[RT-AC56U] - concerned about WiFi speeds... or is it to be expected?

[TrueVanDal]

Hello everyone. This is my first post on this forum.

I have just recently bought the RT-AC56U router. After initial setup I have almost immediately upgraded OFW to version 3.0.0.4.378.9529 (by router GUI, automatic check, I did not load file manually from asus website). I am not sure if WiFi speeds I get are "normal" but please allow me to elaborate.

I have 100Mbit DL and 10Mbit UP optic fibre connection. Through Ethernet (sadly 100Mbit on my laptop side) I get stable 94.5 Mbit figures tested on speedtest.net (I would probably get around 100 if not for FastEthernet card only). Now, When I check it on WiFi the results are not so great. All settings are "default", only differences were that on 2.4 GHz set the channel manually to 8 (looks like the least crowded) and is set to "auto" (to support b/g and n) . And on 5GHz, mode is set to N/AC Mixed (weird there is no "AC only" though...). 2.4 and 5 GHz uses different SSIDs and I use MAC filters. Other settings are default, no disk attached, no QoS and so on.

All below were tested in same room as router.

My Laptop WiFi is N capable, but only on 2.4 GHz, it forms Link Speed at 72Mbit/s (next to the router), and speedtest shows max 45 Mbit/s. download This is probably close to maxium in such conditions but I am not sure really. My other PC with N card on 2.4 GHz as well, close to the router forms link 144Mbit but only manages around 70Mbit/s download... I would expect it to be closer to my current "cap", or am I wrong?

My phone, Redmi Note 2, has dual band WiFi, On 2.4 GHz network (using N standard) I get near 50 Mbit/s download while near router, it drops to around 45 Mbit just a few meters away (still in same room).

But the most bothersome for me is AC performance. Next to router my phone forms 433Mbit connection but speedtest is really unstable, it often starts at around 90Mbit/s but it tends to drop fast quite a lot and usually the end average is between 75-85 Mbit/s though drops are also around 50Mbit/s through the course of test. Once again, it should be more stable and I think I should bounce of my 100Mbit ISP cap but it is just not the case and it really wonders me. Maybe the phone just is not capable of performing any better (I have a custom AOSP ROM installed there but it is rock stable and everything works on it, Android 5.0).

I have also tried Merlin 380.59 (having it now) but it did not change anything really, though my PS4 tends to show rather lower figures in built in speed test compared to OFW (this speed test is crappy though as it actually test the speed to PSN servers rather than actual network speed). Still, if you want the results, just 1 meter way from router, my PS4 on Link 144 (wireless N 2.4 GHz) shows on Merlin around 20 Mbit/s download, on stock it was closer to 30Mbit... still even the wired connection speeds are quite slow here, I have seen 50Mbit/s only once . It was closer to 30-something on cable when combining multiple test.

So long story short... should I be concerned about those numbers? Is there anything I can do to improve this (as I have mentioned, settings are almost default, of course I have reset the settings after firmware flash). Sadly I do not have any other AC capable device to test (and none of my friends have some hardware that they can lend me to test).

Sorry for lengthy post .

Best Regards

 

[L&LD]

That is a very old firmware you are running. I would use something more recent (and stop using the 'check for upgrades' from the gui too).

Using channel 8 is guaranteed to give you bad performance (it is being interfered with by both the AP's on channel 6 and the AP's on channel 11). Pick a main control channel (1, 6 or 11) that allows your router to work with other AP's in your environment, instead of fighting with them (and them with your AP).

The following link may also help.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ex...fi-adapter-vs-access-point.33840/#post-272747


As you have seen, not all devices are capable of top performance.

Handheld devices are the worst, because they are optimized for maximum battery performance, not long range or highest throughput performance.

Your laptop may do better if you try it plugged into an AC wall outlet and make sure it is using the 'performance' profile.

About the only things you can do is listed in the link above.

If moving the router to a better location (sometimes, mere inches help, believe it or not), choosing manually the channels (don't use 'Auto') and leaving other settings at defaults (unless tested and proven to actually improve things), then there is not much else you can do.

Note also that you can use better firmware than stock too (see link provided).

 

[TrueVanDal]

Thanks for answer.

I will check your suggestions once I got home from work. Firmware is the latest stable Merlin (and official firmware used by me at the beginning was also the latest stable one for my router, I did update it "automatically" but it is same found on ASUS webpage) so I would not tell, they are very old . I did not try the betas.

So you are saying that, there are probably very little I can do to improve things? That would be a pity .

I am still open for other suggestions as well.

Best Regards

 

[pete y testing]

So long story short... should I be concerned about those numbers? Is there anything I can do to improve this (as I have mentioned, settings are almost default, of course I have reset the settings after firmware flash). Sadly I do not have any other AC capable device to test (and none of my friends have some hardware that they can lend me to test).

its prob as expected from those pretty low level clients 144M on 2.4 gig is about right

the 5 gig 433M suggest its a single stream non mimo device and never seen good results from these single antenna ac clients

reality is your clients are doing as good as they can and if you want 100M speeds over wifi you will need to update to at least 2 x 2 stream devices and even then thats only when close to the transmission

 

[TrueVanDal]

Hi everyone and thanks for input.

I did some changes, as L&LD suggested on 2.4 network. I did change the channel to 6 (I used 8 earlier because it was only channel that did not have any AP running in my neighbourhood, though I see your point). I have also forced 20MHz channel width (versus 20/40 automatic). And even though links speeds will always be cut by 2 (for instance 72Mbit/s vs 144Mbit/s) it still gives me more stable and even a bit faster downloads speed. Also, as I have read a little, with such crowded spectrum, routers are supposed to fall back to 20Hz channels anyway, and this is what I saw. Only that with "auto" it was still causing lower overall download speeds.

For AC, so far nothing I have changed in router settings changed things in noticeable way. I will try to check some other AC capable devices to perform more tests. It may be that it is just a client side acting poorly.

Best Regards

 

[TrueVanDal]

Hello again.

I think I might have the culprit, but it would be good if someone more advanced could confirm my thoughts. There is one thing I did not mention earlier, as I thought that it won't be crucial. As I said, my ISP grants me an 100Mbit/s DL speed, thought my laptop NIC is only FastEthernet I am capped a bit below (a bit less than 95Mbit/s). But it looks like link between my router and my ISP's switch is not 1 Gbit/s... it is 100 Mbit/s (I will try to consult this with them, either their switch is only 100 or maybe there is some issue with the cable). For Ethernet it does not make any difference (speeds when I was connected directly or via router were same) but apparently for WiFi, it does. I did not think about that, as I thought that "OK, my WAN will be limited to 95 bit/s so fast WiFi AC should also *fill* the bandwidth". Because I did not get such speeds I was a bit surprised and this led me here with this thread.

But how I got to this conclusion? I managed to borrow Samsung Galaxy Tab S (8 inch display version) with both WiFi N and AC. When I tested them neither connection was capable of exceeding 80 Mbit/s, even AC (with link speed at 866 Mbit/s !!) which was just crazy and just did not add up at all to me (my phone even sometimes exceeded that). I have then set up local FTP server on my work laptop (the one that actually has 1 Gbit NIC) to try to test some file copy between laptop (wired to the router, 1 Gbit link speed between them) and my mobiles (via WiFi).

Results are:

My phone on N (72Mbit/s link), managed around 48 Mbit/s max, but with all the overhead on the WiFi this is (I think) normal, but on AC (link speed 433) it managed to download a 900 MB file with average speed of 184 Mbit/s and sending this file back was even faster - 224 Mbit/s ! Now that looks a lot better. I think that my phone memory write/read speed were the "bottleneck" in this test.

On Tab S with N (link speed 144 Mbit/s) both download and upload was around 90 Mbit/s (this did not really shine... odd) but on AC (link 866 Mbit/s) it was around 280 Mbit download and upload back to server around 304 Mbit/s. Once again, most likely this is limited due to Tab S memory (I think, I have SSD in laptop and it is capable of bigger read/write speeds), maybe the FTP protocol took some overhead as well (though it was "plain" FTP, not secured one).

So, with all this in mind, do you think that in my case, WiFi not being able of close to the 100 Mbit/s speed was/is caused by WAN port capped at 100 Mbit/s link speed? My tests shows that this is happening. At the beginning I assumed (wrongly it seems) that if WAN can do 95 Mbit/s, so can do mobile client via fast WiFi AC. In the end WiFi in such condition only managed around 80 Mbit/s. Or maybe just SpeedTest gives bad results with WiFi?

Best Regards