[Flint 2] Intel AC9560 and AX210 - Low upload speed on WPA3

[Renato]

Devices:
Router: GL-MT6000 (Flint 2) - Firmware 4.6.8
Client "A": laptop with Windows 11 24H2, Intel Core i7 8565U, 32Gb RAM, Intel AC9560
Client "B": laptop with Windows 11 24H2, Intel Core i5 8250U, 16Gb RAM, Intel AX210

Problem:
When Flint 2 is set to WPA3-SAE, the download speed link can reach the full speed but the upload link is limited.

Client A (1733/260 Mbps):

On Client "B", it can also reach the maximum download speed (2.4Gbps) but the upload is also limited at 490 Mbps

On WPA2, both download/upload can reach the full speed.

There is a clear difference on the upload speed when changing the authentication mode between WPA2 and WPA3

[doczenith1]

Have you tested actual throughput? If I'm not mistaken, some devices will show a lower link speed when not in use.

[Renato]

@doczenith1

some devices will show a lower link speed when not in use.

I noticed these numbers don't change if there is a traffic or in iddle. They are always the same (when at the same distance from the router: 1 meter).

I cannot saturate the link speed because my internet speed (upload) is lower than this.

What I can tell you is when the authentication mode is set to WPA2, both link speed (upload & download) are at full speed.

I also upload a file to Flint shared folder to keep the device active, before checking the link speed:

[slesar]

You have 2 laptop difference
Client A has AC WiFi 5
Client B has AX WiFi 6

So AX faster than AC.

[Renato]

@slesar

Client A has AC WiFi 5
Client B has AX WiFi 6

Yes, but the link speed should be:

• Client A: 1733/1733 Mbps (and not 1733/260 Mbps)
• Client B: 2402/2402 Mbps (and not 2402/490 Mbps)

When Flint 2 is set to WPA2, I can see the full speed.
When Flint 2 is set to WPA3, the upload speed is reduced as above (in bold)

[doczenith1]

@Renato

I cannot saturate the link speed because my internet speed (upload) is lower than this.

You can use either iPerf3 or OpenSpeedTest to test your LAN speed. Ideally, you will have one of the laptops connected via ethernet to test the wifi speed of the other laptop then reverse and test the other laptop's wifi.

[Renato]

@doczenith1

You can use either iPerf3 or OpenSpeedTest to test your LAN speed

So are you assuming the link speed is reported wrong?

And why it's reported wrong only when the wireless authentication is set to WPA3?

[xize11]

Hmm i would advise to try test with iperf3 too just in case.

i just caught myself not so long ago with some interesting issue with steam and it was making me nuts

it seems when i was downloading, my speeds kept interrupting even got worse to 100mb/s at some point (while i got 1gb/s speed), then it was the ssd, it seemed i used those cheaper drives with QLC cache which is very fast slow.

But that is about writing, in your case it is copying and im not sure if it then also does caching?

Maybe iperf is not so bad idea to test

[Renato]

@xize11

But that is about writing, in your case it is copying and im not sure if it then also does caching?

On the first post I shared the screenshot of the link speed.

The link speed doesn't take into consideration the cache, hard disk speed, etc. It's the speed of the link.

When Flint 2 is set to WPA2 the link speed is at full speed.

When Flint 2 is set to WPA3, the upload link speed is reduced by 80%

[doczenith1]

@Renato

So are you assuming the link speed is reported wrong?

I'm not assuming anything, I'm troubleshooting. But yes, that could be the issue. Also, when using iPerf3 I've found adding '-w 4M' to the command gives better results when testing over wireless.

[Renato]

@doczenith1

But yes, that could be the issue

The problem was on version 4.6.8
Updating it to 4.7.0-op24 fixed the issue.