Asus RT-AX58u with 1 Gig Wifi and my wifi is super slow at times. Want the best settings in DNS, Professional section, etc. Could use help please!?

[Goober Noober]

I have a Asus RT AX58u router and have 1 Gig wifi. I have three networks setup. One 2.4g ( usually is used for wifi on computer if i cant hook up via ethernet which i normally always am at least with my computer) and one 5g (it usually only has two devices on it. a cell phone or two.) the last network is a 2.4g guest network which i have approx. 25 plus IoT ranging from smart speakers, several cameras and the rest smart bullbs and plugs. I set up my guest network so it would be separate from my regular network (i was told this was safer) but i do have the intranet enabled so that my smart home software (alexa, google) can see the bulbs and cameras and show their feed (not sure if this is correct seeing that the network is setup to have no access to my other network but i may be confused. My computer on ethernet is usually at 1/2 gig and never really at the 1 gig mark but its fast so i dont complain to often but i think it should be more. my other networks are constantly slow and would like to know if i have the dns setup correctly under the lan and wan tabs. and i want to tweak my settings to have the fastest network but not to the point where it degrades my security, privacy, etc. My network security and privacy is whats most important but i feel i might have some settings wrong in the proffesional section and would like some insight onto what those settings are to be so that im safe but also not enabling things that dont make a difference with my security and privacy and just slow my networks down. i know that its alot of things to ask about and i have done research and read on forums and watch tons of videos but i would like to know directly what i have been doing is correct or if i have gotten the wrong opinion, misunderstood what i have read or watched or if i am making noob mistakes that i think i know or understand but havent gotten it right.

TLR
I am a noob that has put alot of time and effort into making my network the fastest and safest i can at home. I have alot of IoT that make up most of network usage. I have the latest version of merlin firmware on a Asus RT AX58u. My wireless wifi is usually pretty slow for paying for 1 Gig speed and even my wired ethernet connection is never at 1 Gig speed and sits at the half way mark but never over 800 mbps. I would like to know what is the best DNS settings for my device. Should i put a DNS server in the lan tab or only the wan tab (DNS over TLS)? What is the fastest most secure and private and more anonymous browsing settings for the DNS? And what are the best settings in the professional section? I dont have any Wifi 6 devices really, my house is two stories, i have 30 something devices, i game online sometimes with a gaming computer hooked up ethernet but the most problems i have come from my guest network that has my IoT on it or my 2.4g or 5g normal network that are all three slow as S*#T! Pretty much what are the best settings and setup i can do to make me feel like i am not a complete noob or at least dont have a network of one!? Thank you all for reading all this and i look forward to your answers and appreciate your time and input! Have a great day!

 

[jata]

I think you might have over complicated your wifi/network settings and I don't know what advanced settings you have changed. I would say the best thing to do from here is to start from scratch and set it up nice and simple.

When you say 1 gig wifi - what do you mean? Is this the speed of your internet connection? Your internet connection / speed has nothing to do with wifi by the way!

Here are my tips for you to get the best out of a simple and low maintenance network.

1. update to the latest merlin firmware. The latest beta 388.4 is really stable and i expect a final release any day now...
2. After updating the firmware, then do a WPS reset to factory reset the router and set then it up the minumim config to get connected to internet
3. create same SSID (network name) and password for both the 2.4g and 5g band. Do not setup a guest wifi! Do not use 'smart connect'
4. connect your pc to the new network. At this point your phones and PCs will choose the best band (2.4 or 5g). You want them to do this. 5g is much faster/better than 2.4g
5. run an internet speed test using the same pc via ethernet connected directly to the router and then by wifi when quite close to the router.

Once you have done all of the above, come back here and let us know the speed and any concerns that you have.

In my opinion (and opinions vary), I see very little point is creating a separate network for IoT devices. If you buy an IoT device, you should trust it to run on your network without isolation. Also, it sounds to me that you have very few other devices/servers/data that could be at risk from your IoT devices so what are you worried about?

Of course you can put all the IoT stuff on the guest network but it adds complexity that I don't buy-in to (personal opinion). I have lots on my network - they are fine - and I have had no issues.

Hope this helps and I'm not trying to preach to you one way or the other. My key point is start simple. add complexity only if you need to.

 

[jata]

Sorry I forgot to say that DNS settings not going to make your wifi/speed noticeably faster either. We can get to that once you get the basics sorted.

It is strange that you can't get close to your 1g connection speed even with ethernet. You might have QOS enabled (and if so it will be causing that). QOS is not needed with 1g internet.

One step at a time...

