AirPort Extreme Speed Question

[dannyyankou]

So we recently got our ONT box from Verizon replaced because the old one was having issues, and we were told the new one had higher capacity for Wifi. So I called about getting the speed upgraded, and they gave us a new plan that will increase our speed from 75mbps to gigabit, and we’ll be paying somehow cheaper with no contract, which shocked me.

So the main question is if we have AirPort Extreme base stations set up across the house, what’s the maximum speed we can expect on those? It’s hard to find a clear answer online. We have a couple of the 6th gens, and one 5th gen.

 

[Howard2k]

You won't find a clear answer.

It depends on the clients you have, not just the base station. The 5th generation is weak but the 6th generation has 3x3 AC.

So if your client devices also have 3x3 AC you'll get up to 1300Mb/s of bandwidth. Your throughput will be far lower and will vary based on your environmental noise, number of other devices that are active, how much chatter there is, how far from the base station you are etc.

I have a 878Mb/s connection right now because I'm several metres and a thick wall away from my router, but if I move closer I'll see 1300Mb/s. Again that's connection speed, not throughput.

But if you have a client that only has two antennas, you'll obviously get less.

You may want to consider splitting your network into high speed capable devices and non-high speed capable devices. The stuff that is not high speed capable (or does not need high speed) can go on the 2.4Ghz connection and the higher speed stuff can go on the 5Ghz connection. And if you have the option, still consider wired Ethernet.

So for your "important" devices where you care about throughput:

1) Wired Ethernet
2) 5Ghz wifi (keep in mind it has reduced range)
3) 2.4Ghz

For your less important devices:

1) Wired Ethernet
2) 2.4Ghz wifi


You also need to consider if there is traffic flowing between internal devices. I have a NAS, for example. If I placed that on my 5Ghz network it would be crippled when talking to other 5Ghz devices, so that's connected via Ethernet. For my PS5 I care about latency and that's connected via Ethernet too.

 

[aakshey]

The Apple APs are way too dated at this point. You can do much better for a very modest fee these days.