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I am getting my full 150 Mbits/s from my ISP provided optic fiber modem/router combo (Nokia G-240W-B) if I wire through ethernet. However, if i connect ethernet through the AP i set upstairs (TP-Link WR841HP) i get a 100 Mbit cap approximately, usually around 80 Mbits, and of course 40-60 on wifi (where the real problem relies).

Sadly I can't bridge my modem/router because they have that behind a paywall, i'd need to buy a business plan for that. So I went over all the options and I could not find any related to limiting bandwidth for a device. I added my AP to the DMZ, but I assume that is just surrounding DHCP and ports, not bandwidth.

If my ISP router were to have a bandwidth limiter per ethernet output... where could I find it? and how would it be called?

Or could it be my TP-Link router the one doing the bottle neck? because I am almost sure it has no such functionality. The strange thing is that, if its not limiting it, I don't get where the 50 Mbits went otherwise lol. And it would be strange that a router designed to improve speed had a 100Mb limit per client as a bottleneck. (because it is a "wallbreaker" marketed type router with a humongous wifi range)

The AP Ethernet cable is around 30m long and its a Cat6, the ethernet I use from the AP to the pc is Cat7. I tried using the same ethernet cable as the AP in a computer so it's just a computer with a long cable and still got the 150 Mbits. I also tried connecting from the AP with a cat5.e (also has 1GBit bandwidth) instead of the cat 7 just to have a control test and be sure its not the cables, same results.

So... what kind of tool can I use to see where the bottleneck is?

Thanks a lot!

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  • Are you perhaps using the second router as a router (creating a different subnet)? That's not what you want. Use it as an access point (+ switch) only instead.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 7:03
  • As per @user1686 answer, the problem is your TP-Link AP. You need to replace this with something capable of Gigabit speeds, or connect the Nokia to a switch, and the switch to your TP-Link AP and also ethernet devices (ie only use the TPLink as an AP, not as an AP/Switch)
    – davidgo
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 7:58
  • Please, draw a simple sketch of your setup.
    – fraxinus
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 9:10

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Or could it be my TP-Link router the one doing the bottle neck? because I am almost sure it has no such functionality.

Well, it's not deliberate "speed limit" functionality – it's a hardware limitation. Your TP-Link only has 100 Mbps Ethernet ports and literally cannot go any faster. (It says so on the online spec sheet.)

(That's quite common for Wireless-N routers. Even though they're advertised as capable of 300 Mbps on the Wi-Fi side, actually reaching such speeds with 802.11n requires very good conditions – generally not going to happen when using it as a "wallbreaker" – so the manufacturer just uses the cheaper 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interface for both the WAN and LAN ports.)

It is true that Cat5e cables support Gigabit Ethernet, but this also requires the actual Ethernet interfaces on both ends to support 1 Gbps mode as well.

And it would be strange that a router designed to improve speed had a 100Mb limit per client as a bottleneck. (because it is a "wallbreaker" marketed type router with a humongous wifi range)

According to marketing, the router is designed to improve range – not quite the same thing as improving speed. One way to improve usable range is to reduce speed, e.g. stick to 20 MHz Wi-Fi channels (instead of 40 MHz) or lower modulation rates – all of which give you a more stable connection at longer distances.

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  • 300Mbps signaling rate WiFi (as in the 802.11n standard) even in theory has about 110Mbps data throughput (the protocol overhead is crazy). This is why 100Mbps Ethernet is pretty much an adequate match.
    – fraxinus
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 11:21
  • @fraxinus: No, I think that's an exaggeration. With my laptop in direct sight of the AP, I can easily get ~105 Mbps throughput with 802.11n at a nominal 150 Mbps link rate – so the useful rate is 66% of link rate, not 33%. (The usually advertised 300 Mbps link speed is 40 MHz with 2-stream MIMO – my AP only supports the former but not the latter, hence 150 Mbps link.)
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 11:35
  • @fraxinus: However, I am just 2 meters away from the AP, and there are just 2 other networks around, not fifty (allowing me to use 40 MHz mode with very little interference), so for most people it's probably the surrounding conditions that don't allow the best speed; not the inherent overhead. Or in other words, their devices probably never get a chance to negotiate the 300 Mbps link rate in the first place.
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Jan 11, 2022 at 11:40

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