Additional parameters for WiFi adapters. What does it mean to enable WMM? What is it to enable wmm on a router?

Wi-Fi network technologies are becoming more and more common and are used on almost all computers and mobile devices today, with IEEE 802.11n being the most popular among all standards. True, it provides the ability to limit the speed of the Internet used. However, given the fact that most people surf the web in search of multimedia files, an additional standard, Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), was developed. What it is and why it is needed will be discussed in this article. Internet users should be aware of this standard and make sure that the “WMM Enable” function is checked in the modem settings.

Connection and data transfer speed

What does it mean to enable WMM? Let's look at this issue.

First of all, it is worth noting that connection speeds and information transfer speeds are completely different concepts, and many users try to mistakenly focus on the first option, expressed in Mb/s. In reality, it does not show the actual bandwidth of the network connection you are using. And it is shown by the network adapter driver so that you can see exactly what speed you are currently using within the selected standard.

In other words, your operating system provides information about what the maximum connection speed is possible on a given hardware. But in reality it can be significantly slower. Actual speed may depend on a number of factors, including your 802.11n access point settings, and in particular the "WMM Enable" feature. You should activate it if you want to use the Internet without restrictions, and this is provided for in your tariff.

How to find out the speed?

If you want to get a reliable value of your wireless network speed, you can use one of the following methods:

Run the procedure for copying a large file in your operating system, and then try to roughly determine the speed at which this file was transferred. It is worth noting that in operating systems Windows 7 and later, if copying takes a long enough time, you can go to the additional information window, where information about the reliable speed will be present.
Use specialized utilities like NetMeter or NetStress, which are designed specifically to determine your bandwidth. It is recommended to configure the device in advance and activate WMM. It is quite important to enable this feature before starting tests.
If you are the administrator of an entire network, then the lperf and Jperf programs are also suitable for you.

How does this standard work?

The 802.11n standard uses a large number of technologies in its operation, and one of them is the WMM function. The user can enable it in order to remove various restrictions and provide higher throughput. It is worth noting the fact that any such technologies will show truly noticeable results only if they work with devices that support the 802.11n specifications.

Turn everything off while testing

Do not forget that before testing the network, you should turn on WMM, and also completely turn off any other devices except those that you will be testing. In a wireless network that is based on the 802.11n point, there is an option to use devices of previous standards. It is worth noting that 802.11n provides mechanisms to support older standards. As a result, speeds with 802.11n can drop by 50% or even 80% if a slower device is receiving or transmitting data.

In order to ensure the highest possible performance of this standard, many experts highly recommend using only clients that support it on the network.

We remove the 54 Mbit/s limit

In the vast majority of cases, users forget to enable WMM, and are also unaware that if outdated WPA/TKIP or WEP security methods are used, the provided speed will decrease by approximately 80%. 802.11n comes with an initial setting that performance greater than 54 Mbps cannot be fully realized using one of the above standards. The only exception may be devices that are not certified for 802.11n.

It is for this reason that if you do not want to face the problem of reducing your speed, it is recommended to use only WPA2 network security methods using the AES algorithm, however, do not forget that the use of open networks is in itself unsafe.

It happens that in some situations, when using an 802.11n adapter, as well as installing a wireless access point of this standard, a connection occurs exclusively via 802.11g, and the user cannot even turn on the Zyxel WMM. What is this problem? In the vast majority of cases, this indicates that the security settings of the access point you are using use WPA2 technology with the TKIP protocol. At the same time, do not forget that in WPA2 settings it is recommended to use exclusively the AES algorithm instead of TKIP, which will allow you to significantly improve your experience with the device.

Also, many cannot enable WMM APSD for the reason that the access point settings include the use of automatic detection mode. Experts say that it is still recommended to manually change the only standard to 802.11n instead of leaving the automatic detection function.