 

[drinkingbird]

I have a Asus RT AX58u router and have 1 Gig wifi. I have three networks setup. One 2.4g ( usually is used for wifi on computer if i cant hook up via ethernet which i normally always am at least with my computer) and one 5g (it usually only has two devices on it. a cell phone or two.) the last network is a 2.4g guest network which i have approx. 25 plus IoT ranging from smart speakers, several cameras and the rest smart bullbs and plugs. I set up my guest network so it would be separate from my regular network (i was told this was safer) but i do have the intranet enabled so that my smart home software (alexa, google) can see the bulbs and cameras and show their feed (not sure if this is correct seeing that the network is setup to have no access to my other network but i may be confused. My computer on ethernet is usually at 1/2 gig and never really at the 1 gig mark but its fast so i dont complain to often but i think it should be more. my other networks are constantly slow and would like to know if i have the dns setup correctly under the lan and wan tabs. and i want to tweak my settings to have the fastest network but not to the point where it degrades my security, privacy, etc. My network security and privacy is whats most important but i feel i might have some settings wrong in the proffesional section and would like some insight onto what those settings are to be so that im safe but also not enabling things that dont make a difference with my security and privacy and just slow my networks down. i know that its alot of things to ask about and i have done research and read on forums and watch tons of videos but i would like to know directly what i have been doing is correct or if i have gotten the wrong opinion, misunderstood what i have read or watched or if i am making noob mistakes that i think i know or understand but havent gotten it right.

TLR
I am a noob that has put alot of time and effort into making my network the fastest and safest i can at home. I have alot of IoT that make up most of network usage. I have the latest version of merlin firmware on a Asus RT AX58u. My wireless wifi is usually pretty slow for paying for 1 Gig speed and even my wired ethernet connection is never at 1 Gig speed and sits at the half way mark but never over 800 mbps. I would like to know what is the best DNS settings for my device. Should i put a DNS server in the lan tab or only the wan tab (DNS over TLS)? What is the fastest most secure and private and more anonymous browsing settings for the DNS? And what are the best settings in the professional section? I dont have any Wifi 6 devices really, my house is two stories, i have 30 something devices, i game online sometimes with a gaming computer hooked up ethernet but the most problems i have come from my guest network that has my IoT on it or my 2.4g or 5g normal network that are all three slow as S*#T! Pretty much what are the best settings and setup i can do to make me feel like i am not a complete noob or at least dont have a network of one!? Thank you all for reading all this and i look forward to your answers and appreciate your time and input! Have a great day!

First and foremost, as already mentioned, update to latest firmware, factory reset, and start with default settings. Hook up a wired PC and see what speeds you can get from speedtest.net (do not use the router's built in speed test). If it is less than your internet speed then either your PC can't handle it (check the individual CPU usage and if any core is at 100% during speedtest that is the culprit) or your ISP isn't providing the advertised speed. With cable, this is not abnormal, the advertised speed is "Max" and you are sharing bandwidth with your neighbors. With fiber you should be able to get close to the max consistently, so call the ISP if not.

Then you can test via wireless but keep in mind many wireless devices can't max out 1 gig.
On 5ghz with good signal and no interference at 80mhz channel width
A typical AC client will be 500-600 max on an 866mbit link speed (some single stream clients will be half that, 433 link speed and 250-300 throughput).
A typical AX client will be 800 to 900 max on a 1.2g link speed
160mhz channel width can double the AX 5ghz throughput but 160mhz channels can be very hard to maintain (often dropping back to 80 due to interference or radar), decrease your range, and are far more prone to interference and overlapping network issues.

On 2.4ghz your speeds will be much lower. N (or AC since AC just uses N for 2.4ghz) clients will be around 75-90 max on a 144M link speed, and AX clients will be usually 150 to 200 on a ~288 link speed (forget the exact number) depending on a number of factors. But those are with no interference, and we know the 2.4ghz band is very saturated in most areas so expect less than that. Those speeds are at 20mhz channel width, I would not recommend enabling 40mhz, for similar reasons as 160mhz but even more issues with interference and overlap.

These are with 2 stream clients, which is what most are (except IOT which are usually single stream, so half those numbers). Better rates can be gotten with 3 or 4 stream clients but those are rare, typically only found in desktop add-in cards.

Typically your ISP's DNS servers etc are the best ones to use, best not to mess with too much stuff. The only thing really to start with is try disabling "universal beamforming" on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz professional settings, and on the main wireless settings disable technologies (like 802.11b) that you do not need/use. On 5ghz you should only have AC/AX enabled (or AX only if you have no AC devices, but that's unlikely). On 2.4ghz you can set it to "auto" and "disable b", as long as all your devices can connect leave it at that. If some have issues then try setting it to "n/ax only" or something like that (not sure what the exact setting is as I don't have an AX router) as that enables a couple of the legacy rates that some older devices need. Again if you only have AX devices you can set it to AX only, but not likely especially with IOT stuff. Set 2.4ghz to 20mhz and 5 ghz to 20/40/80 with 160 unchecked. You can try enabling 160 but it may make things worse (or give variable results over time).

Other than that I wouldn't mess with stuff unless there is a specific reason/need for it. You can start doing more harm than good.