Speed drop 50% after airport extreme (as a router)

FWIW, I did manage to keep track of the various Extreme model tests that SmallNetBuilder done, and the following is a capture from their testing the 802.11ac model.

ME918LL/A AEBSac

• Apple AirPort Extreme (802.11ac) Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

Is there configuration or setting in the AE router that i should look at to improve the speed ?

No, the AirPort Extreme is doing great to provide about half the speed of your Internet connection when it is configured as a DHCP and NAT router. Most test reviews on the AirPort Extreme have it typically delivering 400-450 Mbps when configured in router mode.

Mine checked out at about 425 Mbps the last time I had the chance to test it on a 1,000 Mbps connection.

Remember that the Airport Extreme was designed in 2012-2013 timeframe and Apple never improved the hardware, so you'll need to look at a new router if you want to get up to 800-900 Mbps range.

You won't be able to use the DHCP Only mode if you have a simple modem.......the kind with only one Ethernet port......which it sounds like you have, but we'll need to check to be sure on that.

If you are not sure what type of modem that you have, post back with the make and model number of the modem and we'll see if we can find some information about the product.

DHCP Only would be used only in the event that you already have another router "upstream" from the AirPort Extreme, but for some reason you want the AirPort Extreme to handle DHCP IP Address assignments for the network. Normally, if you had a router "upstream" from the AirPort, you would set up the AriPort in Bridge Mode to let the upstream router handle DHCP and NAT for the network.

The DHCP Only setting is something of a hybrid that I have not used in some time. Can't remember whether it had any effect on speed improvement over the DHCP and NAT setting.

Alternatively, If i replace this Airport Extreme router with Eero Pro Mesh WiFi Router (as an example, any recommendations pls) to increase the internet speed, and connect it to the Giga-switch, would the Airport Extreme and Express that are setup as bridge still work as a "Mesh" as it is now when i go to different level of the house and at different rooms pls ?

No, the AirPorts will not communicate with the Eero router at all as far as mesh his concerned, so if you went with Eero....or any other mesh system for that matter, you would want to go the total replacement route, not try to piecemeal things.

Mesh systems are designed to work as a unified system among multiple devices, but they won't work effectively if you try to mix in other brands into the network.

WAN to LAN speeds are notoriously missing from the specification sheets of most routers. Like Apple, they might say that the AirPort Extreme has a Gigabit or 1,000 Mbps WAN port, but they don't tell you that the real processing power of the router is about a third to half of that speed. You have to get into really detailed router tests to find out what things are really like.

Take a look at the Router Tests provided by Small Net Builder as a good resource.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/179-wan-to-lan-tcp/35

i was not able to see the Airport Extreme (AE) data.

The AirPort Extreme was discontinued by Apple over 2 years ago. A few years ago, when it was still current, the WAN to LAN speed of the AirPort was about 350-375 Mbps in the Small Net Builder tests as I recall.

For the WAN to LAN reduction in AE setup as router, is the reduction in speed relative to the ISP speed or it is an absolute speed limit of AE ?

Top speed on the AirPort is usually about 350-400 Mbps when it is configured as a DHCP and NAT router. The AirPort simply does not have have the processing power to handle much more than that. Remember, this product was designed in the 2012 timeframe when ISP speeds topped out in the 200-300 Mbps range. Most were less than 100 Mbps.

As I mentioned before, WAN to LAN speeds are not displayed in the specification sheets for most products, so unless you can get a hold of that number, you won't know what kind of Internet connection speed that the router is capable of handling. If you can't find a given product in the router test chart, it is either out of date or it has not yet been tested.

can i see a list of connection (LAN and WiFi) on the network through AirPort Utility ?

If you open AirPort Utility and click on the picture of the AirPort, a small window will appear with some basic information about the AirPort. Wireless Clients displays a list of the WiFi devices that are connected to the AirPort Extreme at that time. The WiFi devices might appear with their normal name, as an IP address, or as a hardware or MAC address.

Do the same for the other AirPorts on the network to see the WiFi clients that are currently connected to that given AirPort at the time.

