AC, who cares? I am KEEPING my Asus RT-N66R Router :-)

[Klueless]

"Fastest" doesn't make it the "bestest". There are important features that aren't captured in reviews. Features you don't need when things are running well but features you'll wish you had when things aren't!

Case in point. October, 2013. We switched from a cable Internet provider (numerous outages) to a phone company that provided 16 mpbs / 1.6 mbps bonded DSL. The new provider provisioned a router/modem combo rather than just a modem like our original ISP.

New ISP insisted on keeping our old router in place. HAPPY they did! Their box was low end, wireless range was poor and it turns out we would have had to deal with a ton of legacy addressing issues. (That and, looking forward, it'd be nice to be able to plug our router into a cell phone type router as a backup and have everything just work.)

Anyway we ran perfect for TWO years (from October 2013 to October 2015)! On October 1, 2015 we started experiencing numerous and frequent outages that were all but crippling to our small business.

Numerous calls to our ISP, they didn't see any problems so it must be us! A couple weeks in my boss asked me to take a look ...no ego here, I was just the most "disposable" employee

On November 20th we started working reliably ... and still are ... to date ... January 2016. Wish I could say I did something but I really can't.

Anyway as I started looking at things I realized how helpless we were. We knew nothing about our traffic or even who was on our network. We've always been this way, no changes, and we just worked. Until we didn't and, worse, the ISP just washed their hands ... it must be us!

Then, on top of everything else, we had a four hour blackout. When power came back up our router didn't so I had to buy a new one.

While shopping I knew I wanted something that would give me data to give my ISP, that would either show I had a problem or help build a case that THEY had a problem.

I combed reviews and went to several store fronts. Speed, user interface, QoS and perceived reliabilty reputations. I needed more information but I bought one anyway. Bought a well rated AC router. Yeah, it had QoS but it was to make games run faster. Not what I wanted; I needed "work" to run faster.

Returned it and that began my love affair with my Asus RT-N66R (aka RT-N66U) Router! I will bore you, point by point, so that any and all might suggest an even better fit for us. Or ideas for better configuration and/or troubleshooting. Anything!

User Interface was good, good enough that a no-talent like me could muck my way around.

QoS was good. Out of the box it prioritized work over uh "miscellaneous". (Work for us is web; web CRM, web comps, web-based financing, web-based inventory, web-based e-mail.)

Gigabit Ethernet (overkill for us, 100 Mbps would have been fine).

2 WLANs, one 2.4Ghz and one 5Ghz

6 Guest WLANs, three 2.4Ghz and three 5Ghz

Low end traffic monitor. I could finally see traffic! 24 hour charts. 10 minute real time monitor. Wired, 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and composite views.

Support for b/g/n. No AC. In hindsight I see no need for it? N is plenty fast enough for us.

WPA/WPA2, etc. Yeah they all have it but our old router was WEP only so we just ran "open". Luckily no one ever bothered hacking us but the bigger issue is we had so many "unknowns", like 45 "somethings" were connected to us.​

This is how we started:

Renamed devices to names to help identify who's who and what's what.

Password protected our WLANs (except for "guest"). We went from 40 plus connections to 20 something - most of which I can identify now.

Changed default passwords on all routers/modems. (ISP wasn't happy I changed theirs but I told them upfront. I can deal with a little "grumpy".)

Traffic Monitor: It showed we do NOT have a traffic problem. Internet traffic is well suited to our subscribed service. Even though we have two internal servers and several clients to them their traffic (local, non Internet traffic) is well within reason.
​

LANs and WLANs: This is how we restructured our network:

Ethernet - Internal Servers and their clients.

SSID "Faster", 5Ghz WLAN, WPA/WPA2 - Internal clients we didn't have Ethernet runs for and nearby "production" PCs. (Originally I planned on using the same SSID for both 2.4 and 5Ghz but some of my 5Ghz PCs kept connecting to 2.4)

SSID "Further", 2.4Ghz WLAN, WPA/WPA2 - "Prodution" PCs that didn't work w/ 5Ghz due to age or distance (e.g., they're in bldg. 2)

Guest WLAN 1, SSID "BYOD", 2.4 and 5Ghz, WPA/WPA2 - employee devices; smart phones and iPADs. (Even though it's a "guest WLAN" I have a button I can click to give them access to our printers and servers.)

