3bb vs ais fiber vs true online ( fttx)

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, jonw8uk said:

For reference, another AIS powerhome 50/10 user:

 

Have to say though that the slew of tests just performed have come back better than previous - during the last test, the UK was less than 2Mb down.

Today though, looking good.

 

Set up: Fibre to condo, DSL to AIS supplied H180 router (this set to bridge mode remotely by AIS) then an Asus RT87U doing the pppoe authentication/routing.  For the tests a MBP hardwired to the Asus.

 

 

So in your case, AIS is running fiber to your building, but then the last mile is copper wire from building interior to your unit?

 

I've always wondered if that kind of mixed set-up operates any differently than an end-to-end fiber connection.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Was out and around at the mall today, and saw this current/latest flyer from 3BB re their fiber and VDSL services:

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 10/28/2016 at 2:58 PM, shariq607 said:

 

yeah but i downgraded to the cheapest business package which costs  less than 2000 baht per month , didn't notice any difference other than reduction in upload speeds.

 

Shariq, I can never understand how CAT operates. Similar to the past, when I go to what I presume is their internet services website today, whether in Thai or English, I can't find any listing of their current selection of service levels/prices? And frankly, not even that much about their fiber On Net service in general.  Am I missing their info somewhere/somehow?

[jonw8uk]

28 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

So in your case, AIS is running fiber to your building, but then the last mile is copper wire from building interior to your unit?

 

I've always wondered if that kind of mixed set-up operates any differently than an end-to-end fiber connection.

 

Yes, VDSL to the room.

 

im sure there is a difference compared to full fibre connection. I consistently have a higher ping than PIB on the ookla bangkok speed test - 23 vs 2 or 3ms, maybe thats part of the reason?

[Pib]

25 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Shariq, I can never understand how CAT operates. Similar to the past, when I go to what I presume is their internet services website today, whether in Thai or English, I can't find any listing of their current selection of service levels/prices? And frankly, not even that much about their fiber On Net service in general.  Am I missing their info somewhere/somehow?

I think CAT focuses on businesses, industrial parks, and certain high-rise buildings and don't advertise much anymore for the general retail customer.

[shariq607]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Shariq, I can never understand how CAT operates. Similar to the past, when I go to what I presume is their internet services website today, whether in Thai or English, I can't find any listing of their current selection of service levels/prices? And frankly, not even that much about their fiber On Net service in general.  Am I missing their info somewhere/somehow?

Cat does certainly provide fiber directly to residential areas, cat is responsible for maintaining the international gateway in Thailand, Many private Isps lease international bandwidth from them.

 

Here is their price list/promotion

[shariq607]

Can anyone else not using Ais test their bufferbloat on dslreports? Thanks.

[Pib]

Don't know what webpage shariq607 got above FTTX image from...but here's a CAT webpage with some more packages...click the Rates/Promotion icon after going to the page.  I had never entered the page before because when going to this particular website my Norton 360 Firewall/AntiVirus would warn me the page possibly has virus infections and recommended I not continue (maybe a false warning), but I got brave just now and clicked continue to go to the page....my computer has died yet of infection....time will tell.

http://catinternet.com/service.php?contentid=8

 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, shariq607 said:

Can anyone else not using Ais test their bufferbloat on dslreports? Thanks.

 

In DSLReports area they have a bunch of data on Bufferbloat from many users...see below webpage.  

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/results/nearby?q=Bangkok, Thailand

 

For example here's a snapshot on AIS Fibre (AS133481) where the bulk of folks get a C or D score (like me and suzzanegoh)

 

When going to above  webpage you can focus by city/region.  AIS Fibre is AS133481, 3BB AS45758, and CAT AS131090.   From clicking on some of the CAT AS131090  groups the bulk of people seem to pull mostly an A, B or C score.

 

AIS AS133481 Snapshot

 

 

 

[shariq607]

23 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

In DSLReports area they have a bunch of data on Bufferbloat from many users...see below webpage.  

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/results/nearby?q=Bangkok, Thailand

 

For example here's a snapshot on AIS Fibre (AS133481) where the bulk of folks get a C or D score (like me and suzzanegoh)

 

When going to above  webpage you can focus by city/region.  AIS Fibre is AS133481, 3BB AS45758, and CAT AS131090.   From clicking on some of the CAT AS131090  groups the bulk of people seem to pull mostly an A, B or C score.