Ethernet connected clients are not displayed in AirPort Utility, a serious mistake that Apple never corrected. They must assume that the world connects using only WiFi.

On the Airport Utility, "Wireless Clients" > "connection" > "data rate" can be as high as 1300Mb/s for MacBook. What speed is this referring to pls ?

That is the theoretical maximum speed at which a WiFi device can connect to the AirPort Extreme. The actual throughput is usually about half of the number displayed. So, if you had your Mac connected to a WiFi hard drive like a Time Capsule, the Mac could talk to the Time Capsule at higher speeds over the "local" network because your Internet connection would not be involved when the Mac was simply talking to the Time Capsule to back up data.

But, this same 1300 Mbps impressive looking number is meaningless if you are asking about the Internet connection speed. That is determined by the speed that your ISP provides and the processing power of the network router, in addition to the quality of the connection between the Mac and the router.

The Ookla test displays the Internet connection speed that is available to your Mac at the time.

If you are asking if the AirPorts can work along with the Eero system, the answer is "yes"......sort of.

The whole idea of mesh is that different WiFi devices can move all over the home and connect to the closest mesh device. So, the mesh system "hands off" a WiFi device like a Mac laptop from one mesh remote to another seamlessly. The main router and mesh remotes all communicate with each other to keep track of which WiFi devices are being handled by which mesh router or remote.

You could connect the AirPorts to the mesh system using an Ethernet connection and configure them in Bridge Mode to provide a WiFi network that uses the same wireless network name and password as the mesh system.

But......the AirPorts are not going to communicate with the mesh system to keep track of devices on the network and update all the other mesh units on current status.

So, you might have laptop connected to one of the mesh units and move it close to an AirPort. Whether or not the laptop will switch from the mesh unit to pick up the signal from the AirPort is open to question. The same applies if the laptop was originally connected to an AirPort signal and then it was moved close to one of the mesh units.

Bottom line in very simple terms.......you are trying to mix parts from a Ford with parts from a Honda and make an automobile. So, that is not going to work very well.

IF......you want to think of the mesh system and the AirPort part of the setup as two separate WiFi networks, then things might work in that way.

My advice is to keep it simple and go with the same manufacturer for all of your WiFi signal devices.

what mode should i select for the AE#1 below pls ?

Bridge Mode, which Apple calls "Off (Bridge Mode). Any other AirPorts would also be configured exactly the same way. All that you really need to do here is change the Router Mode setting on AE#1 from DHCP and NAT to Off (Bridge Mode).

Since i will not be using the Eero WiFi, i can set the Eero WiFi to a different name & passport word from the airport network name & password right ?

Correct. But, if you don't plan to use the Eero WiFi, there may be a setting on the Eero router......like there is on the AirPorts.......to simply turn off the WiFi function of the Eero and use it only as a wired router. This would eliminate any possible WiFi interference issues that can sometimes occur when you have two WiFi networks in close proximity.

In a more practical sense, it does not make much sense to have a WiFi network signal being broadcasted if you aren't going to use it.

SP modem > Eero router > AE#1 (mode?) > Giga-switch > multiple AE & AirportExpress as bridges to AE#1

SP modem > Eero router > AE#1 Bridge Mode > Giga-switch > multiple AE & AirportExpress as bridges to AE#1

Not sure if you are aware that the Ethernet ports on the AirPort Express will only support speeds up to 100 Mbps, so any WiFi devices that connect to an AirPort Express are going be limited to 100 Mbps speeds. More likely, that figure will be 70-80 Mbps.

If you are going to use the AirPort Expresses only for AirPlay, it would make sense to turn off the WiFi function on the Expresses to keep devices from connecting to an Express for WiFi.

Allan2020 wrote:

Thanks Tesserax. Does WAN-LAN means download throughput speed, and LAN-WAN means upload throughput speed ?

Eero in smallnetbuilder only provides LAN-WAN throughput speed.

Basically, that is correct. It is the measured speed (data transfer rate) through the router's interface in each direction.