Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 constantly very slow up-/download rate

[TEndres]

Dear Intel-Support Community,

I can only reach a maximum download rate of 2Mbit/s (and slower) when connecting to my Fritz!box 7530 router. When connecting to a repeater in my home network I can reach much higher download rates. Router and repeater use both the same 2.4G network.

I manually reinstalled the Wi-Fi driver of the device (AX200). I changed and tested all different Wireless modes 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and limited the frequency band to 20Mhz. But not one of these settings increased the download rate.

Can you please help me with this troubleshooting?

I attached the following documents:

-Report of the Intel Driver & Support Assistant.

-Fritz!Box 7530 Wi-Fi Status of the Wi-Fi 6 AX200 client (DESKTOP-IHS54TS)

[Alberto_Sykes]

TEndres, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

In order for us to provide the most accurate assistance for this scenario, we just wanted to confirm a few details about your system:

What is the model of the motherboard?

If this is a laptop, what is the model of it?

Is this a new computer?

Was it working fine before?

When did the issue start?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes?

The wireless card, did you purchased it separately or did it came installed in the computer?

Which Windows* version are you using?

Does the problem happen at home or work environment?

Please provide the SSU report so we can verify further details about the components in your platform, please check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs"

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[TEndres]

Dear Albert R.

Thank you for your quick reply. My answers to your questions below:

-What is the model of the motherboard?
Motherboard Manufacturer: BESSTAR TECH LIMITED
Motherboard Product: DMAF5
Version: V1.0; BIOS-Version: AF5NV402

-If this is a laptop, what is the model of it?
It is a Mini-PC from Minisforum; Model: DMAF5.

-Is this a new computer?
Yes, I purchased it about 2 weeks ago.

-Was it working fine before?
No, I have this issue since I started using it.

-When did the issue start?
See last answer.

-Did you make any recent hardware/software changes?
No, I only updated Windows, Intel drivers with the Intel Driver&Support Assistant, and AMD drivers with Radeon Software.

-The wireless card, did you purchased it separately or did it came installed in the computer?
It was installed in the system when I purchased it. I attached a Spec-Sheet of the Mini-PC.

-Which Windows* version are you using?
I am using Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) Version 2009, OS-Build 10.0.19042

-Does the problem happen at home or work environment?
I only tested it at home environment so far.

As requested I attached the SSU-report.

Thank you very much in advance for your assistance.
Best regards,
TEndres

[Khun_Doug]

It will be helpful to know the type of PC or laptop you are using to connect to the WIFi in your residence. Also, it will be good to know what OS and what version or patch level.

The fact that you can reach better throughput via the extender versus directly to the router is an important piece to the resolution. Have you tried turning off the extender and connecting directly to router? It is possible the extender is creating a conflict between your PC and the router.

In the Fritz!box, are there wireless settings other than SSID and security that can be adjusted? It is possible the defaults for the Fritz!box are not the optimal settings to get the best link with your PC whereas the extender has different settings/defaults and those are more optimal for your PC.

[Alberto_Sykes]

TEndres, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing that information.

Khun_Doug, Thank you very much for your comments as well.

Just to let you know, we always recommend to install the Wireless driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer, since that driver was heavily customized by them to work with your specific platform.

I looked on Minisforum's web site and the latest Intel® Wireless driver version available in there is actually the one showing on our Intel® web site, which is 22.10.0.7, and as showing in the SSU report, that is the driver currently installed.

Could you please provide the information requested on these 2 questions? That will be really helpful in order to determine what might be the source of the issue:

"The fact that you can reach better throughput via the extender versus directly to the router is an important piece to the resolution. Have you tried turning off the extender and connecting directly to router? It is possible the extender is creating a conflict between your PC and the router."

"In the Fritz!box, are there wireless settings other than SSID and security that can be adjusted? It is possible the defaults for the Fritz!box are not the optimal settings to get the best link with your PC whereas the extender has different settings/defaults and those are more optimal for your PC."

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[Alberto_Sykes]

TEndres, I just wanted to check if you saw the information posted previously and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[TEndres]

Dear Albert R.

Sorry for the late answer. I oversaw your 2 additional questions. My answers below:

Question: "The fact that you can reach better throughput via the extender versus directly to the router is an important piece to the resolution. Have you tried turning off the extender and connecting directly to router? It is possible the extender is creating a conflict between your PC and the router."