 

AIS AS133481 Snapshot

 

 

 

Yeah but I guess the data for cat, 3bb or true will probably be a little biased? Probably because it may include data and tests from adsl, vdsl and cable and not singling out fiber users?

 

adsl , vdsl and cable are probably more prone to bufferbloat than fiber.

 

 

[Pib]

No, it won't single out just fiber connections, but when looking at the results there is a statement saying what the "most popular" connection contained in the data was like below from clicking on True.

 

• The most popular connection technology was Fiber

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, shariq607 said:

Cat does certainly provide fiber directly to residential areas, cat is responsible for maintaining the international gateway in Thailand, Many private Isps lease international bandwidth from them.

 

Here is their price list/promotion

 

So which of those plans are you currently using from CAT?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Don't know what webpage shariq607 got above FTTX image from...but here's a CAT webpage with some more packages...click the Rates/Promotion icon after going to the page.  I had never entered the page before because when going to this particular website my Norton 360 Firewall/AntiVirus would warn me the page possibly has virus infections and recommended I not continue (maybe a false warning), but I got brave just now and clicked continue to go to the page....my computer has died yet of infection....time will tell.

http://catinternet.com/service.php?contentid=8

 

 

Thanks Pib... I saw that page originally, but it had no prices, and I didn't realize to click that little box underneath the chart to bring up the hidden brochure/pricing chart.

 

However, it would seem to be an older, out-of-date version compared to what Shariq posted, since this version describes their home package as 15/1, whereas Shariq's chart describes it (presumably more recently) as 15/5.

 

BTW, they also seem to have jettisoned their former "On Net" labeling for their FTTH.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 10/28/2016 at 2:16 PM, Pib said:

 

 

Just for comparison...below are my AIS 50/10 PowerHome results compared to your AIS 50/10 PowerPro using the same Testmy.net locations and Manual Download 100MB sized file test....and done about 20 minutes after yours.  

 

Big thanks...I also going to save/print this out as this is the first time I've been able to get some PowerPro and PowerHome comparisons using the same tester, same testing method, same location, and very similar times.   Gives me some solid data in trying to make a decision if I want to upgrade to the higher priced Pro plan which also offers some other benefits other than higher international speed.  Thanks again.

 

LA

 

Tokyo

 

San Francisco

 

London

 

 

Thought I'd chime in with matching speedtests for my 3BB 200/50 service done about 6:30 pm local time today from BKK, approx. the same time as the two of you did yours, although mine ended up being on a Sat early evening, perhaps a bit more congestion vs a weekday. All results from my desktop PC connected via ethernet to 3BB's Gigabit router. Same 100 MB download test.

 

At any rate, here's where 3BB's results diverge very greatly from AIS (for reasons I don't know or understand) when it comes to results WITHOUT a VPN vs. those WITH a VPN.   Without a VPN, 3BB's higher speed-rated and more expensive package is slower than AIS's 50/10 package for these various international connections. But with a VPN, it's considerably faster, as I ought to expect given the higher plan speed rating and higher monthly price.

 

Direct 3BB 200/50 without any VPN:

 

 

 

 

 

 

3BB 200/50 with a PPTP VPN for the destination city:

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

TG,

   The non-VPN results definitely show with hard data the 3BB 200/50 plan has slower "single-thread international" speeds than an AIS 50/10 plan, just as you had mentioned/referred to in other posts.   But use VPN to bypass/get-around 3BB throttling/choke points and the 3BB single-thread international speeds are definitely fast!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, Pib said:

TG,

   The non-VPN results definitely show with hard data the 3BB 200/50 plan has slower "single-thread international" speeds than an AIS 50/10 plan, just as you had mentioned/referred to in other posts.   But use VPN to bypass/get-around 3BB throttling/choke points and the 3BB single-thread international speeds are definitely fast!

 

Yes, but the strange part is, as best as I recall, when you did some past VPN and non-VPN comparisons with your AIS fiber, you didn't seem to get a substantial difference in performance between the two.  That could be related to some difference in the network setups of AIS vs 3BB, and/or, it could be related to some difference between the respective/different VPN services we're using. I don't know how to sort it out... Perplexing.

