ASUS RT-AC66U - extend range

[mare92]

Hello!

I've just bought this router and must confess, that I'm a little bit disappointed. Previously I had good old WRT54GL with Shibby Tomato, but switched to that one because of the speed and I thought, BETTER RANGE.

Problem is that I can't move the router to the centre of house and so it is in one corner, and my sleeš room on opposite one and one floor above.
On iPhone 5 I'm barely having signal, and it drops sometimes and laptop has 2/5 bars. 5GHz network is not visible in that room by any device.

I already pointed antennas in direction with bad cover, but it's not a good improvement.

I know I can get my WRT54GL in bridge mode, but then I'm not going to get good speeds and investement in that router was almost pointless..

What about Asus WL-ANT157 antenna? I heard it's quite good.

Oh, I'm running latest official firmware. Do you suggest installing something else? Merlin is asus's firmware with few improvements and better stability, from what I've read, but that will not give me better range right?

DD-WRT or Tomato releases are stable and better that official FW?
I guess there I could increase the power(tx)?


Thank you very much!

 

[mare92]

I found settings for tx in official firmware, changed from 80 to 100mW, but don't see any difference...

 

[Pericynthion]

Based on another thread - try dropping to 50mw

 

[mare92]

Based on another thread - try dropping to 50mw

It made it worse.

 

[mare92]

It made it worse.

No, I'm lying. I was changing the tx for 5GHz.. If i change 2.4GHz to 100mW, iPhone doesn't even see it..

But on 80mW and 50mW it's almost the same.

I'm going to install Merlin FW, but I doubt it will fix my problem..

 

[RMerlin]

If the RT-AC66U is giving you a shorter range than the WRT54G then something is wrong - it should be at least as good, most likely even better.

Please post your settings so people can review them. Also, make sure you either deleted and recreated the profile on your client devices, or you used a new SSID.

 

[mare92]

If the RT-AC66U is giving you a shorter range than the WRT54G then something is wrong - it should be at least as good, most likely even better.

Please post your settings so people can review them. Also, make sure you either deleted and recreated the profile on your client devices, or you used a new SSID.

No, but range with WRT64GL with Tomato(and increased power) is almost the same as AC66U. I was expecting to get much better results(in range of course)

Settings are now defaults, nothing is changed.
inSSIDer printscreens :
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/p9cr.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/ay1j.png/

(previously I was on channel 11- it changed automatically)

Problem is, that Wi-fi on my phone is dissconnecting constantly.

Oh, and I installed your firmware now(for stability, doesn't really need all those listed features).


Thank you very much!

 

[mare92]

After changing tX to 100mW(maximum, not sure why previously max was 200?)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/46/bwcy.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/l0qd.png/

iPhone sometimes sees the network and sometimes not..

I'm sorry if I'm annoying with all those questions and replies

 

[Pericynthion]

Looking at those scans, I would definitely take it off 'auto' and fix it to channel11.

You have 2 other people running 2.4Ghz @ 40Mhz , which is going to create a lot of interference in the lower end (and effectively takes up most of the other channels). Based on the signal strength as well, they look very close so that may explain the not-drastic improvement over the Linksys (increased power won't help with interference).


I have the WL-ANT and to be honest I never managed to prove it made a real difference - the issue is that it will be highly environmental, so you may get fantastic results and increased range where there is minimal interference. But with all the other radios around, I doubt you would see much improvement..

 

[KGB7]

Grab a large piece of tinfoil and slap it on the wall right behind the router. This way the signal will bounce in the direction you need the most.

I know it sounds silly, but it made a difference for me. I placed it under my last router that has internal antennas and needed better signal upstairs. Gained a whopping 6Mbps.

 

[DaveMishSr]

No, but range with WRT64GL with Tomato(and increased power) is almost the same as AC66U. I was expecting to get much better results(in range of course)

Settings are now defaults, nothing is changed.
inSSIDer printscreens :
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/p9cr.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/ay1j.png/

(previously I was on channel 11- it changed automatically)

Problem is, that Wi-fi on my phone is dissconnecting constantly.

Oh, and I installed your firmware now(for stability, doesn't really need all those listed features).


Thank you very much!

Set your 2.4 GHz bandwidth fixed to 20MHz and set the channel to be fixed at channel 11. Based on the scan for the 2.4GHz band that should virtually eliminate interference for your WiFi. I would not try adjusting Tx power unless the change in channel and bandwidth settings fail to alleviate your problem. Even then without a high-power adapter on the client end you won't see much, if any, improvement. Good luck.

 

[connorm]

ive always used 200tx but i am in a house thats about 4000 SQ ft. ive tried going down to like 180, 150, or 100, i believe even 80, only noticed a weaker signal, it would be nice if all these people who claim lower tx can improve signal in some scenario's could provide proof, as its very hard for me to believe and i dont know why everyone isnt at 200tx, even still i experienced the same issue as you where the asus wasnt that much worse then my old router, it wasnt realy superior, range wise. infact i do believe it is still 5-10% weaker then my dir-655 rev b, that router is one of the only routers with 2 antenna's for send and 1 for receive tho

 

[Pericynthion]

iit would be nice if all these people who claim lower tx can improve signal in some scenario's could provide proof, as its very hard for me to believe and i dont know why everyone isnt at 200tx,

I think I replied to this in another thread - it will be entirely environmental.
If you have interference on the wireless band, then increasing the power wont improve your signal, it will actually make it worse (destructive interference of electromagnetic waves).

If you have no interference then YES - setting the TX power at full will increase the range of the beacon and signal from the router - but this will only be useful if your remote clients are high power devices such as laptops /desktops.
If the remote clients are low power devices (iphones etc) then although they can 'hear' the signal from the AP, they will never have enough power to generate a return signal back.

Hence articles like the one listed here will always recommend multiple connected AP's, rather than one big power central one (because it won't work well for all types of remote clients) - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...best-way-to-get-whole-house-wireless-coverage