Access points - port performance relevance

[gvdwerf]

Hi all,

Learning from Patrick and others while shopping for the next improvement of WiFi for the home (Asus ZenWifi, Netgear Orbi or WAX), I'm surprised to hear so much mention of performance relative to the WAN speed. e.g. you won't gain much having the 2.5G ports if you only have 1G (or less) coming from the ISP.
I get that argument, but my situation is that most traffic is LAN-side with compute and storage in the office, and IoT devices and laptops etc all over the house. Thanks to European load-bearing walls everywhere and inconvenient wiring, I must use wifi backhaul between the central ISP jack, firewall and primary AP, and office containing the satellite AP.

So, my question: can I gain from those 2.5G ports? I think I can, but confirmation would be great.
Switch trunks are all 2.5G or more already, with access ports staying mostly at 1G.

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light here.

 

[blinkenlights]

What Patrick and others have said relative to WAN side performance is absolutely true.. going from 1G to 2.5G will not improve your internet experience if your WAN connection is 1G or less. There could be improvements from replacing faulty cables or switching to a different media (e.g. DAC, AOC, fiber) if you are using regular copper with RJ45/baseT transceivers. Decent server interface cards (Intel, Chelsio, Mellanox) on a non-shared slot also help.

On the LAN side, it depends on whether the system(s) hosting the data are also connected to 2.5G ports. You will always be limited to the slowest port from 'A' to 'B' no matter how capable a switch you deploy. Again, though, you might see minor improvements with different media types and better interfaces.

 

[ms264556]

The most throughput I've ever seen between 2 APs/Routers is 1.4Gbps, using a couple of those disgusting looking $1000 AX11000 routers from Netgear and Asus. And this dropped to well under 1Gb by 1 room apart, and down below 500 by 2 rooms apart. Unless I'm in the same room, I get better throughput from my WiFi 6 phone to my Ruckus R650. So I'd personally spend extra to get Mesh/APs which have great radio performance in reviews. If you do go 2.5Gb, I tested a bunch of old 1Gb poe injectors & they all passed 2.5Gb with no issues, so you can probably save yourself some $$$ by using unpowered 2.5Gb switch ports and whatever poe+ injectors you have lying around.

Having had a similarly tricky house in London a few years ago, I doubled my throughput in my office by moving the APs slightly (by only a foot or two), so I'd recommend trying out quite a few positions with whatever mesh system you end up buying.

And my last flat in Frankfurt (owned by an anti-wifi nutter) had an Ethernet cable going back out the hole where the phone/vdsl cable entered, around the outside of building (threaded behind the aluminium flashing above the windows) and into the study window (no holes drilled, just crushed against the seal when the window closed). You're not running the cable for a long distance, so that super-thin 32awg cabling would probably make things easier, if you did something similar.

 

[gvdwerf]

What Patrick and others have said relative to WAN side performance is absolutely true.. going from 1G to 2.5G will not improve your internet experience if your WAN connection is 1G or less. There could be improvements from replacing faulty cables or switching to a different media (e.g. DAC, AOC, fiber) if you are using regular copper with RJ45/baseT transceivers. Decent server interface cards (Intel, Chelsio, Mellanox) on a non-shared slot also help.

Got that. Cheers anyway.

On the LAN side, it depends on whether the system(s) hosting the data are also connected to 2.5G ports. You will always be limited to the slowest port from 'A' to 'B' no matter how capable a switch you deploy. Again, though, you might see minor improvements with different media types and better interfaces.

I suppose I'm concerned that the new APs (probably Netgear WAX630) 2.5G WAN ports function as LAN ports too. Some products don't allow it (?!), so I'll confirm and pull the trigger. The rest of the network has the necessary speeds already.
Thanks for your input.

 

[gvdwerf]

The most throughput I've ever seen between 2 APs/Routers is 1.4Gbps, using a couple of those disgusting looking $1000 AX11000 routers from Netgear and Asus. And this dropped to well under 1Gb by 1 room apart, and down below 500 by 2 rooms apart. Unless I'm in the same room, I get better throughput from my WiFi 6 phone to my Ruckus R650. So I'd personally spend extra to get Mesh/APs which have great radio performance in reviews. If you do go 2.5Gb, I tested a bunch of old 1Gb poe injectors & they all passed 2.5Gb with no issues, so you can probably save yourself some $$$ by using unpowered 2.5Gb switch ports and whatever poe+ injectors you have lying around.

Having had a similarly tricky house in London a few years ago, I doubled my throughput in my office by moving the APs slightly (by only a foot or two), so I'd recommend trying out quite a few positions with whatever mesh system you end up buying.

And my last flat in Frankfurt (owned by an anti-wifi nutter) had an Ethernet cable going back out the hole where the phone/vdsl cable entered, around the outside of building (threaded behind the aluminium flashing above the windows) and into the study window (no holes drilled, just crushed against the seal when the window closed). You're not running the cable for a long distance, so that super-thin 32awg cabling would probably make things easier, if you did something similar.

Your home experience reminds me that I shouldn't really complain. The only thing stopping me running a cable is the low WAF. "Happy wife, happy life"... but I will play with AP positioning a bit more though. Thanks for the reminder.
I've salivated over those Netgear/Asus quad-band AX11000 beasts too, but the ROI is too low. Maybe with more competition?