1

I had Google Wifi and it really works well. A few months ago I switched to CenturyLink 1Gbps Fiber service and overall I have been very satisfied with that as well. I have seen other posts of serious bandwidth issues with this combination, and while I don't have serious issues, I feel like there is something limiting my performance.

When the technician installed the CenturyLink fiber, he tested it and I was getting around 900Mbps down and up. Pretty impressive.

I was never able to get the Google Wifi to work with the C2100T CenturyLink Router. It may very well be that I didn't have the correct settings - I am able to set the C2100T to transparent bridge mode but I'm not sure of the correct Broadband Settings and the Auto options don't work for me.

After reading some posts I ordered a TP-Link TL-SG105E and configured it for the VLAN tagging. The network has worked reliably with that setup although the bandwidth is not as good as directly out of the C2100T. With this setup I get between 500-600Mbps down and 200-300Mbps up over wired connection.

Since the TL-SG105E is a relatively inexpensive (~$30), I thought it might be limiting my bandwidth. I swapped the managed switch out for a Mikrotik RB750Gr3 setup in bridge mode. And I get the same speeds as with the TL-SG105E. That kind of points to the Google Wifi as the bottleneck.

Can anyone confirm that these are the limits with Google Wifi?
Alternatively, any suggestions on alternate configurations to try?

Here is what I tried today:

  • 900/900Mbps ONT->C2100T->Laptop (Laptop connected to LAN port in C2100T)

  • 530/220Mbps ONT->RB750Gr3->Google-Wifi->Laptop (Laptop connected to Google Wifi LAN port)

  • 520/220Mbps ONT->TL-SG105E->Google-Wifi->Laptop (Laptop connected to Google Wifi LAN port)

I played around with the C2100T in transparent bridge mode, but again I was unable to get that working.

Improve this question
3
  • I have exactly the same issue. Close to 900/900 when connecting directly to the CenturyLink provided hardware (Zyxel c3000z), drops to 500/200 when allowing the Google Wifi to handle the PPPoE handshake and running the Zyxel in transparent bridge mode, or using the TP-Link TL-SG105E to handle the VLAN tagging. Really does seem to point to Google Wifi as the bottleneck. (Perhaps specifically the PPPoE implementation?)
    – Tony Zito
    Commented Jan 22, 2020 at 0:17
  • 1
    Just noticed this - I solved my problem by putting a Mikrotik RB750Gr3 in front of the Google WiFi. I setup a bridge so my wired and wifi are separate subnets now. (Google Wifi starts a separate PPPoE session) More complex than I would have hoped, but wired has 900/900 now.
    – sceaj
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 0:26
  • I had also used a TL-SG105E to handle the VLAN tagging and it wasn't up to the task (bandwidth wise). It seems that neither the TL-SG105E nor Google Wifi are able to maintain full 1Gbs in the CenturyLink configurations.
    – sceaj
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 0:29

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .