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User profile for user: afwjam
afwjam Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Airport roaming Wi-Fi network

I have a roaming Wi-Fi network made up of a Time Capsule with two Airport Extremes connected with gigabyte Ethernet. Has always worked well with good throughput. I recently upgraded to new faster 500 mb fiber internet and I have now noticed that while I can get close to the max speed from my time capsule doing the routing, the two Extremes only seem capable of 100 mb. They both show a gigabit Ethernet connection and my phone connected at 500-800 megabit, however only the time capsule will give me the full throughput. I’m not sure if this is a limitation of using the Airports in a roaming network, or if something is not configured right, I’ve tried just about everything. Of course I could update to new routers, but these have always worked so well, this just being an interesting issue with my new network internet which doesn’t seem like it should be limited based on the hardware specifications.


I appreciate anyone that can shed some light on this.

AirPort Extreme

Posted on May 11, 2023 11:15 PM

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User profile for user: Bob Timmons
Bob Timmons
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
169,670 points

Posted on May 12, 2023 9:41 AM

You will need a laptop Mac or PC with a Gigabit Ethernet port to do some troubleshooting.


Power off both AirPort Extremes and connect the Mac to one of the LAN Ethernet ports on the Time Capsule and run a few Internet speed tests that way to get an average.


Keep both AirPort Extremes powered off.


Disconnect the Ethernet cable from one AirPort Extreme that runs from the Time Capsule and connect the computer to the Ethernet cable. Run a few Internet speed tests that way. The results should be very close to the result the you got when you ran the previous test.


Now connect the Ethernet cable from the Time Capsule to the AirPort Extreme again and power up the AirPort Extreme and connect the computer to one of the LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme. Again, results should be very close to the previous test.


Power off the AirPort Extreme that you using the run the checks


Now disconnect the Ethernet cable at the second AirPort Extreme that connects from the Time Capsule and run a few speed checks that way. Results should be close to other checks.


Reconnect the Ethernet cable to the AirPort Extreme and power up the AirPort Extreme. Connect the computer to one of the LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme and run a few checks. Results should be close to other previous checks.


Post back on your results.





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User profile for user: Bob Timmons
Bob Timmons
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
169,670 points

May 12, 2023 9:41 AM in response to afwjam

You will need a laptop Mac or PC with a Gigabit Ethernet port to do some troubleshooting.


Power off both AirPort Extremes and connect the Mac to one of the LAN Ethernet ports on the Time Capsule and run a few Internet speed tests that way to get an average.


Keep both AirPort Extremes powered off.


Disconnect the Ethernet cable from one AirPort Extreme that runs from the Time Capsule and connect the computer to the Ethernet cable. Run a few Internet speed tests that way. The results should be very close to the result the you got when you ran the previous test.


Now connect the Ethernet cable from the Time Capsule to the AirPort Extreme again and power up the AirPort Extreme and connect the computer to one of the LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme. Again, results should be very close to the previous test.


Power off the AirPort Extreme that you using the run the checks


Now disconnect the Ethernet cable at the second AirPort Extreme that connects from the Time Capsule and run a few speed checks that way. Results should be close to other checks.


Reconnect the Ethernet cable to the AirPort Extreme and power up the AirPort Extreme. Connect the computer to one of the LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme and run a few checks. Results should be close to other previous checks.


Post back on your results.





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User profile for user: afwjam
afwjam Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

May 20, 2023 12:45 PM in response to Bob Timmons

I really appreciate your response. It had tickled the back of my mind that this was the next logical troubleshooting step, but you helped me to take action. Sure enough the largest hurdle was getting an Ethernet dongle for our M2 MacBook, I guess I was so stuck in the past I assumed laptops still had Ethernet ports 😂


Through the logical troubleshooting I found a cat5e patch cable that was not passing gigabit speeds, now all my airports are hitting close to 500 mb wireless speed tests everywhere in the house.


Thank you kindly!

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Airport roaming Wi-Fi network

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