ASUS RT-AC66U link speed capped at 72mbps

[DonnyChi]

Hi everyone,

I just registered because I've heard from other sources that this place is very helpful. I'm really hoping someone could help shed some light on my issue.

I'm having a problem with my RT-AC66U where both 2.4GHz (N) and 5.0GHz (N and AC) are being capped at 72 mbps. This wasn't always the case as I've had this router for nearly a year (got it last Black Friday) and it's always operated at or near full speed.

Here is a copy of the Wireless Log from the router.

If anyone has any ideas what could be causing this it would be a great help.

Thanks!

SSID: "*****"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -75 dBm	Channel: 6
BSSID: AC:22:0B:CF:BC:20	Capability: ESS ShortSlot 
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
	Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 6 20MHz (0x1006)
	Primary channel: 6
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]

Mode	: AP Only

Stations List                           
----------------------------------------
MAC               Associated Authorized    RSSI PSM Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
84:8E:0C:76:85:2D Yes        Yes         -61dBm Yes      1M     24M 00:18:21
CC:FA:00:B1:31:CB Yes        Yes         -43dBm Yes   72.2M   -0.0M 00:33:43

SSID: "*****5GHz"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -92 dBm	Channel: 36
BSSID: AC:22:0B:CF:BC:24	Capability: ESS 
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
	Chanspec: 5GHz channel 36 20MHz (0xd024)
	Primary channel: 36
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]

Mode	: AP Only

Stations List                           
----------------------------------------
MAC               Associated Authorized    RSSI PSM Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
D0:22:BE:C3:1B:3B Yes        Yes         -49dBm Yes   72.2M   72.2M 00:18:07

 

[azazel1024]

What exactly are you connecting the router too? Sure it isn't a client issue?

 

[htismaqe]

72Mbits is the standard rate for 802.11n single-stream, 20Mhz channel bandwidth.

 

[DonnyChi]

What exactly are you connecting the router too? Sure it isn't a client issue?

Galaxy S 4 and a Nexus 5 both have dual-band 801.11AC compatibility with a max of I think 450mbps.

After installing the latest version of Merlin I was able to get to a link speed of around 300-350 so definitely much better than the 72mbps but my internet speed is still around 100-160mbps over Wi-Fi whereas I get 300 over LAN I realize it won't be as good over WiFi but I know that I've gotten better results in the past with these same devices.

Here is an updated wireless log:

SSID: "****"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -78 dBm	Channel: 6
BSSID: AC:22:0B:CF:BC:20	Capability: ESS ShortSlot 
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
	Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 6 20MHz (0x1006)
	Primary channel: 6
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]

Mode	: AP Only

Stations  (flags: P=Powersave Mode, S=Short GI, T=STBC, A=Associated, U=Authenticated)
----------------------------------------
MAC               IP Address      Name              RSSI    Rx/Tx Rate   Connected Flags
CC:FA:00:B1:31:CB 192.168.1.211   android-5987103  -52dBm   ??/72 Mbps   04:53:46   AU
84:8E:0C:76:85:2D 192.168.1.156   Annas-iPhone     -77dBm    5/1 Mbps    07:16:00  PAU


SSID: "****_5GHz"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -89 dBm	Channel: 44/80
BSSID: AC:22:0B:CF:BC:24	Capability: ESS 
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
VHT Capable:
	Chanspec: 5GHz channel 42 80MHz (0xe22a)
	Primary channel: 44
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]
	VHT Capabilities: 
	Supported VHT (tx) Rates:
		NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9
	Supported VHT (rx) Rates:
		NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
		NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9

Mode	: AP Only

Stations  (flags: P=Powersave Mode, S=Short GI, T=STBC, A=Associated, U=Authenticated)
----------------------------------------
MAC               IP Address      Name              RSSI    Rx/Tx Rate   Connected Flags
D0:22:BE:C3:1B:3B 192.168.1.89    android-757f21c  -49dBm  351/433 Mbps  04:56:56  PAU

 

[azazel1024]

What distance? On a phone the 160Mbps is pretty danged good for a link rate of 300-350Mbps.

Generally you are talking 50-60% utilizable performance on a wifi connection. So if you have a link rate of 300Mbps, figure top is going to be around 150-170Mbps utilizable. In my experience things like phones and such forth tend towards the lower end of that guidance.

 

[DonnyChi]

What distance? On a phone the 160Mbps is pretty danged good for a link rate of 300-350Mbps.

Generally you are talking 50-60% utilizable performance on a wifi connection. So if you have a link rate of 300Mbps, figure top is going to be around 150-170Mbps utilizable. In my experience things like phones and such forth tend towards the lower end of that guidance.

That's in the same room as the router. Within 5 feet.

What you say makes sense but I know I've gotten faster speeds in the past so I'm not really sure what happened. I wish I had a device with a more powerful wireless AC adapter to test it further.

 

[azazel1024]

That's in the same room as the router. Within 5 feet.

What you say makes sense but I know I've gotten faster speeds in the past so I'm not really sure what happened. I wish I had a device with a more powerful wireless AC adapter to test it further.

How much faster? Alternate firmware is DIFFERENT, so the performance is likely to be different too. A lot of alternate firmwares do not perform as well as the factory firmware, even if the alt firmware has a lot more features.