wifi configuration

cmdima

Hi guys, I have a doubt, perhaps theres something Im not getting at all...

I use kodi 17.4 with retropie and I see loss in performance while streaming media, in some cases is impossible to see content. I performed a speed test with the ares addon and gives me a speed of 0,2 mb/s. I perform the same test with my cellphone next to the pi and I have a download speed of 3 mb/s.

I tried connecting the ethernet cable to the pi and I have the same speed measure with the phone. I called my internet provider and increased the bandwith to 10 mb, now with the new bandwith I perform the same test and have the same results.

I check the connection of the pi and is connected, I have an IP assigned and everything.

Fooling around the internet I came accros the power managment of the wifi (iwconfig) I found that the power management is on. I turned it off and checked the speed of the connection and now I obtained a beautiful 3 mb/s of internet speed (I was expecting 8 at least).

Can this be the cause of the low speed via wifi using kodi, that after a certain time goes to a kind a power saving mode and connects at low speed?. Which is the default configuration? I started having difficulties after an update of the system

I think I have the raspbian jesse installed...

Hope to hear your comments.

Thanks in advance

Charly

Drakaen391

how far is the router from the Pi? (as in same room, or such)

Do you live in an apartment?

also, whats the speed when connected to the Pi?

What are you using to test the speed?

Last, Was your phone still showing 3mb wireless after the upgrade?

cmdima

I live in a house, the router is about 4 or 5 meters from the Pi, there`s a wall in between but there are open spaces in betwenn.

I`m using the speedtest app in my cell phone, the same the ARES wizard uses to test the connection.

When connected the Pi I measure the speed and is still in 9 mbps. And the pi shows nothing. I don't want to think that there are issues with th pi's antenna...

Shadowron

@cmdima Funny you mention this. Last week my old modem got fried, had no problems with this model. Got a different model from my ISP and Kodi is almost unusable. For example if i use Youtube on 720p i see the buffering icon more than the actual video.

Mobile phone everything works fine (9.1 Mbits/s). Just tested my pi with speedtest-cli and got a whooping download speed of 0.11 Mbits/s(!). Even the upload speed was 0.91 Mbits/s.

Gonna dive further into this as i'm quite sure this has to do with my new modem.

Edit: second test gave me 0.05 down and 1.32 up.

jonnykesh

It's definitely not a hardware issue with the Pi. Just tested mine using speedtest-cli and I get:

Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from BT (86.xxx.xxx.xxx)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Wi-Manx Limited (Douglas) [104.73 km]: 41.776 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 64.73 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed....................................................................................................
Upload: 17.83 Mbit/s

Have you set your WiFi country properly?
Maybe try changing channels on your router.

Shadowron

@jonnykesh Thanks for confirming. What i tried so far.

Disable power management on pi
Set WiFi country on pi
Disable QoS and WMM
Changed 802.11 modes
Changed channels

None gave any improvement.

Drakaen391

@shadowron can you run speedtest-cli and paste what it says?

Drakaen391

here is mine

pi@pibox:~/scripts $ speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Comcast Cable (xx.xxx.xx.xxx)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Sprint (St. Paul, MN) [41.34 km]: 63.78 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 20.79 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed.....................................................................................
Upload: 12.36 Mbit/s
pi@pibox:~/scripts $ speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Comcast Cable (xx.xxx.xx.xxx)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by CenturyLink (Saint Paul, MN) [41.93 km]: 61.278 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 37.64 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed....................................................................................................

My actual speed is 200 Mps down 13 Up

But as you can see where it pings makes a huge difference

Shadowron

@drakaen391 I did release the entire DHCP table and the speedtests seem a bit better now. Most of time 5 Mbits/s down and 1 up. Seen one run that gave 0.2Mbits/s down on 7 or 8 tries. Kodi still as slow as before, unable to stream 720p. But don't mind, i will get another modem tomorrow. My previous one never gave any issues.

cmdima

@shadowron said in wifi configuration:

bile phone everything works fin

@Shadowron the same thing that happens to me, and if you connect the ethernet cable you have the whole speed.

Now that you mention my internet provider sent me a new modem time ago. I'll run the speedtest-cli and paste the image and check the modem country configuration.

Shadowron

@cmdima What brand of modem do you have? Maybe it's brand specific? I have a ZyXEL.

Shadowron

A little update about this situation.

I've contacted my ISP and i can't seem to switch out the modem. They sent me some firmware updates, which also didn't help. The solution they offered me was, buying an external WiFi adapter or hookup a router to the modem. Both options are out of the question for me.

But now something I can't put my head around. As said previously most of times i get speed under 1 Mbit/s, but as soon I transfer files over to the pi by SFTP i get much better speeds (atleast 5 Mbit/s stable). This proves there is nothing wrong with the signal or antenna in my case.