WMM mode

Wi-Fi Multimedia defines 4 types of access categories:

WMM-priority of voice traffic (highest priority). Allows multiple parallel VoIP connections with low latency.
WMM priority for video traffic. Sets priority for video traffic over regular traffic.
WMM priority for non-guaranteed delivery. Traffic from devices that do not have a QoS mechanism
WMM low priority. Low priority traffic that has no latency or transmission performance requirements.

In order to be able to access the Internet at speeds greater than 54 Mbps, you will need to enable Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) mode. The 802.11n specification requires support for 802.11e devices, which allows the use of a mode with sufficiently high throughput.

You need to enable WMM mode if your device will be certified to use 802.11n. It is worth noting that it is recommended to automatically activate this mode in each Wi-Fi certified device. In other words, it is always better to ensure that WMM mode is enabled, regardless of whether you are using an adapter, an access point, or a router.

Please note that this mode must be activated not only on your access point, but also on the wireless adapter.

It is worth noting that, depending on your device, the procedure for making such settings may even change. Also, different adapters may have different function names. So if you don’t find the “enable WMM” function in your device’s menu, don’t despair. Read the instructions carefully, perhaps the manufacturer simply called it differently.

Among other things, some developers also write that it is possible to provide higher connection speeds if the user in AD HOC QOS mode has enabled WMM.

Disable the use of the 40 MHz channel

In accordance with the 802.11n standard, it is possible to use 40 MHz broadband channels, which provide increased throughput. However, in reality, if the channel width changes from 20 to 40 MHz, eventually there may even be a noticeable decrease in speed characteristics instead of the expected increase.

Why shouldn't you use it?

Using a 40 MHz channel can provide a potential 10 to 20 Mbps increase in your network throughput, but in most cases such an increase will only be seen if the signal is strong enough. If the signal strength decreases, then ultimately the use of such channel width becomes much less efficient and does not allow for an increase in throughput. Thus, if 40 MHz is used when the signal strength is weak, it can reduce throughput by 80%.

If you decide to use such a channel, but notice a significant drop in speed, you can simply reconfigure your device to work with the 20 MHz channel. Thus, you can achieve a noticeable increase in connection throughput.

Use only current drivers

In order to configure your Zyxel router to a normal connection speed, you should use only the latest wireless adapter drivers. Situations often occur when, after installing a more recent driver version from the manufacturer, a significant increase in connection speed was achieved.

Thus, we have considered only the most affordable and effective ways to configure Zyxel devices to provide higher connection speeds, as well as more stable Wi-Fi network operation. But we should not forget that there are a large number of other factors that also affect the operation of wireless Wi-Fi networks:

Other Wi-Fi devices located within a short distance.
Bluetooth devices that operate somewhere within the coverage area of your Wi-Fi network.
The distances between Wi-Fi devices being used are too large.
All kinds of obstacles, such as furniture, walls and ceilings, which constantly absorb the emitted radio signal.
A variety of household appliances that work directly within the coverage area of your network.
Devices that operate via the USB 3.0 standard.

The last point may surprise many users, but it is true; devices with a USB 3.0 interface create certain interference with Wi-Fi networks in the 2.4 GHz range.

If you ultimately configure everything correctly, you can safely count on the fact that your overall Internet speed is guaranteed to increase. Many users are not even aware of these features, using default settings, when in fact their connection potential allows for much higher speeds.

For those who prefer to use their wireless network equipment as efficiently as possible, and also want to optimize the speed characteristics of multimedia applications, manufacturers of WiFi network devices provide a special “WiFi multimedia” function.

Often in the device interface the name of the option is presented as the abbreviation “WMM”. For router owners, below is a description of how to enable WMM mode and what benefits will be obtained.

How to enable and what is this function for?

This mode is not active in the standard router settings. In order to activate it, in the Russified web interface of the router, you should check the box “Enable WMM”.

If the settings menu is in English, then the name of this column is displayed as “Enable WMM”.

The item you are looking for is usually located in the WiFi section. Sometimes software developers for routers designate it as “WME,” which is functionally almost the same, only it stands for a little differently: “WiFi Multimedia Extensions.”

After checking the box, a parameter designed to optimize the quality of service for multimedia programs is activated - “QoS”. In the English version of the software, it can be identified in the menu as Quality of Service.

This parameter ensures more stable operation of multimedia and significantly reduces the number of errors that occur.

The essence of the work comes down mainly to providing advantages to network multimedia program packages in relation to other traffic.

Priorities

Currently, almost all manufactured devices with Wi-Fi modules support “WMM”.

Therefore, after activating this standard, there are almost no compatibility difficulties. It is based on the IEEE 802.11e standard.

The “WiFi Multimedia” mode determines the following priorities for servicing the Wi-Fi network:

Low, or background. Requirements for performance and delays during reception and transmission are not established;
The highest, or "voice". Provides multi-VoIP connections with minimal delay intervals for voice traffic;
Non-guaranteed delivery, or best-effort. For devices without QoS support;
Video. Gives advantage to video traffic.

The main advantages and disadvantages of using the function

Although the WMM function in most routers does not allow you to configure priorities in absolute mode, it can optimize packet transmission to increase traffic speed for video and audio tracks.

At the same time, reducing the number of errors.

The main advantages of using the mode:

The ability to increase the battery life of gadgets connected to WiFi and powered by rechargeable batteries. On average, the operating time on one battery charge increases by almost a third compared to normal mode;
Almost all modern network equipment developers support this standard;
A significant effect is achieved with predominant video and voice traffic, which are now the most popular among users.

The main disadvantages of using the mode are as follows:

Legacy equipment lacks support for the standard;
There is no full ability to set absolute priorities for video and voice traffic.

Additional features

Some routers are equipped with additional options. For example, for Asus equipment, activation of additional extensions is available.

Often routers have the following additional features:

“WMM DLS” is used to manage the quality of the Wi-Fi network between equipment in a special mode called “Infrastructure”;
“WMM APDS” allows you to more flexibly manage and control the power modes of mobile gadgets that are connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot. This significantly increases the duration of their offline operation. The only condition is the presence of “APSD” support in the phone, netbook, tablet PC, etc.

The main goal is to increase connection speed

An additional standard will effectively help eliminate many errors and increase the speed of video and voice traffic, but in real conditions even its use is insufficient. For users who often experience, for example, iptv image scattering, it is recommended to approach the problem in a comprehensive manner.

In modern homes, Wi-Fi is subject to a lot of interference from other devices. The following factors have a significant impact on the strength of the wireless signal:

Devices operating from the USB 3.0 standard;
Closely located neighbors' Wi-Fi equipment;
Large furniture and electrical equipment;
Active Bluetooth channels for various devices;
Ceilings and walls standing between the Wi-Fi translator and the wireless signal receiver;
Remoteness of gadgets from the router.

Most users often have perplexed questions about the first factor.

It is worth immediately reassuring the owners of networks operating in the 5 GHz range that it is not dangerous for them, since devices with a USB 3.0 interface can only interfere with 2.4 GHz networks (although, unfortunately, these are the majority today).

By eliminating as many of the above factors as possible, the optimal speed of the WiFi network will be achieved.

In order to provide wireless network clients with a certain level of Quality of Service QOS, a special standard was created Wi-Fi Multimedia — WMM.
Some network equipment manufacturers call it slightly differently - Wi-Fi Multimedia Extensions, WME. The IEEE 802.11e standard is used as a basis, which provides the basic QOS capabilities for WiFi.

Currently, WMM defines four classes of service for wireless network traffic:

This technology does not provide a means of absolute and unconditional prioritization. But nevertheless, it allows packets with priority to be transmitted faster than others due to lower delays compared to lower priority ones.

There are no problems with the compatibility of devices with and without support for the WMM function. If traffic comes from a device that does not support this technology, then it is perceived as best-effort, i.e. with non-guaranteed delivery.

