Something I’ve noticed since we’ve had fibre Internet rolled out here. We now have 150 Mbps up and down. 802.11ac Deco mesh.
Every device gets 150/150 when we do a speed test except my Windows 11 laptop. The laptop maxes out at around 80 Mbps.
Recent laptop, Intel WiFi 6e, connects as expected on the 5GHz network.
When I connect to the mesh unit in the room using a network cable, I immediately get the expected 150/150.
Any settings I should be looking at on the WiFi config?
WiFi above 5 (or maybe even above 4, would need to research) has bands that can be variable in width. This means the sender and the receiver can use the widest band they can negotiate. It’s possible, for whatever reason, your laptop cannot go as wide as the other devices on your network. OR, correspondingly, it may successfully go even wider, only to run into more congestion from those other devices, leading to a drop off in throughput. Also of note, there is WiFi 6 and 6E and E adds extra channels in the 6GHz range that not every device can use, so it’s possible (if unlikely) that all your devices are [in]capable of the new thing but one?
https://www.reddit.com/r/wifi/comments/mfr7fo/explaining_wifi_6_and_160mhz_channels_using_my/
Thanks, Paul. Yes, our access points are WiFi 5 and the 5 devices in front of me are either 6 or 6e. Interesting info.
I think I found the issue late last night though. It’s the layout of the house. Where the laptop usually sits on a desk, there are large bits of oak in between it and the nearest AP. If I move it so it has a clear line of sight, I get the expected speeds.
Maybe it’s time to add a couple of WiFi 6 or 7 APs 
Even if you grab a new AP there’s no guarantee. With wireless connectivity you’re just tossing packets out into the air with well wishes, hoping you’ll get the desired response in a timely manner. IMO it’s a miracle it works at all.
If it really matters, plug it in.
If you can’t plug it in, the second best choice is to get a nearby mesh node that you can plug in, such that the mesh backhauls over the wired network.
If that doesn’t work, then you get a mesh node that can mesh in a different band than you’re using with the clients. You’d think you’d want to use the 6G network this, but of course the higher the frequency, the more easily it can be blocked by walls and other obstacles. So using the reverse thinking then you’d think you’d use 2.4GHz for the mesh back haul, but that’s probably too crowded and too many IoT devices only support 2.4GHz. So then you hope you can get a mesh node that can serve clients on one part of the 5GHz band and backhaul on the other part of the 5GHz band, but these so called 4-band mesh networking devices are pretty pricey.
It’s the faster Internet that’s made it more noticeable I think. Working on photos, for example, changes take double the time to sync to my library if the laptop is on the desk. Wired isn’t simple as it’s a very old house. Solid floors and walls,
I’ve just tested putting a second AP in same room behind me - fixes the issue. So all I need is one more AP. Or sit somewhere else working on the laptop!
