Securifi Community Forum
Securifi Products => Almond+ => Topic started by: takisot on December 22, 2014, 08:25:23 am
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I recently tested my network wifi speed by using SpeedyNet app for IOS and Mac and I could not exceed 20 Mbps between two AC equipped devices (iPhone 6 and MacBook Pro Retina latest generation). Is this normal?
Please note that the test was performed right next to Almond+ which is updated with the latest firmware (the same for the apple devices).
I tried both 5ghz and 2.4 ghz connections.
When I try the same test in my office's network (which has an apple N wifi router) I get around 30Mbps.
Shouldn't I have much faster connection with the Almond+?
Thanks
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Also, on another note, it takes forever to stream video via Airplay from any IOS device to apple TV. That was not the case with my previous router.
Is there something needing to be fixed?
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How did you conduct the test? Remember that any online speed test will show you the speed of your internet connection, not necessarily the speed of your connection to your router
On your Mac, you can quickly check by doing the following:
1) Hold down the Alt/Option key
2) Click on the Wi-Fi symbol in the menu bar
You should see more statistics come up for your connection to your router, and one of them is labelled "Transmit Rate". That's the one you're really looking for.
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I know about Transmit Rate, but the app I used is considered to be more accurate and it of course measures the speed of my network (specifically between the two devices) and not of the internet connection.
For more info: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedy-net/id451107779?mt=12
http://mauriciosantos.net/speedy-net.html
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20Mbps or 20MB/s ?
20Mbps is not normal, that's for sure.
Keep in mind that your iPhone is a 1x1 device whereas your notebook is 3x3, so it's not exactly an ideal test setup.
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Mbps. And I managed once to achieve 30Mbps from Mac to iPhone.
(https://cldup.com/5T7sqi0_mf.png)
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And the other way around?
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Another thing to check is what your Wireless AC settings are at, specifically the width setting. You'll get better throughput at a higher width. Try setting your 5 ghz network to be 11ACVHT80.
See here for more details: http://wiki.securifi.com/index.php?title=Wireless_Mode_Definitions_-_Almond%2B
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And the other way around?
Around 15-20 Mbps
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Another thing to check is what your Wireless AC settings are at, specifically the width setting. You'll get better throughput at a higher width. Try setting your 5 ghz network to be 11ACVHT80.
See here for more details: http://wiki.securifi.com/index.php?title=Wireless_Mode_Definitions_-_Almond%2B
Thanks , I will try. What speed should be considered normal for AC?
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What speed should be considered normal for AC?
On that wiki article there's a table at the bottom that shows the max speeds.
Spatial Streams 20MHz 40MHz 80MHz
1 86 Mbps 200 Mbps 433 Mbps
2 173 Mbps 400 Mbps 866 Mbps
3 288.9 Mbps 600 Mbps 1.3 Gbps
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Are you on current firmware? I think in R66-R68, the 2.4GHz WiFi drivers were stuck in 20MHz channel width, but that shouldn't affect 5GHz.
Interference could be at play. I have a neighbor using wide channels on an old-firmware NetGear router, and it clobbers everything 2.4GHz in my house (bluetooth, WiFi, had to move to 5GHz cordless phones, etc.) In theory, it should affect all routers, but if the other router is locked to a set channel, and under heavy use, the Almond+ might be stuck using something less than ideal.
Can you try using iperf or netperf between two laptops?
What about between the A+ and a laptop? OpenWRT has netperf, so it should be available if not already there.
Can you test the router in a different building, or at least several tens of meters away, maybe on a different floor?
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It's possible something is wrong with the hardware as those are extremely slow speeds. Can you please contact the support team so they can have a look see.
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Another thing to check is what your Wireless AC settings are at, specifically the width setting. You'll get better throughput at a higher width. Try setting your 5 ghz network to be 11ACVHT80.
See here for more details: http://wiki.securifi.com/index.php?title=Wireless_Mode_Definitions_-_Almond%2B
I did that and the speed improved a bit but not much. I noticed though that there is a discrepancy between the link speed (TxRate) which is about 878Mbps and the actual connection speed which is about 32 Mbps. That makes me think that there is maybe some interference although I am the only 5GHZ network in the area. Is there a chance that the network speed is downgraded by its weakest link (for example a connected old apple TV which is 802.11 g)? How can I make sure that this is not a hardware problem?
Thanks
(https://cldup.com/Tj66p5S-xd.png)
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Are you on current firmware? I think in R66-R68, the 2.4GHz WiFi drivers were stuck in 20MHz channel width, but that shouldn't affect 5GHz.