Guest WLAN 2, SSID "Guest", 2.4 and 5Ghz, "open" - customers and visitors, employees - non-business use. No access to our internals.​

In the event of crazy traffic compromising our network I can now disable the "unknowns"; disable "guest", disable "BYOD" and maybe get some work done. (Downside is I have to document how those WLANs were configured because I have to recreate them after disabling.)

Results, so far so good:

Boss' daughter was in for the holidays. I don't know what kids do with iPADs but she had our uplink and downlink pegged for days. No one noticed, everything ran fine. I'm thinking QoS really works!

Sales manager bought a new iPhone. It was saturating our 1.5 mbps outbound link. No one noticed, we were running fine - QoS to the rescue! Even better I brought him in to look at the ASUS traffic monitor, had him shut off his phone and look at the traffic monitor again. Traffic stopped when he shut off his phone. He got mad at me. This went on for several more days, don't know root cause, but, eventually, his phone "fixed itself" and ... he's talking to me again.

I now run "Ping Plotter" as an overlay to my traffic monitor. On December 10 we had our first outage in three weeks (prior to they had been a near daily occurance). Ping Plotter showed a possible problem with the ISP's border router and the Asus traffic monitor showed almost NO traffic.​

ISP still thinks it's me but we haven't had another problem since, going on three weeks now. Maybe they inadvertently fixed the problem or maybe we're in for a storm after the holidays are over and other businesses go back to full throttle. If so we are almost in a position where we can stand up to our ISP and their techs.

Shortcomings:

Asus tech support leaves much to be desired.

Would be nice to be able to simply resume a WLAN rather than having to reconfigure it to reenable it.

Would be nice to be able to disable a singe device rather than an entire WLAN and to be able to simply resume it.

Would be nice to see traffic by device.

Would be nice to be able to remotely manage (like the new Linksys devices?)​

Outstanding questions:

How to properly set up QoS? I had to take some guesses. The Asus Gigabit WAN port connects to the ISP's router/modem.

Subscribed service for outbound (from me) traffic is 1.6 mbps and speed tests show I actually get 1.6 so I pinched my gigabit outbound to 1.5 mbps (to mimic my ISP).

My inbound service is 16 mbps but speed tests never reach 15 mbps I so pinched my gigabit inbound to 15. I considered 14 but since I have NO understanding of the benefit of inbound QoS I went with 15.

I do not know if I should do similar with my provider's modem/router or if I should leave well enough alone? (Actually, I'm not even sure if I have that option now that I think of it.)​

All 2.4Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (1) and all 5Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (40). Am I shooting myself in the foot by running so manys WLANs / SSIDs on the same channels?

Two routers = double NAT? Another forum suggested I put my router port into the ISP's router/modem's DMZ. I did but I think I still have double NAT? I don't mind putting in a little effort but stuff is working(?) so I'm reluctant to take heroic or disruptive efforts here.​

Any input? Better routers? Configuration suggestions? I really want to get smarter about all this stuff. (I need to.) Called a couple "network engineers". While I'm sure there are plenty of good ones out there I didn't find one. It was easier to find a decent router (which wasn't easy) and a lot cheaper than paying for a mediocre network engineer.

Thanks for your patience with this boring dissertation.

 

[L&LD]

Great post, but you don't mention which AC router you bought and returned.

Any of the following Asus routers with RMerlin's, john9527's or hggomes firmware is a solid step up from the RT-N66U (and yes, I am still using one too);

RT-AC56U
RT-AC68U
RT-AC3100
RT-AC3200
RT-AC88U
RT-AC5300

Basically, the only current Asus router to avoid is the RT-AC87U which has the problematic Quantenna chipset.

When you add a second router, switch it to AP mode so you bypass double NAT (the first router will be giving DHCP addresses to all devices).

Use a different channel for each AP (and as far apart as possible, physically and logically) for each band.

With QoS, you should input ~80% of your actual speeds to ensure a bullet proof network.

 

[Nullity]

I spent the past year learning about QoS, and by far the best introductory tutorial is http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/qos-tutorial.68795/ by toastman.

Read and understand everything in his tutorial. He explains the differences between inbound & outbound QoS, and what you can expect from both.

 

[wh7qq]

I've been running a 66U at home for 2-3 years now but with Shibby Tomato firmware, and nary a glitch. Nowhere near as complex and demanding as your setup. You might find you have more control and much more detailed monitoring than with the stock AsusWRT firmware. I definitely agree with Nullity regarding Toastman's exhaustive tutorial on QoS...a "must read" if you are going to run QoS.

