Ac86u issues

[Jwood]

Before I start, let me say I’m not extremely proficient with routers and need answers in layman terms.

I purchased an AC86u a month or so ago and have had issues with my 2.4ghz speeds. My 5ghz speeds have been great, around 220mbps and we are on the 200mbps plan. The 2.4 has been around 85 or so and very occasionally gets up to 115 briefly. The past few days, both bands have been around 35mbps. I tried factory resetting the router, and rebooted the modem (Netgear c3000), but nothing changed.

I have tweaked various settings, channels, etc, and I have talked to customer support but only get canned answers and very little help. Does anyone have an idea for a solution or is this symptomatic of a failing router? Would upgrading to Merlin firmware help stabilize speeds? I don’t know enough to use the Merlin firmware to its full potential, but if it would help here, I would love to try it.

Thank you for any help!

 

[K-2SO]

The 2.4 has been around 85

This is excellent for 2.4GHz band. You probably use 40MHz channels. Not recommended in most urban areas.
What to expect from WiFi - https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html

 

[Jwood]

Thanks. I forgot to mention I live out in the country with no other WiFi signals or major interference around.

So less than half the speed than I am paying for is acceptable for 2.4? I am still confused by the major drop on both bandwidths over the past few days.

Thank you for the link!

 

[K-2SO]

So less than half the speed than I am paying for is acceptable for 2.4?

Rough estimation with 40MHz channels:
1x1 wireless N clients connect at ~150Mbps, throughput ~75Mbps
2x2 wireless N clients connect at ~300Mbps, throughput ~150Mbps
Only if you have full signal strength. It degrades with the distance.

 

[K-2SO]

I am still confused by the major drop on both bandwidths over the past few days.

I would use 5GHz for all high-speed devices, 2.4GHz for long range and home automation only. Check your channels, use clear non-DFS, use 80MHz wide. I don't know what country you live in and what's available there.

 

[Jwood]

Thanks. During all my playing and testing, I did change the channel bandwidth to both 20 and 40 with no change in performance. It is, and has been set to 20/40

 

[Jwood]

I would use 5GHz for all high-speed devices, 2.4GHz for long range and home automation only. Check your channels, use clear non-DFS, use 80MHz wide. I don't know what country you live in and what's available there.

Thank you. I live in the US.

 

[K-2SO]

Most widely used channels are 36/40/44/48 and 149/153/157/161. All non-DFS.
What is DFS channel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_frequency_selection
If you use those any radar transmissions near you will bump you off the frequency.

 

[K-2SO]

It is, and has been set to 20/40

20/40 means 40 if possible, 20 if interference detected. Your router may switch between the two constantly. Your speed tests will be inconsistent. I personally use fixed 20 for 2.4GHz and 80 for 5GHz. I live in urban area, ~50Mbps on 2.4GHz is all I can get. One client only on 2.4GHz, a printer. Nothing else. I get ~300Mbps on 5GHz constantly. This is my ISP line speed.

I also have disabled:
- Smart Connect
- Protected Management Frames
- TX Bursting
- Airtime Fairness
- Both beamforming
- MU-MIMO

The last two give no advantages whatsoever with wireless clients I have. YMMV

 

[Jwood]

20/40 means 40 if possible, 20 if interference detected. Your router may switch between the two constantly. Your speed tests will be inconsistent. I personally use fixed 20 for 2.4GHz and 80 for 5GHz. I live in urban area, ~50Mbps on 2.4GHz is all I can get. One client only on 2.4GHz, a printer. Nothing else. I get ~300Mbps on 5GHz constantly. This is my ISP line speed.

I also have disabled:
- Smart Connect
- Protected Management Frames
- TX Bursting
- Airtime Fairness
- Both beamforming
- MU-MIMO

The last two give no advantages whatsoever with wireless clients I have. YMMV

Thanks. I did try smart connect (on and off), airtime fairness, both beamforming, and mumimo. Nothing changed the speeds. However I would love to have my 85 mobs back at this point. I have worked on it all night and have constantly gotten 35 mbps on both 2.4 and 5.

 

[K-2SO]

I have used Speedtest.net, Comcast’s speed test, and one more that was suggested on the snb forums.

What's your wired speed at the modem and at the router?
Constant 35Mbps on both bands sounds suspicious to me.

 

[bbunge]

The latest and best Asus firmware is 384_81858. I strongly recommend upgrading to it! A factory reset is not necessary but recommended. Use dual band SmartConnect with the same SSID. As others have recommended set the 2.4 GHZ band to 20 MHZ channel 1,6 or 11. I recommend ch 36 at 20, 40, 80 mhz for 5 GHZ. Turn WPS off and leave other wifi settings at default. Also disable the media player and Samba if you don't use them. Set the USB 3 to USB2 operation.
I have my AC86U set like this since the new firmware was released with no issues

 

[jeden]

The appropriate way of testing your wireless speed is to use iperf3, which comes preinstalled in the router.

 

[lalord69]

The latest and best Asus firmware is 384_81858. I strongly recommend upgrading to it! A factory reset is not necessary but recommended. Use dual band SmartConnect with the same SSID. As others have recommended set the 2.4 GHZ band to 20 MHZ channel 1,6 or 11. I recommend ch 36 at 20, 40, 80 mhz for 5 GHZ. Turn WPS off and leave other wifi settings at default. Also disable the media player and Samba if you don't use them. Set the USB 3 to USB2 operation.
I have my AC86U set like this since the new firmware was released with no issues

what version are you using again? Cant find that version for 86u

 

[ColinTaylor]

The appropriate way of testing your wireless speed is to use iperf3, which comes preinstalled in the router.

Really? I don't think so.

 

[jeden]

Really? I don't think so.

Any clarification?

 

[Jwood]

What's your wired speed at the modem and at the router?
Constant 35Mbps on both bands sounds suspicious to me.

Wired speed from the modem to laptop is 240mbps. Wireless speeds this morning were still 35mbps or less across both 2.4 and 5.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The appropriate way of testing your wireless speed is to use iperf3, which comes preinstalled in the router.

Any clarification?

Sorry for the confusion, I meant that I don't think that iperf3 comes preinstalled. I believe you have to install it through Entware (unless it's something they've added recently).

 

[K-2SO]

Wired speed from the modem to laptop is 240mbps.

What is your wired speed from the router?

 

[K-2SO]

what version are you using again? Cant find that version for 86u

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RT-AC86U/HelpDesk_BIOS/