Interference could be at play. I have a neighbor using wide channels on an old-firmware NetGear router, and it clobbers everything 2.4GHz in my house (bluetooth, WiFi, had to move to 5GHz cordless phones, etc.) In theory, it should affect all routers, but if the other router is locked to a set channel, and under heavy use, the Almond+ might be stuck using something less than ideal.
Can you try using iperf or netperf between two laptops?
What about between the A+ and a laptop? OpenWRT has netperf, so it should be available if not already there.
Can you test the router in a different building, or at least several tens of meters away, maybe on a different floor?
Hi, I have the latest firmware. Interference could be indeed a cause for this. I will try running Iperf between two computers. Luckily I recently bought an apple mac mini which is also AC enabled. I did not understand though how to do this between A+ and the macbook. Can you elaborate?
EDIT: I also noticed that iperf seems a bit complicated. Isn't there any other simpler method to test the actual transfer speed?
Thanks
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Hi, I have the latest drivers. Interference could be indeed a cause for this. I will try running Iperf between two computers. Luckily I recently bought an apple mac mini which is also AC enabled. I did not understand though how to do this between A+ and the macbook. Can you elaborate?
A+ runs OpenWRT, so you should be able to SSH in as root.
Once in, iperf may be there, or you may have to use opkg to install it.
iperf is part of OpenWRT's trunk, so it should not require compiling, etc.
I don't have my A+ powered up right now to give details, but I found a lot of good links Googling.
But also, if you're getting such a low connection speed, that implies a lot of interference.
You can rule that out by testing device-to-device with all devices closer to the A+ first,
and/or in a different location.
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Thanks, but these are way technical for me! ::)
In order not to have to mess with Iperf, I wanted first to test if the app I use (SpeedyNet) provides credible results.
So, I tested a LAN connection between my Macbook pro retina and an older MacBook (mid-2010).
The results seem pretty normal:
(https://cldup.com/ToPgXg3w47.png)
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Is there a chance that the network speed is downgraded by its weakest link (for example a connected old apple TV which is 802.11 g)?
802.11g is only on the 2.4 Ghz band, so it should not affect the 5ghz band.
However, network speed is downgraded by it's weakest link. (On my old network, I set the wireless to be G-only. It greatly improved speeds)
How are your networks set up? Do you have the 2.4 and 5ghz network assigned the same name, or different? If they're the same, then it's very difficult to force a device to use one band instead of the other.
Here's one more thing you can do to test: Turn off the 2.4ghz radio completely. (You can do this from the touchscreen or web ui.) Run the test again.
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Good idea to disable the 2.4 network. I will revert upon trying that.
I do however have different names for 2.4 & 5.
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Thanks, but these are way technical for me! ::)
In order not to have to mess with Iperf, I wanted first to test if the app I use (SpeedyNet) provides credible results.
So, I tested a LAN connection between my Macbook pro retina and an older MacBook (mid-2010).
The results seem pretty normal:
(https://cldup.com/ToPgXg3w47.png)
Am I reading this correctly that it's fast laptop to laptop, but slow laptop to phone?
If so, then it's definitely a limitation with the phone.
All things considered, phones generally don't need near-gigabit speeds.
There is no way to consume or produce that much data.
The secondary storage inside isn't that fast,
and user media consumption is not either.
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UPDATE. I did extensive testing in my house in order to eliminate any interference- there wasn't any. I even renamed the 5ghz network in order to be sure that it is only used by AC enabled devices.
When I tested speed connection between the iPhone 6 and the macbook retina or the mac mini (2014), I had the same results. Speed about 30Mbps either way.
When I tested speed connection between the macbook retina and the mac mini, the results were very good: Around 500Mbps despite the fact that Mac mini is in the next room around 10 meters away from Almond+:
(https://cldup.com/6TQsefTgzj.png)
So, in view of the above, I can only assume that there is an issue (bug?) with Almond+ when it connects AC laptops and AC smartphones.
I do not expect to have the same connection speed, but such a slow speed I think is not normal.
Lars, any thoughts?
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One more thing. iPhone 6 being AC, should produce at least speeds around 250 Mbps and not only 20-30Mbps as in my case.
Here's a related test video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ad4_FNKaRc
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I'm sorry, but why would you presume it was a bug on our side and not Apple's side?
Apple has had a bunch of Wi-Fi issues with its devices over the years and considering that your notebook and desktop both work fine, the conclusion should be that there's an issue with your phone, not the router.
I can get speeds in excess of 100Mbps on my phone, which isn't an iPhone, but it supports 802.11ac.
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Ok, I will also test with a friends iPhone 6 and report back.
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I think you misunderstand.
