Why my Internet slows down when replacing the old router with a new one?
Kevin_Z
If you’re dealing with slow internet speeds after replacing an old router with a new one and wondering “Why is a new router even slowing down my internet?”, we’re here to share something that we worked out recently and hope it will help you also.
There are many reasons why you may have a slow internet connection, and speeding up the internet on your client devices isn’t always easy. We've provided some general and basic troubleshooting suggestions here already, but we would like to show you something different in this story.
We recently received several users reporting that the internet speed drops to 1/10 or even 1/100 when installing a new TP-Link router / Deco to the network. One is White Sky-provided internet, and another one is Shentel internet. The speed is as good as expected when connecting their old router back, which assures their internet provider or the modem is not the one to blame. After working actively with these customers, we finally get everything right by cloning the old router's MAC address to the new TP-Link router / Deco. Cases details are shared as follows:
Case 1
ISP: White Sky (US)
TP-Link Router Model: Archer AX1500 v1.20
When connecting a PC wired to the White Sky provided modem directly, he can get a ~240Mbps download speed. However, when connecting the new Archer AX1500 to the modem and connecting to the wireless network of the AX1500 on an iPhone 11, all he can get is ~24Mbps. We got no clue but tried to clone the PC’s Ethernet MAC address to the AX1500 WAN/Internet page (under Advanced > Network > Internet > MAC Clone), and the speed jumps to over 200+Mbps right away.
Case2
ISP: Shentel / Glo Fiber (US)
TP-Link Router Model: Archer AX55 v1.0
The customer is upgrading from an old N150 wireless router to a newer AX3000 one. His ISP provides 500Mbps/500Mbps internet, but after replacing the new AX55 with the old N150 router, all devices that connect to the AX55 can only get ~1Mbps download, which is incredibly slow and even unable to get pages open.
We tried connecting the AX55 to the modem, the old router to the AX55 as follows, then clone the old router’s wan MAC address to the AX55, and the speed turns back to normal.
So if you’re dealing with slow speeds and your internet service provider or modem isn’t to blame, it's recommended to try cloning the PC's or the old router's MAC address to the new router, which may help you get the required speed.
This is the guidance for your reference if you are not sure how to proceed with the MAC Clone on the TP-Link router:
How do I configure MAC Address Clone on my TP-Link Archer Router?
If you're replacing your old router with Deco, here is the guide to do MAC Clone on the Deco:
