asus rt-ac56u range issues

[Mastershake]

wondering if its maybe something im doing wrong. im newish to asus routers and i had this one (bought brand new and ended up never getting used for the job it was to be used for and had it sitting) since my tplink archer c7 running openwrt is getting really flaky wifi wise (keeps cutting out the wifi entirely) i figure for now ill use this one.

range imo stinks on it so far. i never have 5 bars on ANY device even with them sitting right next to the router the most i have seen is 4 bars (and that is on the same desk as the router) and the 2.4 seems much shorter then the archer c7 did for sure. have tested with multiple phones, tablets, and laptops with atheros, intel, and broadcom etc wifi cards

running channel 1 for now since there are a boat load of people running channel 6 here as well as 11. right now running merlins newest firmware available but have tested 2 other ones with same results. i saw someone suggest to turn off beamforming but i do not see this setting for 2.4.

my speedtest results are also somewhat slower then with the c7. any suggestions? id like to use this till i decide which new model to buy im leaning towards the rt-ac3100 but still reading.

 

[L&LD]

Suggestions:

Make sure the router is at least 10 feet or 2 metres above ground (not just the floor).
No obstacles for at least a metre (10 feet) all around it, if possible.
Try new location for the router and different orientations too.
Disregard how many other routers are on the other channels, test each of them for throughput and low latency (only test channel 1, 6 and 11 and make sure at 20MHz channel width).

Consider trying john9527's firmware or hggomes firmware instead.

 

[Mastershake]

cant put it that high the room its in only has 8ft ceilings and our homes here are all single story. its on my desk in my home office which is where the previous archer c7 was which had zero issues in that spot. i could raise it some though if needed but never had to before. tried hgg and merlin firmware already. channel 11 is almost unusable for some reason just drops out on me. 6 seems best but there are over 13 other networks according to inSSIDer.

ive had my last 4 routers in this same spot and never had this issue with range.

 

[wbennett77]

Strange..my AC56U is not in a prime location (Basement where my UPS is) and I have a good signal and speed with both 2.4 and 5 even on the second floor although I don't have your congestion. What are you settings for 2.4?

 

[L&LD]

cant put it that high the room its in only has 8ft ceilings and our homes here are all single story. its on my desk in my home office which is where the previous archer c7 was which had zero issues in that spot. i could raise it some though if needed but never had to before. tried hgg and merlin firmware already. channel 11 is almost unusable for some reason just drops out on me. 6 seems best but there are over 13 other networks according to inSSIDer.

ive had my last 4 routers in this same spot and never had this issue with range.

It may help if you can raise it as high as possible (but at least 2' below the ceiling).

RMerlin's, john9527's and hggomes' are all based on Asus' own firmware (with the later two building onto the RMerlin build), but they each bring something different to the table. How long ago did you try them?

If channel 6 is best, why are you struggling with a channel that is only 'paper better'?

 

[Mastershake]

@L&LD there is minimal difference between 1 and 6 and since 1 is so much less congested i used 1. easy enough to change to 6 but that doesnt fix the range issues. just put it up high on a corner shelf and see no difference in range (sadly)

have tried merlin first the hgg then i saw no difference and went back to merlin, testing for 4 days now.

@wbennett77 right now 2.4 setting wise is all the default under the performance tab from merlins firmware and wpa2 aes, tried both 20mhz only and 20/40 settings, channel 1, wireless mode set to auto (we have a wii the kids still use and its g only), Protected Management Frames disabled. im coming from openwrt and new to asus firmware so i was hoping it was something i missed.

 

[wbennett77]

Did you set your router to factory default after changing to Merlin or HGG?

 

[Mastershake]

yup. did a factory reset each time.

 

[wbennett77]

yup. did a factory reset each time.

And you didn't restore a saved config?

 

[Mastershake]

correct. started fresh each time. i have basically the same range wise from 5g as i do from 2.4 normally at least with the c7 i had far more range wise with 2.4

 

[L&LD]

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-378-55-3_hgg-final-mod.26524/page-2#post-199549


The above gives some indication of how my experience was with hggomes firmware and an RT-AC56U.


http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573


While the link above gives the way I make sure the router starts 'fresh' for each test.

Maybe these help?

 

[Mastershake]

the whole reason i decided to use this for now is because i saw your thread about the range on the 56u. im just not seeing those results. as i said even in the same room i dont even see full signal.

also a couple of those settings will not work for me because of some older game systems otherwise yes i reset the way your thread said to do so.

 

[L&LD]

the whole reason i decided to use this for now is because i saw your thread about the range on the 56u. im just not seeing those results. as i said even in the same room i dont even see full signal.

also a couple of those settings will not work for me because of some older game systems otherwise yes i reset the way your thread said to do so.

What settings are different? Anyway, hope someone else can help here.

 

[NGRhodes]

Could it be a hardware fault ?
My AC56U allows kids to connect to my guest network from the street which is 10 meters and a double brick wall away !

 

[Mastershake]

thats kind of what im thinking at this point. ive tried everything i can think of. i also get wifi dropouts where it will disconnect me and if i reconnect to the network it will be fine for another day or two till it happens again. going to order a 3100 anyway so this will go away soon.

ngrhodes which firmware are you using?

appreciate the help. im guessing its hardware honestly though at this point