ASUS PCE-66U - Only Connects 802.11n

[xleanone]

Let me begin by saying that my WiFi knowledge is not great and my general networking knowledge is ancient history (Think Cat 2 cabling and Vine networks).

I picked up an RT-AC66U and the PCE-66U to go with it.

The router is set up in Access Point mode, hard wired to my Verizon supplied Actiontek modem/router. I allowed everything in the router to default except Time Zone, separate SSIDs for the 2 bands and the router login and password. Firmware is ASUS supplied 3.0.0.4.270.

The PCE is installed on a Win 7 64 bit. Driver is 6.30.95.26. The installation is all defaults.

The PCE installation created 2 network adapters. Connection 2 is an 802.11n adapter, Connection 4 is an 802.11ac adapter. I assume the 2 adapters are for the 2 different wireless bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).

Fired the router up and all seems normal. Restarted the PC and input passwords for the networks and both adapters connected fine. The Windows Systray display shows both adapters are connected as 802.11n. Wireless signal is excellent on both. INSSIDer app confirms that both bands are there and signal strength is very good.

Connection 2 wireless speed in the Win Status display says 72 Mbps. Connection 4 says 468 Mbps.

Why no 802.11ac connection on Connection 4? I would have expected one there, with a much higher speed display. Is there some setting I need to tweak to force an ac connection? Does it matter? Am I misreading something?

Appreciate any ideas, comments, whatever.

Regards.

Tom

 

[Fraoch]

Did you set 80 MHz channel bandwidth on the AC66U?

Do your speed test numbers match up with Tim's?

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...1750-gigabit-router-reviewed?showall=&start=3

(test between two devices with something like iperf)

 

[xleanone]

Reply to QX

1. Bandwidth on 5GHz band left at default 20/40/80. Does it need to be set to 80 to allow/force 802.11ac connection?

2. Have not used IPERF (I'd never heard of it until now). From my quick reading it's a network performance measurement tool used between 2 units, a client and a server. I'll try to set it up on a couple of PCs and play with it to see what I get.

Thanks for the ideas.

Regards.

Tom

 

[Fraoch]

1. Bandwidth on 5GHz band left at default 20/40/80.

I believe that means it will use as high as it can, but you can set it to 80. If you do, no 5 GHz n clients will be able to connect though.

Does it need to be set to 80 to allow/force 802.11ac connection?

Sort of but keep in mind ac is just n with some enhancements. A 20 or 40 MHz channel in the 5 GHz band transmitted by an ac AP will be recognized and perfectly usable by an n client, it'll be recognized as n. The same communication intercepted by an ac client should be recognized as ac and the enhancements can be used. So it just depends on the client, you can't "force" ac mode from the AP side.

Of course 80 MHz (and eventually 160 MHz) channels can only be recognized by ac clients so that's a way of forcing it I guess!

I see what you mean, although the router is ac and the client is ac it's recognizing the 5 GHz signals as n...sounds somewhat like a driver issue but test the speeds. If you get high enough speeds though, it's just an identification error. It could be that the generic Windows 7 network indicator just does not properly recognize ac.

2. Have not used IPERF (I'd never heard of it until now). From my quick reading it's a network performance measurement tool used between 2 units, a client and a server. I'll try to set it up on a couple of PCs and play with it to see what I get.

It's very simple yet highly configurable, robust and accurate. It also does not depend on your hard drive speed.

If you want a GUI, look into jperf, which is just a Java GUI front-end for iperf.

 

[thiggins]

You should have only ONE adapter created by the installation. Go to Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter settings and verify.

If you have two adapters, remove both, then use device manager to "Scan for hardware changes", then install again.

The ASUS utility isn't needed and could be the culprit here. Uninstall it.

Easiest way to undo all this is to do a Windows restore to the point before you installed the adapter.

The defaults on the router and adapter should bring up a 1.3 Gbps connection if client and AP are in the same room.

 

[xleanone]

Tim:

Thanks.

There are, in fact, 2 adapters showing in both Control Panel - Network and Sharing and in Device Manger, even after a de-install, clean up and re-install. The tip-off was that, in Device Manger, the physical bus locations were different for the two adapters. This Dell PC has a wireless adapter on the mother board, not in a PCIE slot. So, when I install the ASUS driver SW, it's kind enough to install both its ac adapter and an N adapter for the Dell supplied WiFi card. I can't remove that card 'cause it's on the MB, so I just disabled the adapter associated with it in Device Manager.

I changed the router Bandwidth to 80 MHz only. I now get 1 active connection to my 5GHz band SSID, not sure if anything is connected to the 2.4 GHz band. The router network map shows only 1 connection, but it doesn't show what band it's connected to. Windows shows a connection to the 5GHz SSID at 875 Mbps.

Watching the wireless status as the adapter connects shows an initial connection at 1.3 Gbps, re-adjusting itself to 875 Mbps, probably due to signal strength. While the signal shows as "Excellent", I suspect that the one interior wall between the router and the PC knocks the connection speed back down. I'll experiment with running an antenna to the other side of that wall.

Tried to install JPERF, but get a message from the JPERF.BAT script that JAVAW can't be found. I re-installed Java RTE and same result. JAVAW.EXE is there, in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\Bin folder, so I suspect I need to add another PATH statement to the .BAT script. I know nothing about Java except what it does. My experience is IBM S360/370 ALC and PLS along with a smattering of self-taught VB.

I used Totusoft's LAN Speed Analyzer and the three test averages for a 20MB file were around 86 Mbps Write, 87 Mbps Read. Having read the long ago post on speed analyzers, I know that this software is inaccurate at high data transfer rates, so those results may not be meaningful. I need to get JPERF cranking!

Once again, thanks, you gave me some direction and things to look at. I suspect I have, in fact, got an ac connection on the 5Ghz band, not sure what, if anything, I have on the 2.4Ghzband.

Regards.

Tom

 

[Fraoch]

My experience is IBM S360/370 ALC and PLS along with a smattering of self-taught VB.

Sounds like you'd be comfortable with iperf then, just a single executable that doesn't even need to be installed.

http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php

Executive summary:

#iperf -c [server IP]

on the client side and

#iperf -s

on the server side.

The rest of the tutorial covers various options, but that should do it.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the update. Dual-band adapters connect only on one band at a time. So if you are connected on 5 GHz, you are not connected on 2.4.

I recommend you just drag and drop a large file to test transfer rate. It will be more reflective of what you are going to be doing with the anyway!

I've often see adapters report lower rates when idle. But as long as your link rate is above 450 Mbps, you are running at 802.11ac rates.