 

[sfx2000]

"Fastest" doesn't make it the "bestest". There are important features that aren't captured in reviews. Features you don't need when things are running well but features you'll wish you had when things aren't!

If it works well, and meets your needs, then that's pretty cool...

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Klueless]

Thank you very much!

Great post, but you don't mention which AC router you bought and returned.

I had bought and returned a Linksys WRT-AC1900

Any of the following Asus routers with RMerlin's, john9527's or hggomes firmware is a solid step up from the RT-N66U (and yes, I am still using one too);

RT-AC56U
RT-AC68U
RT-AC3100
RT-AC3200
RT-AC88U
RT-AC5300

Ok, like my name says I am Klueless

Which of the three firmwares would you suggest I focus my efforts on and which of the six routers should I think of starting with?

I'm a part time minimum wage employee. I have no keys and no after hour access. (I would love to have a key and be able to spend a Sunday or two there just mucking around!)

The shop guys start coming in between 6 and 7 AM so I sit in the parking lot hoping they come in closer to 6 than 7. Sometimes they need the network so I can't do anything. If they don't need the network I have to be done and have to be able to undo whatever damage I did by 8:15 AM (when the first of the bosses comes in).​

I guess I should try to talk my boss into letting me buy a 2nd router (your favorite?) and start playing with it at home. Then, when I feel comfortable, plug it in during my one hour window and fine-tune it. Worst case unplug it and replace it with my working router before 8:15 AM.

When you add a second router, switch it to AP mode so you bypass double NAT (the first router will be giving DHCP addresses to all devices).

Your approach makes more sense to me than putting a router port into the other router's DMZ! Before I can do that I will need to figure out how to mitigate my problem with legacy IP addresses.

Use a different channel for each AP (and as far apart as possible, physically and logically) for each band.

The Asus router doesn't seem to give me that option. Asus gives me 4 WLANs for 5Ghz but puts them all on the same channel. Ditto the four 2.4Ghz WLANs. Thus my question.

With QoS, you should input ~80% of your actual speeds to ensure a bullet proof network.

I saw that under the Tomato guy's write up. Now that you've said it I am going to revisit that and pinch my links a little tighter than I already have.

Thanks again, you were very helpful!

 

[Klueless]

I spent the past year learning about QoS, and by far the best introductory tutorial is http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/qos-tutorial.68795/ by toastman.

Read and understand everything in his tutorial. He explains the differences between inbound & outbound QoS, and what you can expect from both.

Thank you for that! I read it a couple months ago when I first got involved. Of course, back then, I only understood about 10% of it all. Thanks to you I will reread it. Hopefully this time around I will understand 20%!

 

[Nullity]

Thank you for that! I read it a couple months ago when I first got involved. Of course, back then, I only understood about 10% of it all. Thanks to you I will reread it. Hopefully this time around I will understand 20%!

Many of the QoS-related tutorials I read, when I re-read them after gaining more knowledge, I realize that they were wrong about more and more things.

Toastman's tutorial, every time that I revisit it, I never find an obvious error or misunderstanding. It is obvious he has a deep understanding of all involved aspects of QoS.

 

[fusionstream]

All 2.4Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (1) and all 5Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (40). Am I shooting myself in the foot by running so manys WLANs / SSIDs on the same channels?

When you say you didn't WIFI protect your Guest network I hope you also have isolated it (in my AC5300 it's under "Access Intranet"). I also feel your pain regarding not being able to simply disable a virtual network.

Why do you need so many virtual wireless networks btw (Asus calls it Guest Networks)? Virtual networks always have to be on the same channel as the main network. This is because it runs off the same radio. Your link speed should thus be shared across all the virtual WLANs across each radio. It is a similar case with creating a virtual interface on say a linux box. 1 physical lan port on a linux pc can have multiple virtual interfaces with thus multiple IP addresses.

I guess I should try to talk my boss into letting me buy a 2nd router (your favorite?) and start playing with it at home. Then, when I feel comfortable, plug it in during my one hour window and fine-tune it. Worst case unplug it and replace it with my working router before 8:15 AM.

I'm loving the AC5300 running Merlin's firmware. Some UI issues but for the most part, everything works as is (including the actual routing).

Your approach makes more sense to me than putting a router port into the other router's DMZ! Before I can do that I will need to figure out how to mitigate my problem with legacy IP addresses.

When you say legacy IP addresses, do you mean static IPs? Can you elaborate?