 

I guess one way to see would be if some other 3BB fiber user also posted matching TestMy tests using a VPN that most likely would be different from mine. That would at least help show whether it's the network or the VPN that's responsible for the variation.

 

[Pib]

Yea, when I use VPN connections with my AIS Fibre 50/10 it generally does not make much of difference in speed compared to a non-VPN connection.  

 

But when I was on the True 15/1.5 DOCSIS/cable plan a VPN connection made BIG improvement in speed....got a much higher speed.  

 

And I was using PureVPN in both cases...AIS and True.

 

A lot does depends on your ISP in how their network is configured as to what speed improvement VPN may give a person....and of course the VPN service itself.

 

 

[Pib]

And I'll just sign off for tonight  with a Testmy.net test to Singapore and LA...non-VPN tests in case anyone wants to compare/see AIS Fibre 50/10 PowerHome plan speed at around 10pm on this Saturday night with a single-thread speed tester.  I used the Download Manual 100MB file size test.

 

Singapore

 

LA

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

25 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

But when I was on the True 15/1.5 DOCSIS/cable plan a VPN connection made BIG improvement in speed....got a much higher speed.  

 

And I was using PureVPN in both cases...AIS and True.

 

 

Yes, same here. When I had True Online cable, with my different VPN provider, the same one I'm still using now, the speeds with True were much much faster anytime I did a VPN connection compared to the straight ISP only connection.

 

So there must be something different about how AIS is handling their network vs. True and 3BB.

 

For me, it works out fine, both before and now, because everything I'd really care about any speed for is being done with a VPN. So that's where I would want to see the higher-end performance, and I'm getting it.

 

Meanwhile, certainly nothing to complain about with AIS fiber. They're delivering the kinds of speeds their plans promise, and even delivering lesser but still quite good/fast speeds for international connections, with or without VPNs involved.

 

But if I were a 3BB 200/50 fiber plan customer and relying on international connections without using any VPN and getting 15 Mbps to the U.S., while you're getting 20-30 Mbps to the U.S. with a substantially less expensive AIS 50 Mbps fiber plan, I wouldn't be a happy camper.

 

[sniffdog]

But then again you don't use torrents. If you do, it really doesn't matter how much speed you get from a particular country. For, that 3bb 200/50 is #1.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mtls2005]

3BB upped my 100/30 service to 300/50, also came by to install a new router. Nice for wired gigabit ethernet, less so for WiFi given the limitations on 802.11 ac (have to use at least an 80 MHz wide channel).

 

As this is still a 'premium' service international bandwidth also jumped accordingly.

[Pib]

Pricing on internet plans, especially fiber plans, is changing/dropping so, so fast this year.  I think it's primarily due to 3BB and AIS rapidly expanding their fiber internet capability and resulting competition is forcing big price drops.  True, TOT, CAT, and others are now getting some real competition and lower costs and higher speeds are resulting.

 

mlts2005 mentioned above he went from a 3BB 100/30 plan to a 300/50 plan and also implied his plan was a "premium" plan....maybe also referred to as a business plan or Pro plan by some ISPs.  

 

Don't know what he is paying per month, but when doing some googling for some older 3BB advertisements/promotions just for the cost of 3BB plans in general compared to today like for their 200Mb/50Mb home/consumer plan at Bt1200/mo, but below is one example of some 3BB prices from around just May of this year.  Only five months ago their 200/50 home plan cost Bt5,900/mo. and their 200/50 business (premium/pro) plan cost Bt48,300/mo.  

 

Just think the 3BB 200/50 Home plan is now going for Bt1,200/mo compared to its cost just a half a year ago at Bt5,900/mo....a five-fold drop in cost for the same speed.   

 

Yes Sir, prices sure are dropping for fiber plans.   And I'm hoping before long that AIS will lower its pretty good prices or raise speeds while keeping the same price.  Like maybe turning my AIS Fibre 50/10 plan at Bt888/mo (Bt799 if already with AIS and spending at least Bt300/mo) into a 100/20 plan at Bt888 overnight like 3BB seemed to do when increasing their 100/10 plan to 200/50 and keeping the same Bt1,200/mo cost.   Keeping my fingers crossed...but until that happens my crossed fingers are still very happy with the AIS 50/10 performance and price.

