USB wifi as mobile hotspot: 5ghz 400mbs not 866hz

[GaryJKings]

Hey, I'm drawing a blank here so hopefully someone in here is a little smarter.

I'm using a USB wifi adapter on my PC as a mobile hotspot, specifically to connect my Oculus Quest 2 straight to my PC rather than my router to decrease latency when playing PCVR games.

This wifi adapter advertises itself as being capable of operating at 866mbs on the 5ghz band, and 400mbs at the 2.4ghz band. But when I connect to my oculus, it reads as 5ghz but only reports a speed of 400mbs.

I'm using a TP-Link AC1300 high gain usb (archer T3U Plus), if that helps.

I'm unsure why this is but I've jumped through all the driver update hoops, and messed with a few settings I only half understand in Device Manager to force it to 5ghz by setting it to 802 11ac. This is what forced it to 5ghz but I'm not sure how to improve it from here. Any ideas?

 

[WJA96]

The 866Mbps advertised is the theoretical maximum throughput of the chipset. And WiFi is a simplex communication method so it transmits then shuts down and waits for an answer. Once it gets an answer, it transmits again. Under perfect conditions, you would therefore only expect to get 50% of the maximum rated speed (866/2=433Mbps) so it seems like you’re getting about the maximum throughput your device is capable of.

 

[GaryJKings]

If that's the case, I'm curious why it reads exactly 400 rather than 433. Disappointing that it's stuck on "half" but it's just good enough at what I need it for to have made it worth keeping around. But had I known this, I'd probably have spent a little more.

 

[WJA96]

Surely the fact that the ‘Marketing’ department claim it’s a 1300Mbps access point should have given you a clue about the fact that there is a lot of bs in WLAN?

Why are you getting 400Mbps rather than 433? Simple. 866/433 is the theoretical maximum. Not the real maximum in your location. I’ve never actually seen anyone get the theoretical maximum, indeed 400Mbps is excellent on a 2x2 access point. But interference from other wireless networks is a possibility, plus the moment you use more than one wireless client you reduce the speed. And most access points can’t even talk on 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously as they use the same wired LAN controller to talk to the router so again, I would say 400Mbps is excellent.

If you bought the access point by mail order you may be in the return window under DSR so you could send it back. Do be aware though even if you buy a 1733Mbps or 2400Mbps access point they may not be any faster because your device may be 2x2 or 3x3 and not able to use all the available WLAN channels.

 

[GaryJKings]

Yeah, it's certainly not a bad wireless adapter, but I am using it for a deeply specific purpose, and took that risk when I bought it. Glad it works for that purpose as well as it does. Thanks for your insight. I half expected an answer like this but thanks for going into detail.