Wireless Woes

[Nick123]

Hi Guys, I've been plagued with some terrible Wireless performance the past few months. I found these forums and have improved my situation a little but could still use some advice. I am currently running Merlin's latest firmware on my RT-N66U. I followed this post to a T: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/guide-troubleshooting-wifi-issues.12825/

I had been running my Asus for about 1.5 years without issue. Recently, my 2.4GHz and 5Ghz wireless performance has become worse and worse. I get 1-4Mbps despite having a 75 megabit connection. When I run a speedtest.net from a wireless device sometimes it will spike to 5Mbps and then quickly drop to zero. My LAN devices get great performance. I flashed my firmware to Merlin about 2 weeks ago and did a factory reset after. Since then my N/5ghz network has been rock solid. My G network is sadly still really crappy despite playing with different channels and positioning of my router.

One crazy theory: too many wireless devices? I have about 25 wireless devices connected at peak times. Is there a threshold?

Another theory I had was old/legacy devices impacting wireless performance. I have some old foscam wireless cameras and some wireless lightbulbs all using my G network. To test this I gave my G network a new SSID and only connected my iPad and Laptop. Both still reported terrible speeds and performance.

Neighbors: I live a town house and can see 5-10 other networks at any given time. I have used an SSID scanner and found the least common channel to use but that doesn't seem to improve anything.

One last note: when I run a speed test from a hardwired device I noticed my CPU on my Asus spikes to 100%. Is that normal?

Is it time to replace my hardware or am I missing something obvious to try? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[netwrks]

Should try the wifi with one device - then add a few more and see what the throughput is. But, if I had that many devices connecting to an .N router, I would be looking to get a different router. Only a 600MHZ processor. It could be used as an Access Point in your environment. I would look at an AC1900. NG R7000 is supported with 3rd party firmware. I run Xvortex/ Merlin on two R7000's, with no issues whatsoever. Asus' version has stock and Merlin Firmware.

 

[Nick123]

Thanks for the reply.

I will try one device at a time, but like I said it was still REALLY bad with just 2 devices.

Its annoying to think a <2 year old router that I spent $170 on cannot handle that kind of load.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

The fun of troubleshooting. Your lucky day.

1) How well does wired work with no other devices in use? Do you get the full band you are paying for from your ISP?

2) As the other response noted, with wireless and one device only ... your best one ... what's your speed?

3) With respect to 2, does it change if you change the channel?

4) Sorry to say but not all wireless routers work to spec. Some are defective out of the box but the flaws are subtle. Do you have access to a different one to see if it works better / worse / the same?

5) Do you have 5GHz devices available? Test one if yes.

6) No idea if G and N devices together can mess you up. Change the wireless to N only and try an N device.

7) Does the problem show up only when lots of devices are attached and working? There's your problem. Wireless is a convenience, not a full spectrum home solution.

8) I'm assuming you have wireless security. If not maybe you have someone like me using your free connection.

 

[sfx2000]

I will try one device at a time, but like I said it was still REALLY bad with just 2 devices.

Its annoying to think a <2 year old router that I spent $170 on cannot handle that kind of load.

This sounds like the AC Adapter is going soft - generally one will see wifi drop off first as the radio activity pulls the current/voltage down to a point where things start to brown out...

Before replacing the router, see if you can source an replacement AC adapter first..

 

[thiggins]

Can you think back to when the problem started? Was there a big increase in the # of devices? New neighbor? Have you noticed a drop in 2.4 GHz signal levels?

It's not as much the number of devices, but how many are simultaneously active and what they are doing.

Assigning G devices to a different SSID does not help. They still use the same radio and compete for the same bandwidth.

 

[Nick123]

Assigning G devices to a different SSID does not help. They still use the same radio and compete for the same bandwidth.

Right, my theory was quickly drop all of my current connections by creating a new SSID (instead of disconnecting each one by hand)

I can't think back to anything significant changing...Good chance a neigbor got a new wifi router becuase about that time I noticed a terrible new SSID in the area "Pretty fly for a wifi"

Does anyone else agree it could be a bad AC adapter?

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Does anyone else agree it could be a bad AC adapter?

The RTN66U is not an AC router. It's otherwise a best of breed router, assuming it works properly.

 

[sfx2000]

AHS - he means AC Power Adapter - e.g. Wall Wart

 

[Nick123]

AHS - he means AC Power Adapter - e.g. Wall Wart

Indeed

 

[RMerlin]

Assigning G devices to a different SSID does not help. They still use the same radio and compete for the same bandwidth.

That, and also one single client going bad could potentially generate a lot of radio noise, impacting everyone else.

Unfortunately, you will have to start by reducing the number of potential causes by starting with one router and one or two clients, and go from up there.

I've had a case last winter with a customer where a bad desktop NIC was causing frequent packet losses on the rest of their Ethernet LAN. I spent a lot of time testing wires and even swapping the switch before I got to track it down to one particular PC causing a network-wide issue.

This was Ethernet - I assume the same could potentially happen with wifi as well.

 

[Nick123]

That, and also one single client going bad could potentially generate a lot of radio noise, impacting everyone else.

Unfortunately, you will have to start by reducing the number of potential causes by starting with one router and one or two clients, and go from up there.

I've had a case last winter with a customer where a bad desktop NIC was causing frequent packet losses on the rest of their Ethernet LAN. I spent a lot of time testing wires and even swapping the switch before I got to track it down to one particular PC causing a network-wide issue.

This was Ethernet - I assume the same could potentially happen with wifi as well.

Thanks for the reply Merlin. I will try to rule everything out and connect everything one at a time.

 

[sfx2000]

That, and also one single client going bad could potentially generate a lot of radio noise, impacting everyone else.

Very true... I've seen this first hand...

 

[AdvHomeServer]

AHS - he means AC Power Adapter - e.g. Wall Wart

Oh, you meant that kind of AC adapter.

 

[sfx2000]

Oh, you meant that kind of AC adapter.

Hehe... yep, don't worry about it, I get those senior moments as well from time to time...

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Hehe... yep, don't worry about it, I get those senior moments as well from time to time...

Thank you for your support, by cracky.

 

[sfx2000]

Thank you for your support, by cracky.

I'm certain you'll correct me at some point - sooner that later... your wisdom and insight is appreciated by all..

 

[AdvHomeServer]

I'm certain you'll correct me at some point - sooner that later... your wisdom and insight is appreciated by all..

I'll just have to get back in the habit of reading carefully and looking things up first. Facts can be so pesky and reading takes time. I'm too busy for that.

 

[Nick123]

Just wanted to post an update. I borrowed a friends rt-ac68r while he was out of town. Mimicked they settings from my N66U and this thing has been running flawless for 2 days. No wireless issues what so ever. That rules out any of my devices crippling my G network.

So...I now have a paperweight on my hand?