Network’s losing its mind lol. Moved my secondary router to the basement via a long LAN cable, left the main Huawei ONT upstairs. Now the Huawei WiFi dropped a bar at point-blank range and speeds halved.
To top it off, wired Speedtest is completely flipped (pic attached). DL is choked at 50.52 Mbps but UL is flying at 124.33 Mbps. How does moving a completely separate node tank the main AP’s signal? And what’s up with this crazy download bottleneck?
Check your Ethernet cable going to the basement. If you damaged the pairs while pulling it, or if it’s a cheap CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) cable, it might be dropping down to a lower link speed or causing massive interference. If the secondary router is on the exact same WiFi channel as the main Huawei, and now it’s blasting signal from the basement floors, you might have created a nasty co-channel interference zone. The Huawei might be hearing its own echo, which tanks the SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio). Your phone shows “fewer bars” because the noise floor went up.
Since you have two routers now on different floors, they might be broadcasting on the same Wi-Fi channel. This creates massive co-channel interference, which explains why your Huawei signal dropped even when you stand next to it. The basement router’s signal is bouncing up and choking the Huawei frequency. Install any WiFi analyzer (such as NetSpot) on your laptop and check the scan tab. The analyzer will immediately show your signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and channel interference.
@fastridegeartim Wow, I didn’t think about that. Both are broadcasting 2.4GHz signals.
Check if your longer Ethernet cable is running parallel to power lines. High-voltage cables can create electromagnetic interference that degrades performance. Also, make sure it’s at least a Cat5e or Cat6 cable, not an old Cat5.
@CodeWizard Thanks! It’s a brand new Cat6 cable, but it does run near some electrical wiring in the wall cavity going downstairs. Could that really drop the speed so badly?
Classic “Hidden Node” problem. The basement router and the ground floor Huawei ONT can’t “hear” each other perfectly through the concrete floor, but your device can hear both. They are broadcasting simultaneously and destroying your download packets.
