Low (45% decrease) WiFi Performance from Firmware 3.5.4 to 3.6.0

Product Discussion Pepwave AP & Surf
1

Hi,

This one has been nagging me for a long time but its finally reached a critical point.

Firmware 3.5.4 gives up to 305mbps on Laptops, phones and Tablets on all APs (Mini, Enterprise Rugged).

As soon as I upgrade it to 3.6.0 i loose 120-140 mbits of speed, the most i’ve gotten on this new firmware is 156mb and that’s standing on the exact perfect radio sweetspot with no one else besides me on the whole install

The problem is if i drop the fw down to 3.5.4 i get many customer complaints of devices unable to connect (mainly apple ones).

Im not sure what can be done about this but any help would be appreciated. im posting the speedtest links so you can see for yourself.

246mbits per second speeds where achieved on a Samsung galaxy S9 and iPhone 8 phones, laptops got all the way up to 305.

I know it may sound dumb to care about this but customers that do not understand networks only understand speedtests, higher number = better, Cisco/Meraki/Aruba could not match anything higher than 150, this 45% speed increase was a huge sellpoint on our company.

I hope something can be done about it, i just wanted to let you guys know this is a thing and its happening.

Samsung S9 Phone:

iPhone 8:

PC (Microsoft Surface Book 2):

2

@Alvaro_Cortes

Please check on the forum link below:

This is an old issue that fixed using 3.6.0s16. You can find the firmware download link using the above URL or using the URL below:

https://download.peplink.com/firmware/apone/fw-ap-acmini_enterprise_flexhw2_rugged-3.6.0s16-build1843.bin

2 Likes
3

Ah Thank you! i never saw that firmware on the official firmware downloads, ill get right away! im so glad you guys saw and fixed this problem, as i said this was a super major sellpoint for peplink products vs Cisco/Meraki/Aruba/Ruckus and i was genuinely sad we had lost that marketing tool, we all know peplink APs are the best but it was really hard to convince customers, seeing nearly double speedtest speed coupled with peplink’s defacto never-fails-once-setup reliability was usually all it took to make the sale.

Thanks again!, ill get back to the office tomorrow, give it a go and let you know what i see on my tests

1 Like
5

@Alvaro_Cortes

I just discussed with Engineering team and we have new build for AP firmware. Please use the following firmware :slight_smile:

3.6.0s18
https://download.peplink.com/firmware/apone/fw-ap-acmini_enterprise_flexhw2_rugged-3.6.0s18-build1848.bin

I have commented the old post as well.

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6

Are there any release notes?

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7

@zegor_mjol,

Release notes is yet to release. It’s special firmware fixing the performance issue as posted.

When the fix is consolidated into a GA firmware then it will included into the release notes.

2 Likes
8

Thanks! i was about to say i tried the 3.6.0s16-b1843, but only got a very slight boost (158mbits vs 147mbits on 3.6.0 official)

Uploading the new s18 firmware now to the units i will let you know the results of the tests.

9

On the limited tests i just performed there was no gain, still hitting the 140-150 ceiling, will try tomorrow with more machines.

Rolled back to 3.5.4 and sure enough back to 250 on the Samsung S9.

Ill do more tests tomorrow and let you know if there’s any gain on other devices

10

@Alvaro_Cortes

Yes please. Please share us the test results and we can further discuss on this.

Possible please make sure the performance is compare with the followings influences:

  • Same WIFI band for 3.5.4 vs 3.6.0s18
  • 5Ghz for the test.
1 Like
11

yes, 5ghz is a must, ill run tests on the main bands, find the best, least used one, and run the tests there, on 3.5.4, 3.6.0s16 and 3.6.0s18, repeat the test 5 times on 3 machines and 2 phones all within 3m in LOS of the Enterprise AP we have here.

Ill let u know what comes up.

Also speedtests using the wired lan give 600-700mbps up and down and use all available connections, weve noticed wifi only uses 70% of one link but only 5 or 10% of 1 or 2 more links, and most of times we do not get either full upload or full download on wifi, its a situation i wanted to ask you guys that doesn’t seem correct, it only happens on wifi.

Ill let you know what i get tomorrow as far as results.

3 Likes