5ghz Signal Dies

[mikeg]

These drops in signal is just the AC66U . I have 1 laptop Dell Inspiron 1720 and 2 stationary PC:s all with Asus USB-N53 and get this issue. Asus equipment should work against each other I hope . When I connect to my backup-router a TP-Link WDR4300 dualband I gave no such issues. The only thing about the TP-Link is that the signal strength is about .14 dBm lower on the 5 GHz band compared to the Asus.

I am wondering if this 5 GHz drop issue is unique to certain wifi adapters, certain network environments (interference ir very stong signals), certain router settings or a combination of several of these factors since only 3 people are noting it.

I recall having an issue with my Linksys E4200 v1 router when I had it (before getting my N66U and AC66U): The 2.4 GHz signal would degrade and the unit would stop working within a day each time I reset it.
It turned out to be due to my Rosewill wifi LAN utility of all things (like SSIDer in terms of giving me network stats).
I disabled the utility (kept using the adapter) and the problem disappeared.

Just an example but I wanted to illustrate how a problem can affect some and not others and in certain cases have nothing to do with the product experiencing issues.

It may be worth experimenting with different wifi clients, trying wifi adapters in different locations of your residences, turning off some devices in the network, trying different adapter drivers *, disabling network utilities or some programs that access the net etc.
It could be the router but experimenting with other network components in an effort to rule out an issue not due to the router can't hurt (other than the time invested).

If I have the time (one arm is in a cast at the moment) I may unwrap my AC66U this weekend to try.
Part of me is considering holding off though in case this is a router issue and does not get resolved so I can still sell my AC66U as new and stick with my N66U.


* E.g. I experienced much lower wifi throughput after upgrading to Windows 8. I then looked for Windows 8 drivers, found some for my USB adapter's chipset (no package released officially for my actual device), installed the drivers and noticed a huge improvement in performance after going to the Ralink site and getting the latest wifi adapter drivers which Rosewill was not offering [yet]). It worked with the Rosewill drivers (just much slower) so you would not know to upgrade unless you ran speed tests.

 

[SCADAMON]

I just got home and immediately noticed that the 5Ghz band had dropped by 23dbm from when I left a week ago. I do not believe this is a client issue as I have 3 clients that use the 5Ghz, an iPhone 5, a Mac Power Book Pro and a Dell Latitude. All three experience the same loss of signal.
I have tried different drivers on the Dell and IOS updates on the iPhone 5 with no effect on the issue. Every time I log into the router and hit the apply button on the professional page of the 5Ghz (90mw) the signal jumps back up and all is good again, for a while...

 

[mikeg]

I have the Tx Power set to 90 mW also and have had the router up for more than 6 days after a reboot. I tried to the Apply on the Professional page on the 5 GHz and got some improvement regarding the signal strength. This morning I checked and had NO 5 Ghz signal at all ! The 2.4 Ghz with TX Power set to 90 mW has the signal strength of - 13 dBm which I have never had before - this high signal strength. I wonder what is happening ...
Update : As I wrote this text above the 5 GHZ signal appeared again with -25 dBm , the 2.4 GHz is at -15 dBm according to inSSIDer. I have never had this difference in signal strength before .

I just got home and immediately noticed that the 5Ghz band had dropped by 23dbm from when I left a week ago. I do not believe this is a client issue as I have 3 clients that use the 5Ghz, an iPhone 5, a Mac Power Book Pro and a Dell Latitude. All three experience the same loss of signal.
I have tried different drivers on the Dell and IOS updates on the iPhone 5 with no effect on the issue. Every time I log into the router and hit the apply button on the professional page of the 5Ghz (90mw) the signal jumps back up and all is good again, for a while...

 

[janosek]

I just wanted to chime in that I have noticed this phenomenon as well. I have a v1
RT-AC66u. After a reboot, the link drops to 108 mbps from 270 within a few hours. If I go to the settings, change something like the power setting or the frequency setting (20/4/80 to 40 for example), the connection speed is restored. When I look at inSSIDer, I can see the dBm drop for a while and if I come back in a few hours it can increase by 20 or more dBm. I am wondering if there is some sort of power saving mode that is not working properly?

 

[mikeg]

Hopefully it is a Broadcom driver issue. I have just an answer from CL-Jeremy at Asus that they are still working with the new drivers so we have just to be patient and wait......

I just wanted to chime in that I have noticed this phenomenon as well. I have a v1
RT-AC66u. After a reboot, the link drops to 108 mbps from 270 within a few hours. If I go to the settings, change something like the power setting or the frequency setting (20/4/80 to 40 for example), the connection speed is restored. When I look at inSSIDer, I can see the dBm drop for a while and if I come back in a few hours it can increase by 20 or more dBm. I am wondering if there is some sort of power saving mode that is not working properly?

 

[njweb]

Hopefully it is a Broadcom driver issue. I have just an answer from CL-Jeremy at Asus that they are still working with the new drivers so we have just to be patient and wait......

Thanks for the update.

Did Jeremy confirm they were able to recreate the issue and, if so, does their "work" with the new drivers include specifically addressing this issue?

 

[mikeg]

No , I did not get any confirmation about that , it looks like we have test the new drivers and see if our problems are solved.

Thanks for the update.

Did Jeremy confirm they were able to recreate the issue and, if so, does their "work" with the new drivers include specifically addressing this issue?

 

[Smallies]

I too am having the same problem, my 5ghz signal is very poor after upgrading to 3.0.0.4.266

 

[mikeg]

Have you tried to click on the Apply button in the UI for 5 GHz Professional settings without making any changes ?

I too am having the same problem, my 5ghz signal is very poor after upgrading to 3.0.0.4.266

 

[SeattleScott]

I too am having the same problem, my 5ghz signal is very poor after upgrading to 3.0.0.4.266

Did you get 266 working with 5Ghz or did you revert back to 260?

 

[mikeg]

To people still having issues with the 5 GHz band , I got this answer from Jeremy at Asus today :
Try this version of beta firmware:
3.0.0.4.352
https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/65BEA3BC99A1492194AB409498C737214

I'm not sure if it has updated drivers, but the performance seems to be improved over the last few versions.

This beta.version indeed have new Broadcom drivers : 6.30.102.9 ( r366174 ).
I updated to this beta fw today and will see how it works,

Did you get 266 working with 5Ghz or did you revert back to 260?

 

[doubleroll]

To people still having issues with the 5 GHz band , I got this answer from Jeremy at Asus today :
Try this version of beta firmware:
3.0.0.4.352
https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/65BEA3BC99A1492194AB409498C737214

I'm not sure if it has updated drivers, but the performance seems to be improved over the last few versions.

This beta.version indeed have new Broadcom drivers : 6.30.102.9 ( r366174 ).
I updated to this beta fw today and will see how it works,

I was unable to access the download...

 

[lilstone87]

Well I just clicked on the link, and it was a little slow loading at first. But it does work, and I was able to download without a problem. So you may want to try again, and/or try another browser to download it.

 

[doubleroll]

Well I just clicked on the link, and it was a little slow loading at first. But it does work, and I was able to download without a problem. So you may want to try again, and/or try another browser to download it.

Thanks for confirming...IE did the trick. Doesn't like firefox I guess.

 

[doubleroll]

Just checked the 5Ghz band this morning and no issues. Speed and signal were normal. So far so good.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[njweb]

Just checked the 5Ghz band this morning and no issues. Speed and signal were normal. So far so good.

Thanks for sharing!

Seems like good news! (depending on your answer to the following):
How long did it take for the 5 GHz signal to drop, in your case at least, with the previous firmware?
Would the drop already be noticeable after the amount of time that you have had this beta firmware installed?

If so it might be time for me to finally to unpack my RT-AC66U (bought it a long time ago) and sell my RT-N66U.
I was planning to sell my RT-AC66U (if they could not resolve this issue).

 

[mikeg]

It took about 4 days for me to get the degradation in signal strength so I am still checking to see if it occurs on tis Beta.version. Up till now I have not seen any sign of signal strength going down.

I presonally have kept my N66U and run TomatoUSB Shibby on it and compare the signal strength against the AC66U. I will keep the N66U as a back-up for the AC66U.

Seems like good news! (depending on your answer to the following):
How long did it take for the 5 GHz signal to drop, in your case at least, with the previous firmware?
Would the drop already be noticeable after the amount of time that you have had this beta firmware installed?

If so it might be time for me to finally to unpack my RT-AC66U (bought it a long time ago) and sell my RT-N66U.
I was planning to sell my RT-AC66U (if they could not resolve this issue).

 

[jayesh]

To people still having issues with the 5 GHz band , I got this answer from Jeremy at Asus today :
Try this version of beta firmware:
3.0.0.4.352
https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s/65BEA3BC99A1492194AB409498C737214

I'm not sure if it has updated drivers, but the performance seems to be improved over the last few versions.

This beta.version indeed have new Broadcom drivers : 6.30.102.9 ( r366174 ).
I updated to this beta fw today and will see how it works,

Hi!

Is it possible to upload this file elsewhere? I have been trying for a day now to grab the file. Keep getting ' This file has exceeded it's limits. Try 4 hours later'.

I could really really use it. Got 2 ac-66s and would love some stability at the 5 ghz bands.

 

[DaveMishSr]

Hi!

Is it possible to upload this file elsewhere? I have been trying for a day now to grab the file. Keep getting ' This file has exceeded it's limits. Try 4 hours later'.

I could really really use it. Got 2 ac-66s and would love some stability at the 5 ghz bands.

I have uploaded 3.0.0.4.352 to my MediaFire account. You should be able to download it from this link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?845ahf2t80aq238

 

[lilstone87]

Hi!

Is it possible to upload this file elsewhere? I have been trying for a day now to grab the file. Keep getting ' This file has exceeded it's limits. Try 4 hours later'.

I could really really use it. Got 2 ac-66s and would love some stability at the 5 ghz bands.

Well I just tried that link again without problem's. As I told a person on here the other day, you may want to try a different browser to download it from.