 

3BB Promotion from approx May 2016

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

3BB upped my 100/30 service to 300/50, also came by to install a new router. Nice for wired gigabit ethernet, less so for WiFi given the limitations on 802.11 ac (have to use at least an 80 MHz wide channel).

 

As this is still a 'premium' service international bandwidth also jumped accordingly.

 

Are you sure about 3BB providing you an AC standard wifi router?  If so, what model?

 

I ask because I specifically called 3BB the other day, and talked to their tech support staff (not their regular customer service staff) and was told they ONLY were offering N wifi routers and had no AC wifi routers.

 

Also, I haven't seen them advertise any 300 Mbps service? If that's what you have, what's the pricing for that plan?

 

[Pib]

On 10/28/2016 at 0:42 PM, shariq607 said:

The Ais  edimax router out of the box does not support router mode,  Ais has replaced the original oem firmware for a customized Ais firmware which only supports access point.

 

so out of the box , the edimax router is already configured to be used solely as an access point and you cannot change to other mode unless you download the oem firmware from the edimax website and re flash it to remove the Ais firmware. 

 

The other thing is, even though The edimax supports Ac wifi it is still limited with 100 Mb wan and lan ports which means folks who have speed plans above 100 mb will still be limited with the max throughout being limited to 100 Mbits.

 

Yeap, this afternoon I fired up the Edimax BR-6208AC which the AIS techs left as a freebie doing my AIS 50/10 installation 4 months ago.  Fired it up, played with it for about two hours, and it does indeed come with an AIS Fibre specific firmware load (with firmware AIS banner at the top) that limits its capabilities in certain areas/modes when I compare the available settings/modes/etc at the Edimax website if using their factory firmware.

 

For example, it's limited to Access Point and Wireless Bridge Modes if I remember right versus having the 5 modes advertised on its retail box/manual/specs.   And I'm not sure about this, but I think it limited to 20Mhz channel width although it has a setting called 20/40/80 channel width which its default setting it.  When looking at its 2.4 and 5Ghz signals using the InSSIDer app only a 20MHz channel width appears for the 2.4 and 5Ghz channels which can mean limitation of data throughput..  And the 5GHz channels you can select are all 20Mhz width channels versus some channels which can be 40, 80, 160Mhz channel width.  And I didn't see an setting allowing the bonding of adjacent channels like you do to get say setup a 40Mhz channel width.   

 

I'll probably play with more over the coming weeks....I may even just load the latest factory firmware which will hopefully overwrite the AIS installed firmware.   I saw on the Pantip website where a guy did this...so I may do it to get on the various modes (all 5) capability back and get rid of AIS specific firmware limitations.  

 

 

 

[wpcoe]

I can see ISPs getting into some dicey advertising as they push beyond 100Mbps download speeds if they provide only the cheapest modem/routers with Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) ports and/or 802.11n WiFi.  They can validly (is that a word?) advertise delivering 200Mbps or 300Mbps speeds to your home but their modem throttles that to 100Mbps.  Folks would complain, but technically the advertising is true:  the speed over the incoming cable/wire is high, it's just that the hardware inside the home throttles it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

That was the issue/point I was making in some prior posts here about the value of upgrading to AC standard wifi by adding your own AC wifi router when people begin to move to these higher speed services, such as 3BB's new 200/50 Mbps plan.

 

Right now, 3BB is kind of splitting the difference with part good and part bad. The good part is their standard issue Huawei HG8245H modem-router has 4 Gigabit ethernet ports, so it fully supports having a fully capable add-on AC wifi router of your own. The bad part is their own standard issue Huawei router itself still only tops out with N wifi itself. But I would think at some point, they're going to have to begin offering some ISP-provided AC wifi hardware.

 

[Pib]

Did more speed testing today with the Huawei HG8245G (2.4GHz N300/300Mb with Gigabit/1000Mb ports) which is the primary router provided with my AIS Fibre 50/10 plan.  And the secondary/freebie router AIS provided, an Edimax BR6208AC (AC750/750Mb with Fast/100Mb ports).

 

I was stunned when I noticed today this Edmix AC750 router only had Fast/100Mb ethernet ports (not gigabit/1000Mb ports) to include the input WAN ethernet connector....the 100Mb spec is clearly shown on the back of the box it came in and the online Specifications...partial quote/snapshot from the specs is below.  An AC750/750Mb router with only 100Mb ethernet/WAN ports.  

