Help with what channels to use?

[derrickrozay]

Hey I have an AC66U running the latest merlin FW anyways a couple of days ago I changed my 2.4ghz radio channel from 6 to 10 and instantly tripled my speed (from 30 to 90 mbps). Although the speed is much faster sometimes it slows down all the way to 3mbps and even though my speed was slower before it never had drop offs like this it wouldn't bother me if I didn't stream a lot of stuff. Anyways I think 10 might be a bad channel and overlapping with other signals. I remember reading a thread in here that had recommendations on which channels to use but I didn't bookmark it. Most houses around me are on channels 1, 6 and 11 for 2.4 ghz and 161 for 5ghz (I'm using 149)

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
Have inSSIDer? Use it to survey your neighborhood and find out least busy channel to
use. In my case it is channel 10.

 

[L&LD]

You should be using a 'control' channel: 1, 6 or 11.

Any other channel in the 2.4GHz band will get interference from both the upper and lower control channels. As you've experienced already.

For the 5GHz band; you should try the lower channels. In my experience the greatest range and throughput in the 5GHz band has been channels 44 or 48 as the control (main) channel. Much better performance than the higher channels with better range too.

Btw, inssider is next to useless to indicate which channel will work the best (it only shows wireless AP's - not how much airtime those AP's utilize).

 

[bodean]

You should be using a 'control' channel: 1, 6 or 11.

Any other channel in the 2.4GHz band will get interference from both the upper and lower control channels. As you've experienced already.

For the 5GHz band; you should try the lower channels. In my experience the greatest range and throughput in the 5GHz band has been channels 44 or 48 as the control (main) channel. Much better performance than the higher channels with better range too.

Btw, inssider is next to useless to indicate which channel will work the best (it only shows wireless AP's - not how much airtime those AP's utilize).

I was under the belief that high channels actually use TWENTY TIMES more power than the lower channels. So using the high channels can improve signal strength substantially.

The trade-off is that those high frequencies are inherently much more susceptible to interference (due to the high frequencies themselves) and also a lot of the 5Ghz wireless phone sets use higher frequencies.

 

[L&LD]

20x more power is what? 6dBm? Not significant at any normal use distance I would say.

I just know that in my testing, the increase in throughput was easily outweighed by the theoretical advantage the higher channels should have (as I too once believed).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showpost.php?p=101034&postcount=51

 

[jim769]

You should be using a 'control' channel: 1, 6 or 11.

Any other channel in the 2.4GHz band will get interference from both the upper and lower control channels. As you've experienced already.

For the 5GHz band; you should try the lower channels. In my experience the greatest range and throughput in the 5GHz band has been channels 44 or 48 as the control (main) channel. Much better performance than the higher channels with better range too.

Btw, inssider is next to useless to indicate which channel will work the best (it only shows wireless AP's - not how much airtime those AP's utilize).

Not always true, i use channel 5 myself 1,6,11 just have to many using them channel 5 works better for my environment on the 2.4 ghz band. Bottom line is there is no better channel then the one that works for you.

 

[RogerSC]

20x more power is what? 6dBm? Not significant at any normal use distance I would say.

I just know that in my testing, the increase in throughput was easily outweighed by the theoretical advantage the higher channels should have (as I too once believed).

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showpost.php?p=101034&postcount=51

Each time you double your power, you should get a 3 db. increase in signal (theoretically). Since 20x is doubling the power over 4 times, you should get over 12 db. signal gain (theoretically *smile*).

I've also always found the higher channels on the 5GHz. band to work better for me. Your results may vary *smile*.

 

[RMerlin]

Not always true, i use channel 5 myself 1,6,11 just have to many using them channel 5 works better for my environment on the 2.4 ghz band. Bottom line is there is no better channel then the one that works for you.

It's better to be on the exact same channel as another AP than being just one channel on its side. The reason is when two APs share the same channel, they can cooperate to ensure they don't talk over one another, sharing that channel. When one router is just one channel above or below, all it sees is noise, and won't be able to properly coexist with it.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Merlin hit the nail on the head with this one.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[derrickrozay]

It's better to be on the exact same channel as another AP than being just one channel on its side. The reason is when two APs share the same channel, they can cooperate to ensure they don't talk over one another, sharing that channel. When one router is just one channel above or below, all it sees is noise, and won't be able to properly coexist with it.

Wow thanks for all the help guys. How come when my router is on 6 or 11 (at least 2 other neighbours are on each) its much slower (around 30Mbps) than when I'm on 10 (90-100Mbps) but sometimes it'll go down to like 3Mbps

 

[jim769]

Same here if i use the same channel as other strong nearby routers my speeds will tank when i use channel 5 its completely stable.

 

[RMerlin]

Same here if i use the same channel as other strong nearby routers my speeds will tank when i use channel 5 its completely stable.

Might depend on your specific environment. You might end up being the one causing him to have stability issues due to having either a better router, better clients, or a stronger signal.

 

[jim769]

Might depend on your specific environment. You might end up being the one causing him to have stability issues due to having either a better router, better clients, or a stronger signal.

Your 100% right i do have a better router and better clients and a stronger signal then many around me. Thats why i buy Asus and use your firmware.