Although now it is quite difficult to find a modern router or access point without WMM QOS support, since it is supported by most manufacturers of network equipment and other electronics. On older devices, support for Wi-Fi Multimedia functionality can often be activated by installing new firmware.

Pros and cons of WMM technology

Pros:
+ widely supported by many equipment manufacturers;
+ increases the efficiency of the wireless network;
+ allows you to increase the battery life of phones and tablets due to U-APSD power management;
+ works for voice traffic and video;
+ allows you to achieve maximum transmission speed over the air;

Minuses:
— not supported in older devices;
— does not provide 100% priority for voice traffic;

How to enable WMM on a router

By default, the wireless traffic prioritization feature on many modems and routers is disabled. In order to enable WMM QOS on the router, you need to go to its web interface (usually by IP address or ), open the wireless network settings and check the appropriate box. This is how it is done on TP-Link routers:

And this is how it is done on the Zyxel Keenetic router:

Roughly speaking, look for the option in the general network settings. If it is not there, look in the advanced settings. In some cases (as on D-Link routers), WMM QOS settings are located in a separate menu item.

Connection and data transfer speed

What does it mean to enable WMM? Let's look at this issue.

First of all, it is worth noting that connection speeds and information transfer speeds are completely different concepts, and many users try to mistakenly focus on the first option, expressed in Mb/s. In reality, it does not show the actual network connection you are using. And it is shown by the driver so that you can see exactly what speed you are currently using within the chosen standard.

In other words, your operating system provides information about what the maximum connection speed is possible on a given hardware. But in reality it can be significantly slower. Actual speed may vary depending on a number of factors, including 802.11n, and in particular the "WMM Enable" feature. You should activate it if you want to use the Internet without restrictions, and this is provided for in your tariff.

How to find out the speed?

If you want to get a reliable value of your wireless network speed, you can use one of the following methods:

Run the procedure for copying a large file in your operating system, and then try to roughly determine the speed at which this file was transferred. It is worth noting that in operating systems Windows 7 and later, if copying takes a long enough time, you can go to the additional information window, where information about the reliable speed will be present.
Use specialized utilities like NetMeter or NetStress, which are designed specifically to determine your bandwidth. It is recommended to configure the device in advance and activate WMM. It is quite important to enable this feature before starting tests.
If you are the administrator of an entire network, then the lperf and Jperf programs are also suitable for you.

How does this standard work?

Turn everything off while testing

In order to ensure the highest possible performance of this standard, many experts highly recommend using only clients that support it on the network.

We remove the 54 Mbit/s limit

WMM mode

Wi-Fi Multimedia defines 4 types of access categories:

WMM-priority of voice traffic (highest priority). Allows multiple parallel VoIP connections with low latency.
WMM priority for video traffic. Sets priority for video traffic over regular traffic.
WMM priority for non-guaranteed delivery. Traffic from devices that do not have a QoS mechanism
WMM low priority. Low priority traffic that has no latency or transmission performance requirements.

Please note that this mode must be activated not only on your access point, but also on the wireless adapter.

Among other things, some developers also write that it is possible to provide higher connection speeds if the user in AD HOC QOS mode has enabled WMM.

Disable the use of the 40 MHz channel

Why shouldn't you use it?

Use only current drivers

In order to set up a normal connection speed, you should use only the latest wireless adapter drivers. Situations often occur when, after installing a more recent driver version from the manufacturer, a significant increase in connection speed was achieved.

Other Wi-Fi devices located within a short distance.
Bluetooth devices that operate somewhere within the coverage area of your Wi-Fi network.
The distances between Wi-Fi devices being used are too large.
All kinds of obstacles, such as furniture, walls and ceilings, which constantly absorb the emitted radio signal.
A variety of household appliances that work directly within the coverage area of your network.
Devices that operate via the USB 3.0 standard.

The last point may surprise many users, but it is true; devices with a USB 3.0 interface create certain interference with Wi-Fi networks in the 2.4 GHz range.

If you end up setting everything up correctly, you can safely count on the fact that your overall performance is guaranteed to increase. Many users are not even aware of these features, using the default settings, although in fact the potential of their connection allows for much higher speeds.

Websites can barely open, YouTube videos are constantly buffered, and WiFi generally works very poorly - sound familiar? Unfortunately, this has been happening more and more lately. The reasons affecting the quality of a wireless network can be divided into three categories:

Poor WiFi performance due to band interference
- Incorrect access point installation
- Problems with the WiFi router or its settings

It is important to correctly identify the cause and then you can quickly eliminate it! In any case, if you have problems with your wireless network and Wi-Fi is working very poorly, try rebooting your router first. And if this simple manipulation does not help, then follow the advice from our article!

WiFi problems due to interference and neighbors

We constantly have to deal with situations where people complain that their WiFi on their phone or tablet does not work well, as soon as they move more than 2-3 meters from the router, or go to another room. Usually the reason is as simple as five cents. Open the list of available networks on your laptop or phone and count how many Wi-Fi access points are within reach.

If you see a picture similar to the one in the screenshot, then things are bad - your neighbors’ wireless networks are interfering with you. This is the main one 2.4 GHz band problem, which has a maximum of 14 channels. And then - only 3 of them do not intersect, and the rest can also interfere with each other. You can often find advice that you should try to manually set the radio channel you are using - this is all a waste of time. Attempts to amplify the signal using homemade amplifiers made from beer cans and the like will also lead to nothing. You will be constantly playing tug of war with your neighbors over the wireless network blanket. What should we do then? Buy a dual-band router and switch your home WiFi network to the 5 GHz band. Yes, this requires financial costs, but you simply have no other choice.

There are no or few access points in the neighborhood, but WiFi still doesn’t work well - then it’s worth trying to tinker with the settings. First, try changing the radio channel used by the router. This is done quite simply - you need to go to its web interface and find the parameter in the main WiFi settings Channel or Channel.

Click on the drop-down list to see all possible values.

By default, routers are set to either Auto or use channel number 6 (six). Try to put first (1) or eleventh (11). If there is interference somewhere, then it is unlikely to occupy the entire range and on one side the quality of the wireless network will be better.

Incorrect installation of WiFi router

Users pay a lot of attention to setting up an access point, but not to how and where it is installed. Most often, it is left right at the entrance to a house or apartment, where the provider’s cable was installed by the installer. It is not right! You’re not surprised then that Wi-Fi works disgustingly!

Particular attention should be paid to the location of the access point indoors! The quality of reception will depend on this. Look at the example in the picture. As you can see, the WiFi coverage area is shaped like a sphere, the signal spreads in all directions. This means that for the best signal quality, it is necessary that the center of the sphere coincides as closely as possible with the center of your apartment or house.

The quality of the signal is greatly influenced by plasterboard, expanded clay and especially concrete walls. If the signal passes this wall, it will immediately lose at least a third, or even half.

And Wi-Fi really doesn’t like water - water supply pipes, large aquariums and everything like that. As, in fact, large LCD or plasma panels on half the wall. They jam the signal quite strongly and this must be taken into account.

Poor speed over WiFi

Another common problem is that the Internet via WiFi does not work well - low speed with a good signal level. Here it is worth mentioning right away that by the word “low” everyone means completely different meanings. I would like to immediately point out that the speed via WiFi will be lower than via cable. At least now, in 2018. Even though on the box of a regular router like D-Link DIR-300 for 1000 rubles it is written that WiFi 802.11N speed is up to 300 Mbit per second. This is all fake. In practice, even on the most expensive routers in the 5 GHz range, the modern 802.11AC standard cannot accelerate more than 80-85 Mbit/s. Therefore, you need to be serious and don’t expect fabulous speeds from a wireless network.

But if you have very poor speed via WiFi - at best 1-2 megabits and at the same time almost full signal scale - it’s worth thinking about. As a rule, this situation is associated with incorrect configuration of the router.