 

Edimax Specs

 

So, if you are using this Edimax as an Access Point via ethernet wired or Wifi bridge mode (which is the only modes the "AIS specific" firmware allows vs 5 modes for a retail model with factory firmware), then the only way to possibly much exceed the 100Mb port choke-point  like say you had a high speed 200Mb internet plan would to be using it in a Wireless Bridge setup when its input signal source in the perfect world has the possibility of reaching around 750Mb if another 750Mb or higher speed router was feeding/relaying the signal input to Edimax. Like maybe a primary router provided to receive the initial internet input of 200Mb.  Maybe under such a Wifi bridge setup like a  200Mb plan the signal could be bridged at the full 200Mb speed.   But if the Edimax signal input is via its ethernet port then the max the Edimax could send out via Wifi would be around that "100Mb" ethernet port limit.    Yeap, I was stunned to see an AC750 router to have only 100Mb ports.

  

Anyway, in my "data throughput" testing using a 100MB sized file from my home server with has gigabit/1000Mb port this allowed me to feed a signal into in Edimax 100Mb WAN input port at greater than its 100Mb approx max speed...basically ensure 100Mb was hitting the input port.   By approx max I mean a 100Mb ethernet port will actually go beyond 100Mb a little bit on some hardware.   On the other end of the test was my Lenovo laptop about a year old which has an AC433/(433Mb) Wifi circuit on 2.4 and 5Ghz bands.   And I also used my other older Lenovo laptop about 3 years old with a N150 (150Mb) Wifi circuit on 2.4Mhz only.   I had the laptops about 3 meters from the routers with no obstructions.

 

On the Edmiax the max Wifi data throughput speed I could get on a 2.4Ghz channel set to 40Mhz channel width was 68Mb...this was the max I could get with either laptop.  In fact the older laptop with slower N150 Wifi circut pulled that 68Mb while the newer laptop with AC433 Wifi circuit only pulled 60Mb.  

 

I then tried the Edimax on its 5GHz band...and to the best of my knowledge that was a 20MHz channel width although its auto channel setting supposedly allowed it to automatically expand to 40Mhz (actually up to 80Mhz) channel width if required.  But using the InSSIDer app to view the signal it's 5GHz channels would never use anything other than a 20Mhz channel width...maybe some AIS firmware restriction....I don't know.  But the max throughput I could get on 5Ghz was only 46Mb.  Yeap, the 2.4Ghz was beating out the 5Ghz connection.   And when walking around my 2 story concrete house to compare the signal strength level of the Edimax 2.4 and 5Ghz channels the 2.4Hhz was generally 10db stronger....just goes to show the greater penetrating capability of the lower frequency.

 

So, I'm not impressed at all regarding the Edimax router, especially due to it's 100Mb port limitation/choke-point even though it's an AC750 router....glad it was a freebie.  I will probably download/install the firmware for the off the shelf/retail BR6208AC to see if that improves its data throughput speed...and it should give me all 5 modes of operation available talked about earlier in this thread.  I don't use the Edimax for anything (it was also a freebee) as I have another ASUS N300 router about 3 years old I use as my primary Access Point and gives me a more stable Wifi signal than the Huawei or Edimax.  But unfortunately that ASUS only has Fast/100Mb ports also....I knew that when buying it 3 years ago as I wasn't concerned about needing speed faster than 100Mb....oh, how times, change....now wish it had gigabit/1000Mb ports.

 

Now, the results on the Huawei HG8245G primary router that the fibre optics or VDSL cable plugs into carrying your internet input....the primarily router provided by AIS.  Remember this is a 2.4Ghz only and N300/300Mb router...no 5Ghz frequency band.   Channel width set to 40Mhz.  113Mb throughput speed with the older laptop which has a  N150 Wifi circuit and 101Mb with the newer laptop which has a AC433 Wifi circuit.  Once again the older laptop with only a N150 Wifi circuit (Qualcomm) beat out the new laptop with a AC433 Wifi circuit (Intel).   Goes to show a newer/faster "spec'd" Wifi circuit on one of your computers may not give you a faster connection than an older/slower Wifi circuit on another computer you use....spec's may not live up to their hype.  And both computers were connected to the same router at the same router frequency/channel width.   Kinda like two guys passing pails of water to put out a fire....the slower man will dictate the total number of pails passed per period of time by the two men....weakest link in the chain so to say.

