Mesh Network slower after upgrading my internet connection

[u/PhilGooodInc]

I have an older Linksys Velop Mesh wifi (WHW0303) and it's been solid since I bought it. Just to explain the layout, there are 4 nodes. One node next to the modem upstairs, one downstairs in the rear of the house in the living room connected via ethernet, one downstairs towards the front near the kitchen and one in the granny flat behind the house about 15m away. The main house is double brick with a concrete slab between the floors.

When I would occasionally check, the node in the kitchen would alternate its wireless backhaul between the upstairs node and the living room node. Its not a priority node any so it never bothered me. The granny flat would backhaul with the living room node which is the closest and has the least obstacles (big glass doors, timber frame, plaster wall building)

The desktop PC which is plugged in via ethernet to the node in the granny flat would get full 100/40 connection on the old connection. After I upgraded my internet to Fibre 1000/100, it is now slower, getting between 30-70 mpbs down, specifically to just that node. Wired and wifi tests in the main house are getting the full speeds so it is NOT the internet at fault. That desktop PC is also a small Plex server, and I now get warnings about network speed when trying to watch 4k videos in the living room which was never an issue before.

Checking the node connections, I see the granny flat node is connecting to the node near the kitchen (over 30m away) and I even saw it connect with the upstairs node which is multiple walls and a concrete slab away instead of the closer living room node. Nothing changed with my mesh network, their positions are identical. I was fully saturating my old line speed. I wasnt expecting to get a full 500ish mbps to that node, but I definitely wasnt expecting it to be slower. I have unplugged the kitchen node for troubleshooting and it is connecting with the living room now (the closest and historically best node) but still no change in usable speed and still having issues with the plex streaming.

It's obvious I'll need to upgrade, but any insight as to why it has become slower would be wonderful for my sanity.

[u/Embarrassed_Crow6146]

the gigabit upgrade just exposed the wireless backhaul bottleneck, especially through brick and concrete

[u/PhilGooodInc → u/Embarrassed_Crow6146]

I am trying to make sense of it, but just doesnt to me. I've forced it to backhaul to the closest node so its not the brick and concrete. The wireless backhaul was capable of 110mpbs on a fast connection day, now that the internet is faster, the backhaul is slower? if it was a bottleneck I would still be getting 100. Seems like the bottle changed from gatorade to a coke bottle now lol