Answer: I tried turning off the extender but and connected directly to the router. But there was no improvement. In fact I use two different SSID's for Router and extender to have a better connection overview.

Question: "In the Fritz!box, are there wireless settings other than SSID and security that can be adjusted? It is possible the defaults for the Fritz!box are not the optimal settings to get the best link with your PC whereas the extender has different settings/defaults and those are more optimal for your PC."

Answer: I use a different SSID for Router and extender. The security settings are the same for both SSID's (WPA2).

To be honest this new mini-PC is the first client that shows connection issues with my fritz!box router.
I connected the mini-pc to a different Wi-fi network with a different router and could not recognise any issues.

I found another thread where a user seems to have similiar connection issues between a fritz!box and the Wi-Fi 6 AX200 unit. So it seems for me that there is a incompatibility issue with this new Intel Wi-Fi unit and fritz!box unit. I guess this problem will only be solved with a new driver update. But I guess this is going to take a while to be provided by Intel.

Link to the thread: 
https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/AX200-unstable-WiFi-connection/td-p/722708/page/2

Regards,
TEndres

[Khun_Doug]

Albert,

I'm not bashing the Fritz!Box, but in your case and in other threads that reference disconnect and throughput issues where the other user has a Fritz!Box, the common thread is the Fritz!Box. These problems don't appear to be reported enmasse with people that have DLink, or Cisco, or Asus.

When I mention settings for the wireless, I do not mean the SSID. On the Fritz!Box with the 2.4 GHz band, is there a place where you can adjust values like RTS Threshold, Airtime Fairness, Modulation Scheme, Preamble Type,  and anything to do with Beamforming. All of these settings exist to help in situations where default settings do not work properly.

Since your extender works and direct connect to the Fritz!Box is problematic, I believe the extender is using a different wireless chipset than the Fritz!Box. I would look at the advanced settings and adjust those to see if you can get a more stable connection. Only adjust one thing at a time and then do an evaluation.

[n_scott_pearson]

Thank you @Khun_Doug, good response that deserved more than just a kudo.
...S

[Alberto_Sykes]

Hello TEndres, Khun_Doug mentioned that "I would look at the advanced settings and adjust those to see if you can get a more stable connection. Only adjust one thing at a time and then do an evaluation."

Did you try those steps, is the problem the same?

And yes, it seems that the issue could be related to compatibility with the Fritz!Box Router. However, after checking the specifications of the Router we can see that it is using AC not AX that is why it will be very useful then to set it up for AC optimal settings as the peers mentioned or get an AX Router. You can always get in contact directly with Fritz!Box support for further assistance on the Router settings:

https://en.avm.de/contact/

https://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7530/technical-data/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[TEndres]

Hello Khun_Doug, hello R. Albert,

I could finally solve the connection issue. The cause of this problem was that the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 falsely recognized the 2.4G network as a 5G network and tried to connect with the 802.11ac protocol. Unluckily only forcing the unit into 802.11n protocol did not solve the issue. Additionaly to this changing I had to set Preferred band to 2.4G. Now I can get the full down/upload rate of my fritz!box network.

The question is why did the AX200 misunderstandingly see the 2.4G network as a 5G network?

Regards,
TEndres

[Alberto_Sykes]

Hello TEndres, Thank you very much for letting us know those results.

Perfect, excellent, it is great to hear that the problem got fixed after setting the preferred band to 2.4G and now you can get the full down/upload rate of the fritz!box network. Thank you very much as well for sharing that workaround.

You asked "why did the AX200 misunderstandingly see the 2.4G network as a 5G network?", the reason for that is the signal that the Router is sending, the issue seems to be related to a compatibility problem between the Intel® Wireless card and the Router, or a problem with the Router itself since it does not support the AX procotol.

For testing purposes, do you have the option to test or to use another Router?

Did you check if there is a firmware update available for it?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[Alberto_Sykes]

Hello TEndres, I just wanted to check if the information posted previously was useful for you and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_Sykes]

Hello TEndres, Since I have not heard back from you, we are closing the case, but if you have any additional questions, please post them on a new thread so we can further assist you with this matter.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician