Wireless traffic high, all other traffic low

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I have a Linksys Linksys WRT3200ACM router and a Motorola cable modem. We have 800MB/s service from Xfinity. I'm running OpenWrt 23.05.4 r24012-d8dd03c46f / LuCI openwrt-23.05 branch git-24.086.45142-09d5a38

We have recently started having streaming problems with our Samsung QLED TV. Long pauses, loss of connection, inability to connect, etc. It's particularly bad when trying to watch the Olympics on YouTube.tv, but I've seen the problem with other streaming services, like Paramount+. I assume we are having a problem with the WiFi network in the house.

When I look at the real-time graphs in the Luci client, on the Wireless tab, I see an almost-steady Phy Rate: 25 Mbit/s. Sometimes higher, but never less. I tried turning off various devices in the house, but the graph did not change. What is strange is that if I click on the Traffic tab (instead of Wireless), both Inbound and Outbound traffic is less than 1 Mbit/s.

How can there be so much wireless activity, but no corresponding inbound/outbound traffic? Furthermore, is there anything I can do to try to find out which IP address the traffic is coming from/going to? I tried some of the tools on this web page:

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/network_monitoring/bwmon

but nothing indicated any high-traffic use. So I'm a little stymied at this point. I've rebooted the router several times. I just unplugged the TV. What else can I try?

2

The phy rate is not directly related to the active traffic, it is simply the negotiated link rate. If you look at ethernet, your device has gigabit ethernet which means it will connect at 10/100/1000 Mbps, depending on the device connected to the other end of the cable. If it connects at 1000 Mbps, that is the phy rate. It doesn't necessarily mean that traffic is actually flowing at a gigabit per second, but rather that the link allows that.

Let's take a look at your config to see if there are any obvious or potential issues.

Also:

  • is the TV wired or wireless? (I think wireless, but please confirm)
  • How far away from the AP is the TV, and is it line of sight or through walls/floors?
  • Do you have any other APs or is this the only one?

Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button:
grafik
Remember to redact passwords, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:

ubus call system board
cat /etc/config/network
cat /etc/config/wireless
cat /etc/config/dhcp
cat /etc/config/firewall
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