Download speeds on iPad don’t make sense

[RayP]

I had Full Fibre installed on Monday. Router is in an upstairs bedroom of a 1960 3 bed semi. The Wi-fi signal only has to go through a ceiling to the lounge below. I have the wi-fi Disk in line of sight of the router (ceiling only obstruction) 4ft away from me.

Using Speedtest.net to measure my download speed on a 5Ghz iPad it shows 82.7Mbps download and 95Mbps upload. Before on Fibre / copper I had 50 / 16.

So whilst the upload speed has increased by 600% the download speed is only 66% faster.

This makes no sense. Is something throttling the download speed? No other devices were in use during the test and I’ve tried it several times all with similar numbers.

[RayP]

In the same position in my lounge I can download at 159Mbps on a 2 year-old Windows 10 laptop but only upload at 16-20Mbps.

On a 2 year old Android smartphone it's 234Mbps download. No upload was performed.

Might the fact the iPad is 7 years old be a factor?But uploads on the iPad are excellent.

All are with Wi-Fi. Anyone care to comment?

[imjolly]

Can you try again but using an ethernet connection as WiFi unreliable 

[RayP]

“Can you try again but using an ethernet connection as WiFi unreliable ”

Ethernet on an iPad? 🤔 And Wi-fi is not unreliable. I have kit connected to it for months with no dropouts.

I can accept download speeds will be lower via Wi-fi but not huge disparities like this with an iPad uploading faster than a download.  And given my smart TV shows a 100% signal strength on 5Ghz I think we can take it the strength of the signal in the lounge is not the issue. I have. Wi-fi disk there too.

[ctrlz]

Does your windows laptop not have an ethernet connection? I assume that's what the previous post referred to.

[RayP]

“Does your windows laptop not have an ethernet connection? I assume that's what the previous post referred to.”

Yes it does and download speeds are 800+Mbps. But that’s when I’m in the room where the router is.

But the huge disparity with Wi-fi is not making sense. Why would uploading be faster than downloading on an iPad? If someone could answer that please. Do those of you with an iPad have the same issue?

[Will168]

@RayP No, I do not experience that on my iPad. Both my wi-fi mesh and iPad are on wi-fi 5, so I get about 350-400 Mbps down on the iPad and 110 Mbps up and can’t really hope for much more. I expect to see a bump in the download speeds when I eventually go wi-fi 6 in the coming months.

Via ethernet on the iPad, I get the full 900 Mbps down and 110 Mbps.

[RayP]

@Will168 , thanks. How old is your iPad? I’m running iOS 12.5.4.

What’s Wi-fi 5? Slower than full fibre?

Are you Using BT Smart hub 2? I’m wondering if my TP-Link VR2800 might be faster even though it won’t have a mesh disk downstairs. It would be in the same position as the SH2 upstairs firing through the ceiling.

[Will168]

@RayP The iPad is 3 years old, running iPadOS 14.7.1. But I’ve tried it on my nephew’s iPad before, which us about the same age as your’s and it was the same result as on my iPad.

Wi-Fi 5 is an iteration of wi-fi standard and probably the most common at the moment, referred to as “ac” in most advertising. Wi-fi 6 is the “ax” supported equipment that you see.

Technically, in perfect lab conditions, wi-fi 5 can support gigabit speeds, but in real world, from my experience, the best you could hope for is probably around 400 Mbps.

Test results are reasonably good on the SmartHub 2 over wi-fi, in the range of 200 to 300 Mbps down. But to achieve that, I have to be in the same room as the SH2. As soon as I start moving into different rooms, the speed suffers significantly. Hence, I went for a mesh solution, as it is a lot more stable and consistent for speeds.

I can’t comment about your TP Link router, as I don’t know anything about it. It could well perform better, as the SH2 isn’t necessarily great for wi-fi performance. But  Wi-fi is highly variable depending on setup, local environment etc. and can be  relatively unreliable. Good wi-fi signal doesn’t always mean good wi-fi quality.

Probably worth taking a few minutes to plug in and set up your TP Link though and see what difference it would make?

[RayP]

@Will168 , my iPad is capable of “ac” so I should be getting similar performance to you. Interesting you say the SH2 is not great with Wi-fi. You’d imagine having a separate disk in the lounge would improve things considerably.

I take it your mesh router is an independent, not BT supplied. I’ll plug my TP-Link in tomorrow and try a test. As things stand the Wi-fi disk is doing very little.