The Asus router doesn't seem to give me that option. Asus gives me 4 WLANs for 5Ghz but puts them all on the same channel. Ditto the four 2.4Ghz WLANs. Thus my question.

As mentioned above, virtual wireless interfaces have to be on the same channel as the main one. On the AC5300, if you have Smart Connect enabled, you cannot control the channel either.

I saw that under the Tomato guy's write up. Now that you've said it I am going to revisit that and pinch my links a little tighter than I already have.

Thanks again, you were very helpful!

I LOVE tomato (the shibby build is the one I use) but it isn't out for the AC5300 yet and the Asus interface is much prettier and RMerlin has most bugs fixed.

 

[fusionstream]

Many of the QoS-related tutorials I read, when I re-read them after gaining more knowledge, I realize that they were wrong about more and more things.

Toastman's tutorial, every time that I revisit it, I never find an obvious error or misunderstanding. It is obvious he has a deep understanding of all involved aspects of QoS.

Well he has his own Tomato build so one would hope that he does.

 

[Klueless]

I've been running a 66U at home for 2-3 years now but with Shibby Tomato firmware, and nary a glitch. Nowhere near as complex and demanding as your setup. You might find you have more control and much more detailed monitoring than with the stock AsusWRT firmware. I definitely agree with Nullity regarding Toastman's exhaustive tutorial on QoS...a "must read" if you are going to run QoS.

Did you mean my environment was complex or that my setup was needlessly complex?

Tomato intrigues me but do remember, I am Klueless. (I'm afraid, how do you guys say, I'd brick my router on download.) Have you stumbled upon an easy to understand guide to Tomato? (What I've read didn't help me much.)

 

[fusionstream]

"This message is awaiting moderator approval, and is invisible to normal visitors."

Are there no moderators awake?

Anyway, IMHO, Tomato has a much more logical interface than ASUSWrt. So install it then peruse through the interface. If anything is unclear I just google that specific part and something almost always comes up.

 

[L&LD]

Thank you very much!

I had bought and returned a Linksys WRT-AC1900

Which of the three firmwares would you suggest I focus my efforts on and which of the six routers should I think of starting with?

You're welcome.

I am glad you returned the Linksys while you had the chance. I have found that regular firmware releases are a better indication of a manufacturer who is genuinely interested in the end users. Linksys and Netgear routers (both of which I've used in the past) do not pass that important test for me.

I can easily recommend the RMerlin fork for you to concentrate on. With the newer routers, john9527's fork may not be as easy to hang on to (as the newest routers start with a much different sdk). With hggomes firmware, I could recommend it if you were trying to address specific issues.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-378-55-3_hgg-final-mod.26524/page-2#post-199549

The above is a link of how hggomes' firmware helped me help a customer without buying new hardware.

I guess I should try to talk my boss into letting me buy a 2nd router (your favorite?) and start playing with it at home. Then, when I feel comfortable, plug it in during my one hour window and fine-tune it. Worst case unplug it and replace it with my working router before 8:15 AM.

The Asus router doesn't seem to give me that option. Asus gives me 4 WLANs for 5Ghz but puts them all on the same channel. Ditto the four 2.4Ghz WLANs. Thus my question.

For a work environment, I would be looking at the newer models (more ram, higher cpu speeds and they seem just as stable as models that are substantially inferior, hardware wise.

The RT-AC88U or the RT-AC5300 would be what I would be testing, but if those are too dearly priced, I would not go below an RT-AC68U and even then, I would be looking for the 1GHz cpu models (revision C1, I think).

With the 4 WLAN's being on the same channel, we have misunderstood each other. I meant when using more than one router (the others as AP's). When using the guest networks on a single router, the best approach is the default one (a single channel for all).

Hope that you're given a chance by your boss, you seem really interested in getting this to work for them and of course, the experience can only benefit you too in the long run.

 

[chele809]

"Fastest" doesn't make it the "bestest". There are important features that aren't captured in reviews. Features you don't need when things are running well but features you'll wish you had when things aren't!

Case in point. October, 2013. We switched from a cable Internet provider (numerous outages) to a phone company that provided 16 mpbs / 1.6 mbps bonded DSL. The new provider provisioned a router/modem combo rather than just a modem like our original ISP.

New ISP insisted on keeping our old router in place. HAPPY they did! Their box was low end, wireless range was poor and it turns out we would have had to deal with a ton of legacy addressing issues. (That and, looking forward, it'd be nice to be able to plug our router into a cell phone type router as a backup and have everything just work.)

