rerun the wire.

Again, this all assumes that using the commercially manufactured cable fixes the problem. You can always try just redoing the end terminals on the cable, but this is one of the easiest places to screw up a cable and you don’t know which end is bad/wrong and you don’t know if you mess it up one the second try without a cable analyzer (and those cost more than most professionals would charge to replace the cable as most cable analyzers cost from $,1000-14,000, and as I said are much more expensive than hiring a company that does this professionally and already owns them to preform the job).

Back in the days of 10/100, most people had no real problem with making their own cables and installingruns in their homes. But with gigabit and higher speeds, it is way to easy to screw up. Everything has to be correct, from the bends in the cable, how much of the twisted pairs were exposed from the outer shielding, how close to the end terminal the twists are maintained in the pairs, to how well the individual pairs are connected with the end terminal. All of those are factors that prevent a cable from being able to reach higher network speeds.

 

[cuvtixo]

I'm not sure if this is any help now, but I've been searching for info on NETGEAR R6700v2 Nighthawk AC1750 routers. Found this from a ways back https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...wk-r6700v2-is-no-longer-broadcom-soc.2511871/ It seems that Netgear changed to MediaTek MT7621 from Broadcom chips upon rumors of Broadcom bankruptcy (Perhaps there were contract negotiations that Broadcom refused to meet terms of... at any rate, they were later bought out and back to business) NETGEAR R6700v3 (version 3) was back to Broadcom. But I imagine there might be flakiness because of the last minute switcherooto. It's also shameful that Netgear didn't make it clear to the public that there were fundamental changes. I know it took (is still taking?) Open source firmwares (DD-WRT and Open-WRT) to run on Mediatek chips. So R6700 version 2 is essentially an entirely different router than version one and three. There are many ways they could have gone to make it transparent. But they didn't. Just keep it in mind when you're shopping for routers again.