T4U USB working 2x faster than Fenvi T919 on Catalina - Ideas?

[bhuether]

Hi,

Lately I have been using a TP Link T4U USB card for my internet connection, while waiting for delivery of a Fenvi t919. I received the Fenvi today and in my Catalina setup I compared speeds within a minute of one another. Both connecting to the faster 5 GHz network. They both have their antennas near the rear of the computer and the computer is a room at end of a corridor, where at other end the router is in another room. The antennas are literally several centimeters from one another. I did this a couple times. The results are always the same - the t4U is about twice as fast on download and upload, as attachment shows. When running test with T4U I have strong signal (one green bar shy of max signal). The Fenvi t919 shows weak signal strength (-75 RSSI). Its antennas are pointing vertically. When horizontal, RSSI is even worse. No idea how to get RSSI readout of the T4U.

Is this a known issue? Ideas to speed up the Fenvi?

My SMBIOS is 17.1 if that matters.

I installed Catalina via Unibeast, and my Clover USB boot is UEFI, everything default, except for my removing/deactivating anything GPU related, as I have latest lilu and whatevergreen kexts. The install was SMBIOS 14.3, then I changed SMBIOS to 17.1 after install. I haven't run Multibeast yet - just booting from USB and trying to get everything working that way before tending to Multibeast. Also, I didn't install any T919 drivers as I thought I didn't need to.

Also, I connected the T919 bluetooth antenna and have the USB cable for the Fenvi connected to a USB2.0 front header. Not sure if that can impact wifi internet speeds. I don't actually have bluetooth enabled in Catalina as far as I know.

Anyway, trying to get to bottom of this.

thanks

 

[Edhawk]

Use Aerial extensions so the Fenvi card's aerials are not hidden behind your PC case.

See this post/guide by Jaymonkey - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ing-pcie-bt-wifi-card-in-a-tower-case.268666/

 

[antieatingactivist]

Hi,

Lately I have been using a TP Link T4U USB card for my internet connection, while waiting for delivery of a Fenvi t919. I received the Fenvi today and in my Catalina setup I compared speeds within a minute of one another. Both connecting to the faster 5 GHz network. They both have their antennas near the rear of the computer and the computer is a room at end of a corridor, where at other end the router is in another room. The antennas are literally several centimeters from one another. I did this a couple times. The results are always the same - the t4U is about twice as fast on download and upload, as attachment shows. When running test with T4U I have strong signal (one green bar shy of max signal). The Fenvi t919 shows weak signal strength (-75 RSSI). Its antennas are pointing vertically. When horizontal, RSSI is even worse. No idea how to get RSSI readout of the T4U.

Is this a known issue? Ideas to speed up the Fenvi?

My SMBIOS is 17.1 if that matters.

I installed Catalina via Unibeast, and my Clover USB boot is UEFI, everything default, except for my removing/deactivating anything GPU related, as I have latest lilu and whatevergreen kexts. The install was SMBIOS 14.3, then I changed SMBIOS to 17.1 after install. I haven't run Multibeast yet - just booting from USB and trying to get everything working that way before tending to Multibeast. Also, I didn't install any T919 drivers as I thought I didn't need to.

Also, I connected the T919 bluetooth antenna and have the USB cable for the Fenvi connected to a USB2.0 front header. Not sure if that can impact wifi internet speeds. I don't actually have bluetooth enabled in Catalina as far as I know.

Anyway, trying to get to bottom of this.

thanks

The antennas that come on the Fenvi are exceptionally bad. I ended up switching to a genuine Apple Card because the performance was so bad. I used the antennas from the Fenvi and still had terrible performance. I then got some better antennas, and it was night and day. I never tried other antennas on the Fenvi, but I bet you could much better performance by sourcing some different ones, preferably some wired ones that can be placed on your desk as opposed to directly to the card.

 

[trs96]

I've always gotten great speeds on the 5GHz band with this adapter

Amazon.com: Shaluoman BCM94360CD/BCM94331CD to PCI-e 1X Adapter : Electronics

Buy Shaluoman BCM94360CD/BCM94331CD to PCI-e 1X Adapter: Network Cards - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

and a genuine BCM94360CD Apple/Broadcom card. Not sure which of those makes the biggest difference but it's always been nearly as fast as wired ethernet for me. I don't use any antenna extensions because the distance to the router is not a problem and there's no interference from walls or other structures.

Here's how to tell a genuine Apple iMac cards from one not pulled from an iMac.
The Apple card (left) has the S/N on it and AP ID: BD ID: etc. Ones not made for Apple don't have these.

 

[trs96]

Here's how a brand new iMac 14,2 15,1 card will look when it's intended for use in the USA. Note the FCC, IC and CNC IDs.
These cost more and are harder to find but they are well worth it if you depend on Wifi instead of Ethernet.

 

[pastrychef]

Hi,

Lately I have been using a TP Link T4U USB card for my internet connection, while waiting for delivery of a Fenvi t919. I received the Fenvi today and in my Catalina setup I compared speeds within a minute of one another. Both connecting to the faster 5 GHz network. They both have their antennas near the rear of the computer and the computer is a room at end of a corridor, where at other end the router is in another room. The antennas are literally several centimeters from one another. I did this a couple times. The results are always the same - the t4U is about twice as fast on download and upload, as attachment shows. When running test with T4U I have strong signal (one green bar shy of max signal). The Fenvi t919 shows weak signal strength (-75 RSSI). Its antennas are pointing vertically. When horizontal, RSSI is even worse. No idea how to get RSSI readout of the T4U.

Is this a known issue? Ideas to speed up the Fenvi?

My SMBIOS is 17.1 if that matters.

I installed Catalina via Unibeast, and my Clover USB boot is UEFI, everything default, except for my removing/deactivating anything GPU related, as I have latest lilu and whatevergreen kexts. The install was SMBIOS 14.3, then I changed SMBIOS to 17.1 after install. I haven't run Multibeast yet - just booting from USB and trying to get everything working that way before tending to Multibeast. Also, I didn't install any T919 drivers as I thought I didn't need to.

Also, I connected the T919 bluetooth antenna and have the USB cable for the Fenvi connected to a USB2.0 front header. Not sure if that can impact wifi internet speeds. I don't actually have bluetooth enabled in Catalina as far as I know.

Anyway, trying to get to bottom of this.

thanks

I noticed similarly poor performance when using a non-Apple made BCM94360NG that was advertised as OOB macOS compatibility. While it did work without the need for any addition kexts or tweaks to config.plist, speeds were always poor. Once I swapped out the card for a Dell DW1560, performance was at least twice as fast. This was in a laptop so it used the same antennas.

Please see this thread for more discussion on the BCM94360NG.

I suspect that those Fenvi cards use pretty much the same stuff and, therefore, yields the same issues.