I don't think this is a fault with your phone, I think this is an issue affecting the iPhone on a whole.
You're not the only one that has this issue as it seems - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6545103
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Lars, if you are saying that all new iPhones have this issue, I think you are wrong. Such a serious bug would have caused a lot of publicity and you already saw the video above showing the true speed that it can achieve.
I will test with another unit. If the results are the same, then I think that you need to investigate this issue.
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I think you need to test your iPhone and a second iPhone against at least one other 802.11ac router to verify that the speed issue is specifically with the Almond+. Even just one additional router is really not enough to build a case - perhaps that router also has issues. You'll have to make sure that you're checking multiple brands of wireless chipsets. Testing ad-hoc to your Mac is not really a good test, as Apple may be working around their own bug with their own products.
Either way this could always be an issue on Apple's side. I've seen many odd things with Apple products, having supported iOS devices for the past 8 years at several companies. Slow speed, issues connecting, issues changing networks have always been Apple's fault and they've acknowledged and fixed many of these issues, but some remain and are well documented if you go digging. Typically Apple does not acknowledge bugs or issues till they release a fix, so it's nearly impossible to get information on open issues directly from them.
Lastly it might be beneficial for you to wait for the firmware release that has fixed wireless drivers. I personally have some random issues with my iPhone on my Almond+ over wireless, but it doesn't happen all the time. Since Securifi has admitted that their current firmware has issues with wireless drivers, it's best to verify that the problem remains once they have released a fix.
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I took my almond and my MacBook and went to test them to my friend 's house who has also an iPhone 6.
I had the same exact results. I also tested the speed between the two iPhones which was around the same at 30 Mbps.
I want to also test with another AC router but my logic says that there is a big possibility that the problem lies within Almond+.
In any case, I am just providing feedback which could help securify to identify the problem.
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Did you at all look at the link I provided?
You're hardly the only iPhone 6 user that's having Wi-Fi problems.
Again, you state that your Macbook and Mac mini work just fine, so how do you draw the conclusion that the issue is with the Almond+ when they work fine and you're only seeing issues with iPhones?
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The latest link you mentioned does not report my exact issue and apart from it, I do not experience wifi issues like those reported in the link.
As I told you,I will try to find a different AC router to test. If I achieve higher speed then it should prove that the problem is with Almond.
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Not really, at least not unless it's a router with the same Wi-Fi chipset. See if you can test with a TP-Link Archer C7, as I know it has the same Wi-Fi chipset.
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I understand that it might be a wifi chipset issue, but this doesn't change the fact that the almond AC performance is crippled under certain circumstances (,if indeed other routers achieve faster speed). Anyway, I will report my findings with whatever AC router I find available.
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I think the last test would be to try a couple of modern Android phones.
Unfortunately, I only have an iPhone to test on 802.11ac, though I do have several 802.11an systems.
When I test using iperf, with 1 meter distance between station and router:
From iPhone 5s with iOS 7.1.1, and Linux 3.2.63 on gigabit wired, I can get from 49-76Mbit/sec on either radio.
From iPhone 5s to Windows 7 on Intel 6400AGN, I get 72Mbit/sec on 802.11an at 140mbit connect rate.
From the Windows laptop to the Linux box, I get 85Mbit/sec on 802.11an at 140mbit connect rate.
From the Windows laptop to the Linux box, I get 82Mbit/sec on an 802.11gn at 217mbit connect rate.
YMMV; however, you should definitely be able to get more than 30Mbit/sec to/from your iPhone, even if you're not at iOS8 which fixes many of the WiFi issues.
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Just tested my iPhone 6 with my Almond Plus and the Ookla Speedtest app on my 5Ghz network. I have fiber internet service at 100Mbps down, 50Mbps up. Tested at 80.51 Mbps down, 51.13 Mbps up, 8ms ping time. I can pretty safely say there are no problems here.
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One area of concern I have is that my Almond+ doesn't have a QCA9880 chip.
In the web interface, it says 802.11ac, 1300Mbit/sec, and lets me set channel widths, etc.
However, mine has an AR9580-AR1A. The internet tells me this is an 802.11an chip rated to 450Mbit/sec on 5GHz.
I'm not sure if it's supposed to be compensating with CPU offload or if I've just found the wrong information.
YMMV; however, you should definitely be able to get more than 30Mbit/sec to/from your iPhone, even if you're not at iOS8 which fixes many of the WiFi issues.
The AR9580 is the 2.4GHz chip, with the QCA9880 being the 5GHz chip in the Almond+, so I'm not sure where you're seeing what you posted, as both chips are very much present.
