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Are people interested in multi-client stress tests on routers? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by SamB@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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I asked this same question on Reddit and I got zero engagement, so perhaps Lemmy has people that care more about their hardware.

I recently decided to use some of the tools provided by Mr Salter (netburn) and I have to ask the community if you want to see multi-client stress tests (4K streaming, VoIP, web browsing) used on a wireless router or if the single-client iperf tests are good enough. Bear in mind that pretty much all publications that still test their devices (most don't) rely on the single-client test method.

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[–] Devion@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I recently ran into an issue with my home network where I suspected that the current wifi router (3-point mesh) couldn't handle all the clients simultaneously. Not in a manner of throughput, but just with keeping all the devices online in the first place.

I have at minimum 30 clients online all the time, up to a max of 40 or something, depending on who's home or what is active. (Went a bit overboard with home automation and stuff.)

I was getting random disconnects or stalling wifi on some of the devices. The coverage was fine, so I figured it was just the number of wifi signals that was overwhelming the AP.

Point of the story: I was disappointed that absolutely no review/benchmark ever pays attention to this kind of upper limit that seems to exist in practice. It's all range and speed, but never about the maximum number of active clients.

I've replaced the mesh network and everything is fine now. But I had to trial and error that shit...

[–] SamB@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

It isn't really about the maximum number of client devices, it's what they do, what type of standard are they a part of, how far away, the interference (!). This is why it's pretty much impossible to put a number and say: hey, this TP-Link router will handle 30 client devices, while this Asus router goes up to 100.. In a sense, a multi-client stress test kind of addresses this issue, but it kind of doesn't. It's because it's extremely dependent on the conditions that the tester has in their lab/office/home.

One thing to check on a review could be the attenuation as a better factor than the distance (this way, you can reproduce the result in your house even if just with a single-client test).