Troubleshooting low upload rate

Note: This visualization is available only for the Pro and Enterprise versions of NetSpot.

Upload speed is the rate at which the information can be transmitted from a client device. It is measured in Mbps (megabits per second). NetSpot calculates this speed during Active Scanning, by sending queries to servers and measuring the speed at which information is sent and received.

NetSpot has two visualizations that show your upload rate: Upload Speed and Troubleshooting: Low Upload Rate (both are only available in the Pro and Enterprise versions). If your network has areas of low upload speed, then your first step should be to deselect all of your APs on the left sidebar and then re-select them one by one. Try to narrow down which APs are affected.

Strategies for Increasing Upload Rate

• If there’s a more powerful (but slower) AP next to a faster (but less powerful) one, you should disable the slower AP. This will allow your clients to automatically connect to the faster AP.
• Still using outdated 802.11a/b/g/n equipment? It may be time to make a switch to 802.11ac.
• Enable support of 802.11n HT and 802.11e (WMM). Enable support of 40 MHz channels on the 5 GHz band. These technologies improve the throughput and performance of your wireless network, and will increase the number of simultaneously connected users which can be handled without serious issues. At least enable automatic selection of 20/40 MHz channels.
• Disable support for 802.11b protocol, leaving only support for 802.11g.  Disabling 802.11b will automatically double the throughput of your radio-channels. If you can, disable 802.11g as well, and support only 802.11n and 802.11ac. It’s hard to find a Wi-Fi adapter that will not support n-protocol these days, so it is unlikely that you will be leaving any of your clients out of the connection zone. Most of the modern adapters will only emulate support of the older standards, and will natively work on 802.11n only. Stay informed about the peculiarities of your network devices, and try not to keep outdated devices that will slow down your whole network.
• It’s possible that your network is overloaded: if your APs have to keep too many users connected simultaneously, speed will suffer. Increasing the number of APs in your network will solve this problem.
•  If your client adapters that are overloaded, you will need to analyze the source of network traffic to/from your users, and either modify the traffic volume or upgrade the adapters.
• It’s possible that some of your network appliances are just slow (100 Mbit LAN adapters, etc). It’s important to keep your hardware consistent. For instance, make sure all your network adapters are working on 1 Gbit/s.
• Some networks utilize Wi-Fi repeaters or extenders (WDS, no cable connection). In this case, the speed for connections routed through the repeaters will automatically be twice as slow, as the repeater needs to communicate with the host AP and the client simultaneously. So it’s recommended to connect APs using cable, wherever possible.
• Interference may also negatively influence transmit rates. See Troubleshooting Overlapping Channels (SIR).