The new firmware which I hope we're going to release any time now, has the Wi-Fi offload and it does increase the performance quite a bit.
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The AR9580 is the 2.4GHz chip, with the QCA9880 being the 5GHz chip in the Almond+, so I'm not sure where you're seeing what you posted, as both chips are very much present.
The new firmware which I hope we're going to release any time now, has the Wi-Fi offload and it does increase the performance quite a bit.
Edited. I didn't find the 9880 in the dmesg logs, but I stopped short of disassembling enough to separate the riser card.
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Happy New Year to everyone!
I am following up after more tests, this time by using the latest Apple Airport Extreme AC router in the house of a friend.
By using this I was able to achieve 175 Mbps between my Macbook pro and my iPhone 6 and vice-versa:
(https://cldup.com/oNQczphp11.png)
Also, I achieved 350 Mbps between my Macbook pro and my friends 15' Macbook pro (both retina late 2013):
(https://cldup.com/VtS4axrtzj.png)
Then, I decided to repeat the same tests by using the Almond+ instead of the Airport Extreme:
As expected, the connection speed between my Macbook pro and my iPhone 6 dropped to the very low 32 Mbps.
When I connected the two Macbook pros a funny thing happened: They also connected only at 32 Mbps when the same machines achieved 350 Mbps at the same room with airport extreme!
(https://cldup.com/m4gON-Jrhs.png)
I repeated the tests many times to make sure if they were consistent and they were.
Given that I achieved high speeds (over 500 Mbps) when I connected my late 2013 Macbook pro to my late 2014 Mac Mini, it seems that the low speed problem is evident when the Almond+ connects to any Macbook pro Late 2013.
To be extra sure, I repeated the tests in my house and I was again able to achieve high speed between the mac book pro and mac mini.
Also, I realized that I had not tested my iPhone 6 directly to my mac mini, and I was indeed able to achieve very good speeds, even better than with the airport extreme on my friend's house:
(https://cldup.com/_mDtiIwY97.png)
Of course, when I connected my iPhone 6 to the late 2013 macbook pro, the speed dropped again to 32 Mbps..
So, to summarize, I have pinned down the speed problem to the cooperation of the Almond+ with the Macbook pro late 2013 (chipset?drivers?). As I mentioned, I had the exact same results with two macbook pros, so it is not a specific unit issue.
Can you help with this?
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I'm sorry, but this is clearly an Apple issue.
We're not in control of their Wi-Fi drivers as I've said before, so there's only so much we can do.
Again, you're not the only Mac owner with problems and I suggest you try Apple's support forum.
I know this doesn't apply you your specific model, but Apple is clearly having some Wi-Fi issues when they issue standalone Wi-Fi patches like this http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1620?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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I'm sorry, but this is clearly an Apple issue.
We're not in control of their Wi-Fi drivers as I've said before, so there's only so much we can do.
Again, you're not the only Mac owner with problems and I suggest you try Apple's support forum.
I know this doesn't apply you your specific model, but Apple is clearly having some Wi-Fi issues when they issue standalone Wi-Fi patches like this http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1620?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
I am sorry but this answer is unacceptable without not even investigating the issue , given that at least one other router (AirPort Extreme) works just fine in the same setup.
You should be the one to contact apple and sort this out, not your customers.
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Are you surprised that Apple products work well with other Apple products?
We can not contact Apple, they don't care, we're technically a competitors of theirs. If they have driver issues, it's something that you're going to have to complaint to them about as one of their customers.
If two out of your three Apple devices work properly with our product, why is it that you continue to blame us for a problem that we didn't cause?
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Wow. You continue to hide your head in the sand instead of trying to resolve the problem.
I lost valuable time to try to help you identify this issue and you quickly dismiss this as an "apple" problem without even trying.
My fault for even bothering to help. Won't happen again.
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Please go back and look at your own test results.
They're hard to dispute.
If you have two devices that works well and a third that doesn't, how is that our fault?
This is what I don't understand.
There's really no need to get angry about this, especially as you've proven by your own tests, that there's an issue with the Wi-Fi on the Macbooks.
What would you like me to do? Call Apple and ask them to fix their Wi-Fi drivers? I don't own a single Apple product, so I'm pretty sure they'd tell me to get lost.
You're free to contact our support team and discuss the issue with them, but there's as I said, little to nothing we can do in this case.
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One question, are you running OS X 10.9?
It looks like a lot of people are seeing poor Wi-Fi speeds running 10.9 on several devices https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5523321
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No I am using Yosemite.
And you do not seem to understand that the problem so far appears ONLY when Amond+ is acting as AC router and not with Airport Exteme so, in my book, this is something that you should investigate.
I wish I had another brand of router to test but I don't. And it is certainly not my job to hunt bugs for securify.
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Blaming Securifi and blaming Apple isn't going to help figure out the problem or get it fixed. To troubleshoot effectively, we need to know exactly what the problem is. To that end, I suspect it may be useful to have a better description of each testing setup. Specifically, are any of the machines wired? Here are a few test setups that I think may help. First, you will need to set up separate SSIDs for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz so you can control which one the clients use.
MacBook Pro and Mac Mini both on 5 GHz wireless.
MacBook Pro and Mac Mini both on 2.4 GHz wireless.
MacBook Pro on 2.4 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 5 GHz wireless.
MacBook Pro on 5 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 2.4 GHz wireless.
MacBook Pro on 5 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on a wired port.
MacBook Pro on a wired port, Mac Mini on 5 GHz wireless.
MacBook Pro on 2.4 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on a wired port.
MacBook Pro on a wired port, Mac Mini on 2.4 GHz wireless.
iPhone on 5 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on a wired port.
iPhone on 2.4 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on a wired port.
iPhone on 5 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 5 GHz wireless.
iPhone on 2.4 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 5 GHz wireless.
iPhone on 5 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 2.4 GHz wireless.
iPhone on 2.4 GHz wireless, Mac Mini on 2.4 GHz wireless.
There are many more combinations you can set up with just the Almond+ and the clients you have, but this is a decent spread. Which ones behave how you expect and which ones don't?
Please don't say that one behaves how you expect until you are absolutely sure you have tested it. In troubleshooting, bad information is worse than no information.
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My friend I tried all possible combinations many times and the problem is exactly as I reported it.
There is an low speed issue when the almond connects via wifi AC with a MacBook pro Late 2013 (tested on 2 different MacBooks)
Feel free to replicate it. Apparently securify does not have any Apple computers to do some testing.
Personally I am done testing.
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You've contradicted yourself several times in your posts and troubleshooting. Without doing all testing systematically you cannot expect Securifi to attempt to replicate your issue as you are saying it's one specific model of an Apple laptop, and that's a limited use case scenario. This is a public-beta product and if you are unwilling to properly troubleshoot you cannot expect support.
I do not work for Securifi, nor do I have any soft of affiliation to them, but your troubleshooting makes me cringe because I have to deal with this sort of "proof" on a daily basis. Please diagram the options you tried, which bands you were connected on (wireless), or wired connectivity w/ connection details, and what the results were and then the community or Securifi can fill in the blanks where you are unwilling or unable to test.
Also you may wish to retest when the next build becomes available as there are issues with the 5gHz channel currently according to Securifi's own posts and admission, and this is supposed to be corrected with updated wireless drivers which should be present in this new build. Personally I'm crossing my fingers that this build is available very soon because it will likely fix some issues I'm having, and will add features that I desperately want to try. I can understand if you're frustrated with the product, as in some ways I am too, but refusing to troubleshoot properly and accusing Securifi will not get you very far at this point in the product's lifecycle.
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Where did you see the contradiction? I was crystal clear in my descriptions if you actually took the time to read them.
Although I did not write down my reports in the way you demand, I actually tried all possible scenarios, wired and wireless, with different SSiDs, with 2.4 disabled, in different locations etc
And the problem was isolated to the wireless connection between Almond+ and macbook pro late 2013. Is this an apple wifi driver bug or Almond+ bug? I do not know. I do know thought that as a customer, I demand from the tech support of securify to further investigate as this issue cripples the wifi speed of the router. I doubt I am the only almond+ user with a macbook pro retina laptop (very popular brand and model).
I am just the one who discovered the issue.
PS. feel free to cringe further if this make you happy.
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So did you contact the support team?
Again, I do not work for the support team if that wasn't clear.
I try to help out here, but I'm not part of the support team or software team.
As you're the only one that has reported this issue so far that I'm aware of and we seem to have a difference of opinion as to where the problem lies, our support team should be able to help you further in figuring out the issue and they can also link you with the software team if needed.
One thing you might want to try is a hard reset of your Almond+, as sometimes this clears up stored settings that are having issues from an older firmware if you kept the settings moving from one firmware to another.
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Sorry, I was under the impression that we can report issues here and you notify the support team.
Can you tell me which is the appropriate email to send feedback.
I will also hard reset the almond and revert.
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http://forum.securifi.com/index.php/topic,2315.0.html
I do report things, to the software team, but I also have a full time job doing a million and one other things at the company. I don't even know where to start with this issue, so it's better you talk to the support team first.
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Thanks. By the way, I did a hard reset and nothing changed.