802.11ac Settings for Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 Settings

[SSmit40]

I have an HP Pavilion 15-au123cl notebook with an Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 adapter. My internet is Google Fiber full Gigabit (1000 mbps) service. I am only getting about 65mbps download and 165mbps upload with this setup. The router is the newer Google Fiber Network Box that supports 802.11ac and I am using the 5Ghz band exclusively with the notebook.

I was expecting much better performance from the 802.11ac setup and believe there must be a problem with my adapter settings. I am not highly technical, and am looking for information on how to configure my adapter, etc. to achieve higher wireless connection speeds (and hopefully not half the speed for uploading as downloading).

BTW: I have confirmed that the Google Fiber runs around 950mbps upload and download when I connect with a ethernet cable directly to the Google Fiber Network Box (although not using the Pavilion which only supports 10/100 ethernet) so I know the internet connection is not a barrier.

Pavilion 15-au123cl

[idata]

Hello heywire225,

Your question has been moved over to the Intel® Wireless Support Community.We understand you have a Gigabit internet service and would like to get the best performance out of your laptop using the https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/dual-band-wireless-ac-3168-brief.html Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168.It's important to mention that your wireless adapter is a 1x1 model (one antenna supporting one data stream). Using Wireless-AC, this adapter's maximum raw connection rate is 433 Mb/s, since this number does not account for network overhead and limiting factors (network overhead, user congestion, distance, obstacles such as walls, interference, etc), https://blogs.intel.com/technology/2014/06/throughput-stupid/ the maximum throughput should be expected at ~216 Mb/s.In order to better assist you, we would like the following:1. A report generated using the Intel® System 1. Download the latest https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293 Intel® SSU. 2. While connected to your WiFi, select to scan "everything." 3. Save and name this report.2. Your NETSH interfaces output 1. In the search box on the taskbar, type Command prompt, press and hold (or right-click) Command prompt, and then select Run as administrator > Yes. 2. Enter: netsh wlan show interface 3. In the search box on the taskbar, type Snipping Tool > take a screenshot of the output from the command, save and name the picture.We look forward to hearing back from you.Best regards,Carlos A.

[SSmit40]

Carlos,

Thank you for your response. I have spent a lot of time on the phone with Google and they feel their system is working properly and point out that the adapter reports it is connecting at 390 Mbps up and down. I have attached the reports you requested as well as a speed test using the Google Fiber test. As you can see, the speed test indicates 78.2 Mbps download and 172 Mbps upload. The Google Fiber connection is symmetrical and tests at over 900Mbps both up and down with a direct ethernet connection and I was hoping to find out why the download speed is so slow. The test was completed with my laptop plugged in and within line of sight approximately 12 ft. from the Google Network Box.

I will await your thoughts and thank you again.

[idata]

Hello heywire225,

A sent/receive rate of 390 Mbps is low, but not unusually so.You may want to try manually setting your wireless channel on your router, or toggling it's Quality of Service (QoS), WMM or Priority Access list settings. We can also recommend updating to the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27309/Wireless-Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Windows-10 latest driver for your adapter.However, this may be close to the https://blogs.intel.com/technology/2014/06/throughput-stupid/ maximum possible throughput for this system.Best regards,Carlos A.

[SSmit40]

Carlos,

I appreciate the information.

FYI: I downloaded the updated driver you provided, with no change in the performance of my wireless speed--still about 80Mbps down and 170Mbps upload with a Google Fiber connection that runs over 900Mbps when connected directly with ethernet, but then I took your second suggestion of manually changing my wireless network's broadcast channel and my upload speed and download speeds magically became symmetrical at over 200Mbps up and down.

Google Fiber provides very few user-available controls with their router, but there is the opportunity to switch from the default Auto channel selection to choose between either Channel 36 or Channel 149 when using the 5Ghz band, so I tried both. Channel 149 provided no change, but when I manually chose Channel 36, everything fell into place...for now.

BTW: Google Fiber's support people strongly discouraged changing the channel from the default "Auto" setting when I spoke with them. They said the system should pick the best channel when set to Auto, but that obviously was not the case with my system.

Thank you very much for your assistance!

[idata]

Hello heywire,

Thanks for your reply. It is good to know you're now getting the expected download and upload speed after switching channels.On most cases it is indeed recommended to leave the settings as "auto". However, there are scenarios where custom configurations work better, which is why the option to manually change channels exists.Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.Best regards,Eugenio F.

[ZakiTheBad]

esque ces possible d'avoir plus de 10Gbits/s avec le intel r dual band wireless-ac 3168 driver ?

[n_scott_pearson]

Did you perhaps mean Mb/s? If not, then the answer is No; the Wireless-AC 3168 card is (only) capable of supporting 433Mb/s. 

[Aside: I know of no wireless card that supports more than 4.7Gb/s - and even that requires a special tri-band router.]

Hope this helps,

...S

P.S. Here is link to download Wireless-AC 3168 Product Brief: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-briefs/dual-band-wireless-ac-3168-brief.pdf.