Anyway we ran perfect for TWO years (from October 2013 to October 2015)! On October 1, 2015 we started experiencing numerous and frequent outages that were all but crippling to our small business.

Numerous calls to our ISP, they didn't see any problems so it must be us! A couple weeks in my boss asked me to take a look ...no ego here, I was just the most "disposable" employee

On November 20th we started working reliably ... and still are ... to date ... January 2016. Wish I could say I did something but I really can't.

Anyway as I started looking at things I realized how helpless we were. We knew nothing about our traffic or even who was on our network. We've always been this way, no changes, and we just worked. Until we didn't and, worse, the ISP just washed their hands ... it must be us!

Then, on top of everything else, we had a four hour blackout. When power came back up our router didn't so I had to buy a new one.

While shopping I knew I wanted something that would give me data to give my ISP, that would either show I had a problem or help build a case that THEY had a problem.

I combed reviews and went to several store fronts. Speed, user interface, QoS and perceived reliabilty reputations. I needed more information but I bought one anyway. Bought a well rated AC router. Yeah, it had QoS but it was to make games run faster. Not what I wanted; I needed "work" to run faster.

Returned it and that began my love affair with my Asus RT-N66R (aka RT-N66U) Router! I will bore you, point by point, so that any and all might suggest an even better fit for us. Or ideas for better configuration and/or troubleshooting. Anything!

User Interface was good, good enough that a no-talent like me could muck my way around.

QoS was good. Out of the box it prioritized work over uh "miscellaneous". (Work for us is web; web CRM, web comps, web-based financing, web-based inventory, web-based e-mail.)

Gigabit Ethernet (overkill for us, 100 Mbps would have been fine).

2 WLANs, one 2.4Ghz and one 5Ghz

6 Guest WLANs, three 2.4Ghz and three 5Ghz

Low end traffic monitor. I could finally see traffic! 24 hour charts. 10 minute real time monitor. Wired, 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and composite views.

Support for b/g/n. No AC. In hindsight I see no need for it? N is plenty fast enough for us.

WPA/WPA2, etc. Yeah they all have it but our old router was WEP only so we just ran "open". Luckily no one ever bothered hacking us but the bigger issue is we had so many "unknowns", like 45 "somethings" were connected to us.​

This is how we started:

Renamed devices to names to help identify who's who and what's what.

Password protected our WLANs (except for "guest"). We went from 40 plus connections to 20 something - most of which I can identify now.

Changed default passwords on all routers/modems. (ISP wasn't happy I changed theirs but I told them upfront. I can deal with a little "grumpy".)

Traffic Monitor: It showed we do NOT have a traffic problem. Internet traffic is well suited to our subscribed service. Even though we have two internal servers and several clients to them their traffic (local, non Internet traffic) is well within reason.
​

LANs and WLANs: This is how we restructured our network:

Ethernet - Internal Servers and their clients.

SSID "Faster", 5Ghz WLAN, WPA/WPA2 - Internal clients we didn't have Ethernet runs for and nearby "production" PCs. (Originally I planned on using the same SSID for both 2.4 and 5Ghz but some of my 5Ghz PCs kept connecting to 2.4)

SSID "Further", 2.4Ghz WLAN, WPA/WPA2 - "Prodution" PCs that didn't work w/ 5Ghz due to age or distance (e.g., they're in bldg. 2)

Guest WLAN 1, SSID "BYOD", 2.4 and 5Ghz, WPA/WPA2 - employee devices; smart phones and iPADs. (Even though it's a "guest WLAN" I have a button I can click to give them access to our printers and servers.)

Guest WLAN 2, SSID "Guest", 2.4 and 5Ghz, "open" - customers and visitors, employees - non-business use. No access to our internals.​

In the event of crazy traffic compromising our network I can now disable the "unknowns"; disable "guest", disable "BYOD" and maybe get some work done. (Downside is I have to document how those WLANs were configured because I have to recreate them after disabling.)

Results, so far so good:

Boss' daughter was in for the holidays. I don't know what kids do with iPADs but she had our uplink and downlink pegged for days. No one noticed, everything ran fine. I'm thinking QoS really works!

