BRUME-W wifi speeds

Technical Support
#1

I understand that the BRUME-W only offer 2.4 ghz. I plan to use it as a repeater in hotel rooms. How significant would the speed drops be compared to the Slate?

If I were to piggyback on a hotel wifi from a hotel corridor, I would assume it’d be on a 2.4ghz band. If I use that to establish a hotspot on the 2.4ghz band in Brume, what performance can I expect?

What would the practical speeds be without an external wifi dongle? Can anyone shed some light?

#2

This is my assumption.

The Brume spec stats "2.4GHz Wi-Fi with up to 300Mbps”

The “300Mbps" WiFi speed is for the “Channel bandwidth 40MHz".
In the crowded WiFi signal area like hotels you probably won’t get the “40MHz Channel bandwidth” you’ll probably get the “20MHz Channel bandwidth”. So, your WiFi speed is max at 300Mbps / 2 ~ 144Mbps.

When in repeater mode, your WiFi speed is max at 70%. So, your WiFi speed is 144Mbps * 70% = 100.8 Mbps.

Note

  1. I usually get roughly 70% out of my Home router’s 2.4GHz WiFi signal in Router mode. So, I’d assume your WiFi speed will additionally drop by 30%, So, your WiFi speed is 100.8 * 70% = 70.56 Mbps.

  2. From what I’ve read. WiFi spec-wise, the Slate is more suitable for travellers because the 5GHz band can be used to get WiFi signal form the hotel and the 2.4GHz band can be used to send signal to devices.

2 Likes
#3

Thank you so much! That’s very helpful.

Regarding your second point, wouldn’t the opposite be more realistic since 5ghz has shorter range? The router will be most likely to get network from the 2.4ghz 20 Mhz band and then be able to send it out on the 5ghz band to nearby devices? I don’t know much about the wifi bands, so is that a likely scenario?

Also, is it possible for the router in repeater mode to get the signal from 5ghz hotel wifi and broadcast it devices on 5ghz as well, ensuring max speeds?

#4

Also, is it possible for the router in repeater mode to get the signal from 5ghz hotel wifi
and broadcast it devices on 5ghz as well, ensuring max speeds?

With the Brume-W you can only receive the 2.4 Ghz, you can rebroadcast to 5 Ghz using
a WiFi dongle like the ALFA AWUS036AC, but You cannot use the dongle as receiver.

I would recommend using the new Beryl dual band. I just received it.
I noticed that the WiFi discovery search is very fast compare to the Brume.

I’m a Comcast customer and in my area the Comcast hotspots are quite available but use 5 Ghz.
Typically I was able to get a WiFi download from 10 to 50 Mbps and upload from 1 to 6 Mbps.

I hope I answer your question. Also the GL-inet customer support is very helpful and fast to reply.

Note: If you have different routers I would recommend using different IP base address for each
like 192.168.10.1 and so on, instead of the default 192.168.8.1.
Also connecting you phone directly using an USB Ethernet Adapter is even more practical.

1 Like
#5

Ah! that really clears things up. Thank you!

I’m going for the Beryl, by all accounts it suits my needs. Thanks for the tips, will keep in mind.

#6

I’ve done a quick speed test. Here are the results.

Receive in, Rebroadcast in Download (in Mbps) Upload in (Mbps)
5GHz —-> 5GHz 77 - 100 44 - 55
2.4GHz —-> 5GHz 36 - 46 45 - 47
5GHz —-> 2.4GHz 26 - 40 30 - 43
2.4GHz —-> 2.4GHz 19 - 26 22 - 29
Note
1) My normal WiFi speed from Asus router (in router mode) to iPhone is ~168 Mbps
2) two routers (Asus and AR750s) are only one foot away from each other and the client device (iPhone) is 7.2 feet away from the AR750s
3) The AR750s is on 3.105 AGH Beta Firmware.
4) In the hotel where are walls and furnitures blocking WiFi signal the “2.4GHz —-> 5GHz” setup would make more sense just like you’ve mentioned.
3 Likes
#7

Oh Wow! You’ve gone above and beyond.
Thank you so much for your help.

#8

When you use repeater (wifi to wifi, not wifi to lan), speed drop is at least 50%, not 30%.