 

Just FYI....your results may vary....no doubt plenty of typos above....hope its understandable with all the detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[suzannegoh]

Did more speed testing today with the Huawei HG8245G (2.4GHz N300/300Mb with Gigabit/1000Mb ports) which is the primary router provided with my AIS Fibre 50/10 plan.  And the secondary/freebie router AIS provided, an Edimax BR6208AC (AC750/750Mb with Fast/100Mb ports).
 
I was stunned when I noticed today this Edmix AC750 router only had Fast/100Mb ethernet ports (not gigabit/1000Mb ports) to include the input WAN ethernet connector....the 100Mb spec is clearly shown on the back of the box it came in and the online Specifications...partial quote/snapshot from the specs is below.  An AC750/750Mb router with only 100Mb ethernet/WAN ports.  
 
Edimax Specs

 
So, if you are using this Edimax as an Access Point via ethernet wired or Wifi bridge mode (which is the only modes the "AIS specific" firmware allows vs 5 modes for a retail model with factory firmware), then the only way to possibly much exceed the 100Mb port choke-point  like say you had a high speed 200Mb internet plan would to be using it in a Wireless Bridge setup when its input signal source in the perfect world has the possibility of reaching around 750Mb if another 750Mb or higher speed router was feeding/relaying the signal input to Edimax. Like maybe a primary router provided to receive the initial internet input of 200Mb.  Maybe under such a Wifi bridge setup like a  200Mb plan the signal could be bridged at the full 200Mb speed.   But if the Edimax signal input is via its ethernet port then the max the Edimax could send out via Wifi would be around that "100Mb" ethernet port limit.    Yeap, I was stunned to see an AC750 router to have only 100Mb ports.
  
Anyway, in my "data throughput" testing using a 100MB sized file from my home server with has gigabit/1000Mb port this allowed me to feed a signal into in Edimax 100Mb WAN input port at greater than its 100Mb approx max speed...basically ensure 100Mb was hitting the input port.   By approx max I mean a 100Mb ethernet port will actually go beyond 100Mb a little bit on some hardware.   On the other end of the test was my Lenovo laptop about a year old which has an AC433/(433Mb) Wifi circuit on 2.4 and 5Ghz bands.   And I also used my other older Lenovo laptop about 3 years old with a N150 (150Mb) Wifi circuit on 2.4Mhz only.   I had the laptops about 3 meters from the routers with no obstructions.
 
On the Edmiax the max Wifi data throughput speed I could get on a 2.4Ghz channel set to 40Mhz channel width was 68Mb...this was the max I could get with either laptop.  In fact the older laptop with slower N150 Wifi circut pulled that 68Mb while the newer laptop with AC433 Wifi circuit only pulled 60Mb.  
 
I then tried the Edimax on its 5GHz band...and to the best of my knowledge that was a 20MHz channel width although its auto channel setting supposedly allowed it to automatically expand to 40Mhz (actually up to 80Mhz) channel width if required.  But using the InSSIDer app to view the signal it's 5GHz channels would never use anything other than a 20Mhz channel width...maybe some AIS firmware restriction....I don't know.  But the max throughput I could get on 5Ghz was only 46Mb.  Yeap, the 2.4Ghz was beating out the 5Ghz connection.   And when walking around my 2 story concrete house to compare the signal strength level of the Edimax 2.4 and 5Ghz channels the 2.4Hhz was generally 10db stronger....just goes to show the greater penetrating capability of the lower frequency.
 
So, I'm not impressed at all regarding the Edimax router, especially due to it's 100Mb port limitation/choke-point even though it's an AC750 router....glad it was a freebie.  I will probably download/install the firmware for the off the shelf/retail BR6208AC to see if that improves its data throughput speed...and it should give me all 5 modes of operation available talked about earlier in this thread.  I don't use the Edimax for anything (it was also a freebee) as I have another ASUS N300 router about 3 years old I use as my primary Access Point and gives me a more stable Wifi signal than the Huawei or Edimax.  But unfortunately that ASUS only has Fast/100Mb ports also....I knew that when buying it 3 years ago as I wasn't concerned about needing speed faster than 100Mb....oh, how times, change....now wish it had gigabit/1000Mb ports.
 