Sales manager bought a new iPhone. It was saturating our 1.5 mbps outbound link. No one noticed, we were running fine - QoS to the rescue! Even better I brought him in to look at the ASUS traffic monitor, had him shut off his phone and look at the traffic monitor again. Traffic stopped when he shut off his phone. He got mad at me. This went on for several more days, don't know root cause, but, eventually, his phone "fixed itself" and ... he's talking to me again.

I now run "Ping Plotter" as an overlay to my traffic monitor. On December 10 we had our first outage in three weeks (prior to they had been a near daily occurance). Ping Plotter showed a possible problem with the ISP's border router and the Asus traffic monitor showed almost NO traffic.​

ISP still thinks it's me but we haven't had another problem since, going on three weeks now. Maybe they inadvertently fixed the problem or maybe we're in for a storm after the holidays are over and other businesses go back to full throttle. If so we are almost in a position where we can stand up to our ISP and their techs.

Shortcomings:

Asus tech support leaves much to be desired.

Would be nice to be able to simply resume a WLAN rather than having to reconfigure it to reenable it.

Would be nice to be able to disable a singe device rather than an entire WLAN and to be able to simply resume it.

Would be nice to see traffic by device.

Would be nice to be able to remotely manage (like the new Linksys devices?)​

Outstanding questions:

How to properly set up QoS? I had to take some guesses. The Asus Gigabit WAN port connects to the ISP's router/modem.

Subscribed service for outbound (from me) traffic is 1.6 mbps and speed tests show I actually get 1.6 so I pinched my gigabit outbound to 1.5 mbps (to mimic my ISP).

My inbound service is 16 mbps but speed tests never reach 15 mbps I so pinched my gigabit inbound to 15. I considered 14 but since I have NO understanding of the benefit of inbound QoS I went with 15.

I do not know if I should do similar with my provider's modem/router or if I should leave well enough alone? (Actually, I'm not even sure if I have that option now that I think of it.)​

All 2.4Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (1) and all 5Ghz WLANs run on the *same* channel (40). Am I shooting myself in the foot by running so manys WLANs / SSIDs on the same channels?

Two routers = double NAT? Another forum suggested I put my router port into the ISP's router/modem's DMZ. I did but I think I still have double NAT? I don't mind putting in a little effort but stuff is working(?) so I'm reluctant to take heroic or disruptive efforts here.​

Any input? Better routers? Configuration suggestions? I really want to get smarter about all this stuff. (I need to.) Called a couple "network engineers". While I'm sure there are plenty of good ones out there I didn't find one. It was easier to find a decent router (which wasn't easy) and a lot cheaper than paying for a mediocre network engineer.

Thanks for your patience with this boring dissertation.

Lol

Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

 

[Klueless]

Many of the QoS-related tutorials I read, when I re-read them after gaining more knowledge, I realize that they were wrong about more and more things.

How true!

 

[Klueless]

When you say you didn't WIFI protect your Guest network I hope you also have isolated it (in my AC5300 it's under "Access Intranet"). I also feel your pain regarding not being able to simply disable a virtual network.

Thank you, yes I did.

Why do you need so many virtual wireless networks btw (Asus calls it Guest Networks)?

"Guest" and "BYOD" are for un-managed devices. I figured if I'm having a network problem that I can't fix quickly I can simply disable them to reduce the variables (and maybe keep the shop running).

"Faster" and "Further" was a mistake on my part. A couple online articles and store clerks kinda misled me into believing speed was a function of the radio with 5Ghz being faster.

I think that was wrong. I guess it's actually the protocol that determines speed (e.g., b = 11 mbps, g = 54 mbps, n = X mbps and AC = Y mbps?)? Perhaps 5Ghz can appear faster due to less interference/noise?

As things were working I opted to leave well enough alone. I also kinda liked knowing what was where and the idea of having clients (to our Ethernet based servers) on the less cluttered 5Ghz radio (which might reduce variability in performance).
​

Virtual networks always have to be on the same channel as the main network. This is because it runs off the same radio. Your link speed should thus be shared across all the virtual WLANs across each radio. It is a similar case with creating a virtual interface on say a linux box. 1 physical lan port on a linux pc can have multiple virtual interfaces with thus multiple IP addresses.

Great answer, thank you for clearing that up for me!​

When you say legacy IP addresses, do you mean static IPs? Can you elaborate?

Yes, static IP. We have two ancient high volume printer/copier/FAX/scanner units. That's 2 printers with static IP and the 12 PCs that talk to them via the static IPs. Probably a breeze for a PC guy but that's a lot of stuff for me (Klueless) to blunder through in a one hour window! At this point I don't have management buy-in to even try.​

 

[Klueless]

For a work environment, I would be looking at the newer models (more ram, higher cpu speeds and they seem just as stable as models that are substantially inferior, hardware wise.

