@Philbert 

Wow SolarWinds was a nightmare...glad that's off my system

thanks for the link, It's installed and reporting although it balks that it can't see the very adapter it reports on. (some numbers have been redacted, fyi)
 

...and I was able to enable "Advanced Settings" in the (software) controller and check all 5 boxes you screenshotted.

I can't for the life of me find your suggestion for "CONFIG change the channel with from AUTO to 80mhz. etc" I've scoured all over this software controller for...

I'll wait your reply before heading down the iPerf3 route

thanks again

@TaylorFusion 

Hey

On the controller select DEVICES on the left

Then select your Access Point...  On the right pop in menu under CONFIG   RADIOS   you should be able to force an 80 wide channel width for 5ghz, I would also do 40 wide for 2.4ghz.. screen below

Looking at your screenshot, it appears you are connected on a 20mhz   2.4ghz    connection, this will massively impact your speeds.   Try and get this onto 5ghz if possible, what card is in the laptop?

@Philbert Got it, thanks

 I changed channel widths as suggested and chose channel149 on both  5GHz WAPs as there were no other Channels in the Range suggested. Let me know if this really matters and can change to nay as seen in screen shot below:

...same limitation for the 2.4GHz band

Also, if I want, can just uncheck "ENABLE" for the 2.4 GHz, thereby force my clients to use the 5GHz band?

Some new stats for a Windows 10 client using a Linksys WUSB6100M adapter about 50 feet away from one of the WAPs

Also, I ran a scan of 5GHz

Can you interpret it and suggest any remediation?

@TaylorFusion 

Basically the more YELLOW the better, AMBER is more interference and RED avoid.

As you are using 89mhz channels, both 42 and 155 are very quiet.   As you selected 149 as you channel you are on the 155 range so its PERFECT.. basically you have little interference to worry about

@TaylorFusion 

THis concerns me a tad, its reading -65db from AP which is .. OK.. ideally you would want this sub 60 if honest as when you start hitting ~75 its end of usable signal.

This would also explain the slow 176 connection...  

In answer to this, you a using a nano adaptor with only 1 antenna.. therefore the fastest this can transmit is 600mbps... but that's over the 2 frequencies..   150mbps on 2.4ghz and 433 mbps on 5ghz

In short mate, that's not a great WiFi adaptor..  If you had a larger 2x2 adaptor that connection speed would likely double or more..

@Philbert 

No matter for that Windows PC as it'll be hard wired into the switch closet at the end of the day. As long as my (iOS) clients are happy with the 5GHz band you helped me dial in, I think we're good.

Really appreciate the tutorial here Philbert....I learned a lot (and with Free tools, even better) I will next put iperf3 to test per your advise

@Philbert 

I did want to get your opinion on this however, as well.

 I changed channel widths as suggested and chose channel149 on both  5GHz WAPs as there were no other Channels in the Range suggested. Let me know if this really matters and can change to any others, as seen in screen shot below:

based on your most recent reply, I'm thinking given my APs limited # of channels, it's ok to have the same value (i.e. 149) for both APs

...same general question for the 2.4GHz band. a) Limited choices b) none in the range you've suggested c) ok to have both APs at the channel chosen

Maybe I can answer that after running a 2.4 Radio scan :)

Couldn't we deduce that Ch 10 on 20MHz is ideal?