Now, the results on the Huawei HG8245G primary router that the fibre optics or VDSL cable plugs into carrying your internet input....the primarily router provided by AIS.  Remember this is a 2.4Ghz only and N300/300Mb router...no 5Ghz frequency band.   Channel width set to 40Mhz.  113Mb throughput speed with the older laptop which has a  N150 Wifi circuit and 101Mb with the newer laptop which has a AC433 Wifi circuit.  Once again the older laptop with only a N150 Wifi circuit (Qualcomm) beat out the new laptop with a AC433 Wifi circuit (Intel).   Goes to show a newer/faster "spec'd" Wifi circuit on one of your computers may not give you a faster connection than an older/slower Wifi circuit on another computer you use....spec's may not live up to their hype.  And both computers were connected to the same router at the same router frequency/channel width.   Kinda like two guys passing pails of water to put out a fire....the slower man will dictate the total number of pails passed per period of time by the two men....weakest link in the chain so to say.
 
Just FYI....your results may vary....no doubt plenty of typos above....hope its understandable with all the detail.
 
 
 
 
 
 

In defense of the Edimax router, they sell for about $33 in the US. So in a sense it could be viewed as being an easy-to-configure WiFi bridge for less than the price of many WiFi adapters.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 minutes ago, Pib said:

I then tried the Edimax on its 5GHz band...and to the best of my knowledge that was a 20MHz channel width although its auto channel setting supposedly allowed it to automatically expand to 40Mhz (actually up to 80Mhz) channel width if required.  But using the InSSIDer app to view the signal it's 5GHz channels would never use anything other than a 20Mhz channel width...maybe some AIS firmware restriction....I don't know.  But the max throughput I could get on 5Ghz was only 46Mb.  Yeap, the 2.4Ghz was beating out the 5Ghz connection.   And when walking around my 2 story concrete house to compare the signal strength level of the Edimax 2.4 and 5Ghz channels the 2.4Hhz was generally 10db stronger....just goes to show the greater penetrating capability of the lower frequency.

 

 

Pib, I have a bit of comparable experience on the subject of 2.4 vs 5 Ghz bands, the signal strengths they show, and the resulting bandwidth/speeds available.

 

When I did similar testing after I first setup my DLink AC 1200 wifi router a few months back, I was dealing with my router in the living room, and my main wifi reception point being various wifi devices in my bedroom about 10 meters straightline distance away separated by a thick masonry/concrete wall floor to ceiling.

 

When I first did the testing with InSSIDER, the RSSI levels were considerably stronger for the 2.4 Ghz band signals vs the 5 Ghz band signals, probably about a similar 10 points higher to what you mentioned. So, I began to wonder what that would mean for my 5 Ghz bandwidth speeds. But when I did my comparison speed tests -- at least with my equipment and in my setting -- the 5 Ghz speeds blew away the 2.4 Ghz speeds, despite 5 Ghz having a lesser measured signal strength. So at that point, I stopped worrying so much about the signal strength readings I was seeing.

 

Of course, different factors could come into play here. My AC router wifi is 1200 Mbps vs 750 for yours. My AC router has Gigabit ethernet while your Edimax has regular Fast ethernet. I probably have more 2.4 Ghz wifi congestion in and around my home than you do at yours. I believe the particular chipset used in the router and what speed in Mhz those chips run at also contributes to what kind of performance you're likely to get.

 

My dual band DLink DIR-860L A1 came with 128 MB of flash memory, 128 MB of RAM and an 800 Mhz Broadcom chipset. That means it's rated for up to 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 867 MHz on the 5 GHz band.

 

 

 

[Pib]

Yeap, and that Edimax router goes for about Bt2,000 here in Thailand like at InvadeIT.

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/wireless-networking/edimax/ac750-multi-function-concurrent-dual-band-wi-fi-router-br-6208ac-p027810/

 

1. Or about Bt1700 at the AIS Store  if not an AIS customer, or even less at the AIS Store if an AIS Fibre customer...Bt1,190 if an AIS Fibre customer.  At time of this posting, the AIS Store shows them out of stock per below weblink, but they'll probably get more as I've watched their stuff go out of stock and then back in stock as the replenish their stocking level.

http://store.ais.co.th/en/accessories/aisfibre/edimax-br-6208ac-dualband.html