First, you can play with the channel width - Bandwidth. By default it is set to automatic or 20MHz.

Try changing the radio channel width value to 40MHz and look at the result.

Usually after this it is possible to increase the Wi-Fi speed by 1.5-2 times. But there is a caveat here - fast WiFi will only work at a relatively close distance. If you are far from the access point (say, through 2 or 3 walls), then changing the channel width may adversely affect the quality of the signal. In this case, return the old value back.

Another common mistake newbies make is incorrectly configured wireless network security. Yes, yes, this also affects the speed of Wi-Fi.

Use only WPA2-PSK with AES encryption. If you use the old WPA-PSK, then don’t expect speeds greater than 54 Megabits! And if you use WEP (under no circumstances!!), then the speed characteristics will be even lower.

Wireless MultiMedia

Despite the fact that all modern routers have the quality of service control function enabled by default - WMM or Wireless MultiMedia, there are models where you need to enable it yourself.

To achieve maximum wireless data transfer speeds, enabling this feature is a must!

Transmitter is too powerful

An interesting fact - if the signal strength of the router is too strong, Wi-Fi will also work poorly, and sometimes even worse than with a weak signal. I'm talking about those cases when the receiver and transmitter are located at a distance of no more than 1-1.5 meters from each other. For example, when the laptop and router are on the same table. For normal operation, either move 2-3 meters away from the access point, or lower the transmitter power in the settings:

By default, it is usually turned up to maximum. Within a one-room apartment, medium power is quite enough, and within one small room, you can even set the value to “Low”.

What else is bad for Wi-Fi?

There are a number of other factors that can also lead to WiFi not working well in an apartment or house. They are rarely remembered, but at the same time they can really become a source of serious interference for wireless equipment!

Microwave

Unfortunately, even kitchen appliances can create interference that makes WiFi work very poorly, especially if you have a very old router. The most striking example is microwave ovens. The thing is, microwaves operate at 2.45 GHz, which is incredibly close to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, which actually broadcasts between 2.412 GHz and 2.472 GHz. This is why experts do not recommend placing an access point in the kitchen.

Bluetooth devices

It turns out that another popular type of wireless connection, Bluetooth, also operates at 2.4 GHz. In theory, a properly designed device should be shielded to prevent interference. But this, unfortunately, is not always the case. In modern gadgets, to prevent frequency collision, Bluetooth manufacturers use frequency hopping, in which the signal rotates randomly between 70 different channels, changing up to 1600 times per second. New Bluetooth devices may also have the ability to identify "bad" or currently used channels and avoid them.
However, if you have an older adapter without channel control, interference may still occur. So try moving your Bluetooth devices away from your router. Well, or turn them off for a while to see if they are the cause of your problems with Wi-Fi.

New Year's garlands

I would never have thought that ordinary cheap Chinese garlands could become a real obstacle to the normal operation of a Wi-Fi network. As it turns out, these lights can emit an electromagnetic field that interacts with Wi-Fi equipment. Flashing garlands have a particularly strong effect.
In reality, all types of lights can cause interference by emitting electromagnetic fields, but in most cases the effect is close to negligible. However, it is better to keep them away from the router.

Old router firmware

As a rule, a user buys a wireless router, configures it, and then completely forgets that it also needs to be maintained. How, you ask?! The fact is that a router is the same computer with its own operating system. This system is also written by people who tend to make mistakes. Therefore, the manufacturer constantly releases new firmware versions for its devices, in which it corrects found errors and adds new functions. Therefore, if your WiFi router works disgustingly, then try updating its firmware - in other words, you need to reflash the router.

For many models, in addition to the factory software, from the manufacturer, if there are alternative firmware, from third-party specialists. As a rule, they work better than factory ones. Therefore, if you haven’t looked at your router’s settings for a year or more, it’s better to download the latest version of the software for it and install it. It definitely can't get any worse!