Fast download speed, very slow upload speed Intel WiFi6 AX201 160MHz

[Lynxes]

Hello,

I'm using an Intel WiFi 6 AX201 160MHz wireless adapter, pre installed on my motherboard MSi MAG Tomahawk WiFi DDR4.

Here's the situation, I've been using this wireless adapter for a long time with my previous routers, previously I had a Vodafone WiFi 6 station (specifications are unknown) and I would use WiFi 6 on 5GHz band without an issue, speed test would show around 600 mbps download and 500 mbps upload.

Recently however, I decided to change router and install OpenWRT on a Banana Pi R3, I enabled WiFi 6 on the 5GHz with the following settings:

• Encryption: mixed WPA2/WPA3 PSK, SAE (CCMP)
• Mode: AX
• Channel: 52, I selected this one since with the current power of 20 dBm is the least used channel, it did in fact show an increase in WiFi download performance, it did not alter WiFi upload performances.
• Width: 160 MHz also used for the highest possible performances
• Maximum Transmit Power: 20 dBm
• Country Code: Set to my country
• everything else it default

With my Android device, right next to the router, I get 900 mbps download and upload, if I move the phone next to the PC in question, I still get around 800 mbps both down and up.

With my PC I get about 800 mbps download and...... 5 mbps upload, the highest I've seen was 13. Same speedtest server, I have also tried some local transfer and even an iperf benchmark going directly to the router, no difference, the issue is in the WiFi itself.

I have always used the default drivers, but I tried uninstalling those and installing the latest downloaded from the Intel website, I have also tried (as suggested on another ticket) to uninstall MSi Control Center, which did not make a difference.

On a Linux NAS running Kernel 6.8.9 (arch1-2) with an Intel BE200 I get 530 Mbps download and 277 mbps upload. Which is weird, since as far as I know the BE200 card should be better, and since it uses the same antennas that my Desktop is using, but regardless, does show an already more acceptable (though, still not what I'd expect 277 mbps) upload speed.

I unfortunately do not have any more ideas and I am not enough of an expert to know what have I done that might be wrong, but I do thank you in advance for your assistance.

In case further details are required, feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide what is requested.

Best regards.

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Lynxes,

Thank you for posting in Intel Communities.

For me to further check this issue, please help provide the log file from Intel® System Support Utility for Windows*. This will help us be more familiar with your system configuration and check for possible errors. Have you also tried checking the Recommended Settings for 802.11ax Connectivity? Additionally, what speed test applications/tool was used for checking?

I will be waiting for your reply.

Best regards,

Jeanette C.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[Lynxes]

Hello,

I have attached a the output of the scan using the request tool on default settings.

As for the recommended settings for 802.11ax, I have left the defaults which do indeed match with what was suggested on the page.

As for the speed testing, several methods have been used, all using the same access point and connecting to the same speedtest.net server.

1. From the Windows 11 device
2. From another Desktop running Linux and using an Intel BE200 card, it uses the same pair of antennas connected to the Windows 11 PC and the default provided provided by recent Linux kernel releases.
   It worked better, but also seemed to suffer some performances problem (though, nowhere near as bad, 500 mbps down and 250 mbps up)
3. From and Android device, both close to the router (about 850/900 mbps both up and down) and the same distance as the other devices (800/850 mbps both up and down).
4. From the router itself, so without passing through the WiFi access point, result is always 1gbps down, 1 gbps up
5. Using Iperf3, the server would be hosted on the router and the client would the Windows 11 device, poor performances have been noticed during upload on this test too.

Those tests have been conducted multiple times, on different days, different times of day and one after the other, so although sometimes the overall WiFi performances can decrease, it's not a margin of error thing I'm afraid

I have full access to the router which is running OpenWrt, so if there is any potentially useful information you may need me to extract from there related to the WiFi, feel free to ask.

Thanks for your support!

Best regards

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Lynxes,

Thank you for sharing the details. We'll coordinate this with our team and promise to get back to you as soon as possible within this thread.

Best regards,

Jeanette C.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[Lynxes]

Hello Jeanette,

first of all, thank you for the help, I think there is no need to proceed with further investigations.

I found out that the issue lied in a software auto installed by the Motherboard during the first startup, it's an MSi Software called somethign Center. It seems that it enabled some kind of configuration somewhere, which remained active even after the software has been removed.

The solution was downloading another copy of MSi Dragon Center (not exactly the one I had but good enough) and disable "Lan Manager", from there uninstall the application, now the upload works perfectly fine and as expected.

Regardless, thanks for the provided support.

I wish you a great day and a great weekend.

Best regards

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Lynxes,

In an effort to further diagnose the connectivity issue, we would like to suggest the following steps:

1. Alternate Access Points: Have you attempted to connect through different access points, such as another router or modem, to verify if the issue persists across various networks?

2. Band Selection: For diagnostic purposes, can you switch the Preferred Band to either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz? When selecting the 5 GHz band, it may be beneficial to test on channels 36, 40, 44, or 48 to observe any variations in performance.

3. Driver Update: We recommend updating the wireless driver to the most recent version available. You may consider trying driver version 23.40.0.4 provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and version 23.50.0.6 available on our website. After updating, please assess if there are any notable changes in connectivity.

I will be waiting for your reply.

Best regards,

Jeanette C.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

[JeanetteC_Intel]

Hello Lynxes,

Sorry to have overlooked your post dated ‎05-23-2024.

And thank you for sharing this key to get this issue resolved. This may help other users who may experience the same issue you've had.

We will proceed in closing this thread. Should you need assistance in the future, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Sincerely,

Jeanette C.

Intel® Customer Support Technician