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Internet based speed test sites are not very useful for testing ethernet links: The speed test effectively tests the performance of the slowest "hop" between the test device and the test server and for Internet speed tests, that is almost always your ISP link. To test local links, one is better off to use tools such as NetIO or iPerf which essentially let you create speed test server locally and take the ISP link (and everything beyond) out of the equation.
To be sure to test an gigabit link at gigabit speeds, you need to create a pathway between the NetIO/iperf server and the client that is gigabit (or better) all the way.
That said, if your computer is saying the faceplate link is running at gigabit, then it almost certainly is - gigabit generally works full speed or not at all. Using the UTP to your cabin and hanging an AP on the end of it should give you the best performance. It is doubtful the ethernet link is the problem.
This suggests something else is going wrong. I don't know the Tenda kit, but I'd want to look at the management app and see if it will tell me whether the nodes are using wired or Wi-Fi backhaul. If possible, even force the one in the cabin (if not all of them) to use wired backhaul wherever you have it.
Also, when testing, beware of "Big Wi-Fi Myth Number 2" that client devices are always "hunting for the best signal." They do not, and some clients need it to get pretty grotty before they roam. You could be sat right next to an AP, but if your client has decided to "talk" to another one further away with less good performance, you would of course see the performance from that AP rather than the one you are nearest.
Client devices, not "the system," decide which AP to "talk" to (called Associate with in Wi-Fi speak) and clients also decide if/when to roam between AP's. Even when you first power up a Wi-Fi client, it doesn't necessarily Associate with the nearest AP, so don't "just assume" that because you can "see" a particular AP close by, your client is talking to that AP.
Some Wi-Fi system have a few "tricks" up their sleeve to try and encourage client to roam more readily, but it is still ultimately up to the client to decide if/when to initiate a roaming assessment and decide whether to switch AP's or not.
Thusly, if your AP's all have the same SSID, you literally won't know which one you are talking to unless you have a special tool that tells you.
For testing purposes, one way to get around this (if the Tenda will let you) is to temporarily assign each AP a different SSID, then test them all one by one. Once you have them all working just so, then change the SSID's back to being all the same. It's the sort of thing we do when verifying/troubleshooting enterprise systems. (Or more likely, we'll wander round, give each AP a "test" SSID, check it, then rename SSID back to the same as the rest of the fleet.) |
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