Experiences using GL iNet A1300 (slate plus)

Routers
1

Been using my Slate plus during my last holiday (firmware 4.2.3), unfortunately this was not a good experience. I have used a GL iNet AR150 for years and I wanted an upgrade. Mainly because a repeater halves your bandwidth when using the same band (2.4GHz). So when using 2.4GHz for the WAN and 5GHz for the client devices, the bandwidth wont suffer, that was my idea.

Unfortunately the speeds were terrible, when connected directly to the hotel wifi (2.4GHz) I got 50Mbit, but when connecting through the Slate I got 5Mbit. Long story short, I was also using a USB3 flashdrive, this is causing interference with 2.4GHz. I discovered this issue after I got back, so I couldn’t test it at the holiday location, but I ran some tests at home and speeds are now as you would expect.

For testing I installed https://openspeedtest.com on my NAS at home.
I also installed Ookly speedtest on the router, so I could test the speed between router and WAN ( didnt use it though)
See Speedtest CLI: Internet speed test for the command line, you can do a wget https://install.speedtest.net/app/cli/ookla-speedtest-1.2.0-linux-armel.tgz

Here are my results

GL iNet AR150 GL iNet A1300 (slate+) Netgear WAX202
WAN LAN Download Upload Download Upload Download Upload
Cable Cable 68,60 77,48 937,60 977,07 917,33 980,43
Cable 2.4 GHz 38,94 28,95 78,98 75,87 123,63 118,97
Cable 5 GHz x x 388,30 431,00 394,61 388,20
2.4 GHz Cable 7,53 29,53 109,13 100,68
5 GHz Cable x x 518,28 451,85
2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 9,60 16,90 46,13 42,85
2.4 GHz 5 GHz x x 106,23 99,43
5 GHz 2.4 GHz x x 91,34 91,87
5 GHz 5 GHz x x 189,25 202,08

So comparing 2.4Ghz using only home router I get 123 Mbit / 110 Mbit (down/up)
When using 5GHz for WAN and 2.4GHz internally I get 106 Mbit / 99 Mbit which is almost identical.

When using 2.4GHz for both WAN and internally you do indeed see the speed being cut in half.
Other conclusions, use 5GHz for both, this has the best speeds when using as a repeater.

I hope this post can help someone at some point.

5 Likes
2

Thank you for your feedback on the issue，The test result is abnormal,we will test it.

Please check the firmware of your A1300 an reply me,you can have a firmware update if the current firmware version is not latest version.

3

Thanks for posting this. Very thorough. Good point about issues with USB 3.0 and WiFi. That unfortunately happens with many devices as far as I heard.

5 GHz WAN + 2,4 GHz LAN stands out from all the other trials. Weird. Did you try to repeat this test at some other time?

4

I tested again, now I get way better results, something you would expect. I have updated the table with results. btw I am on firmware 4.2.3

1 Like
5

Thanks. That’s the problem with WiFi or wireless communications in general. You never know what performance you’ll get because of interference or other users.