The RT-AC88U or the RT-AC5300 would be what I would be testing, but if those are too dearly priced, I would not go below an RT-AC68U and even then, I would be looking for the 1GHz cpu models (revision C1, I think).

Thank you. Price-wise my only option (save for sticking with the RT-N66U) would be would be the RT-AC68U.

Firmware. My head is so full; it's like a hangover without the booze. But I'm going to try to get a flavor for both Merlin and Tomato to see if either addresses some of the would-be-nice-to-haves that I mentioned in my original post.

I enjoyed reading your case study. Very interesting stuff.​

 

[fusionstream]

"Guest" and "BYOD" are for un-managed devices. I figured if I'm having a network problem that I can't fix quickly I can simply disable them to reduce the variables (and maybe keep the shop running).

I kinda have something like this as well but still not so many. I am curious about your scenario.

For example I have two guest networks. All have passwords btw - in my country, open networks are jumped on faster than <imagine I said something funny here>. 1 Guest network has basically the same access as my main network and the other has access only to the internet. The first one was created to be given to trusted guests or for guests who need access to my local network. The difference between the first guest network and my main is I can switch out the password or take down that network without affecting my truly trusted local users.

I would be very interested in your reasoning for having more than 2. How is it configured? I am merely curious btw. Maybe it's something I could or should be doing on my end as well.

I think that was wrong. I guess it's actually the protocol that determines speed (e.g., b = 11 mbps, g = 54 mbps, n = X mbps and AC = Y mbps?)? Perhaps 5Ghz can appear faster due to less interference/noise?

It actually involves everything.

For example, 802.11n operates on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz while 802.11ac only operates on 5GHz. 802.11n has different ways of sending data and 802.11ac has its own (I don't really know the specifics about this but hardware [if not also software] is definitely in play [something about spread spectrum I think but probably best to google this]). So even if only comparing 5GHz based throughput, ac will still be theoretically faster.

Your wpa2 encryption also affects how fast your actual throughput is. Always use AES and WPA2. Support legacy (WEP/WPA/WPA2-with-TKIP) only if needed, never as a preventative measure.

Then as you noted, you have interference. 5GHz has more available channels (even those being used in countries where many channels are illegal) so there's less inteference from other APs. Then there is inteference from other devices that aren't APs. On 2.4GHz, you have microwaves, wireless mice, cordless phones and tons of other devices creating noise. 5Ghz has much much less. 2.4GHz signals tend to travel further as well so you probably already have a situation where you have a decent signal from your neighbours wifi. With 5GHz, this is less so. You could of course make them have a similar range by playing with the radio power levels but that would be going to extremes and might damage your radio and it's not like other people are going to bother with dialing down their power (802.11AC has something up it's sleeve with how to deal with that btw).

Now with Mu-Mimo technology and having multiple radios (like the AC5300), 802.11ac will likely appear even faster to the end user. Not that they would notice but if you do the tests, it's there.

Remember always though that bandwidth != latency.

Yes, static IP. We have two ancient high volume printer/copier/FAX/scanner units. That's 2 printers with static IP and the 12 PCs that talk to them via the static IPs. Probably a breeze for a PC guy but that's a lot of stuff for me (Klueless) to blunder through in a one hour window! At this point I don't have management buy-in to even try.​

That's a simple one. You simply set your DHCP to avoid handing out IPs that could conflict with your statics (assuming you can't change them). I have a mix of statics and DHCP addresses on my home network. In tomato it's labelled "IP Range" and in asuswrt it's labelled "IP Pool Starting Address" and "IP Pool Ending Address". You can even do DHCP reservation which means that clients of your choosing will always get the same IP, even if using DHCP.

 

[tallytr]

Just got the AC-68U router, twice as fast, also USB transfer via Network faster transferring files (~24MB/s from ext. HDD and around 13MB/s copying onto ext. HDD). Same reach as N-66U.
I'm using the router in upright position and the rear connections of the 68U are great for this, to be honest, that alone, not having to look at all the cables makes it worth for me

 

[doczenith1]

Shortcomings:

Would be nice to be able to disable a singe device rather than an entire WLAN and to be able to simply resume it.

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I believe this is possible with the Android app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.aihome