AX-86U poor 2.4GHz performance

[TheExodu5]

This may be within the realm of expected for 2.4GHz, but somehow I expected better performance on the 2.4GHz band of my AX-86U.

There is some competition in the 2.4GHz range in my area, but with a -25db signal I can manage around 100mbps on my Intel AX200 equipped PC, and with my mobile phone (iPhone Xs Max) at point blank range I can't get a result higher than 60mbps. Is this simply a limitation of the clients in this case? I would have expected my phone to fare much better. It's not a complete dealbreaker as the 2.4GHz band is reserved mostly for IOT devices, but I do have a few devices that are far enough away from the router that the 2.4GHz band was often far more stable on my older AC-86U. I tried merging the 2.4/5 bands on the AX-86U but performance and jitter was absolutely atrocious (~100ms+ jitter, and devices would prefer the 2.4GHz band despite being far slower).

No complaints about AX performance though. A floor away, and my Intel AX200 equipped PC can get 950mbps no problem.

I am contemplating returning this to try the AX-88U, but reviews seem to indicate it may be worse. There isn't much information out there to make my decision any easier unfortunately, outside of the dongknows review which greatly favored the AX-86U.

 

[L&LD]

It's the client.

And the fact that you're sitting on the router doing a speed test.

Do it from a reasonable distance between 3 and 4 metres.

If the results are just as bad, try a different control channel.

Is the 2.4GHz Band using 'AX' features?

 

[TheExodu5]

Yeah I've tried with and without AX, also with Beamforming on and off.

From any distance, my max 2.4GHz throughput seems to be in the 25-60mbps range.

Just wanted to make sure this is expected and not a possible issue with the router itself.

 

[Adooni]

min distance for client from router should be 2m
iPhone is very bad device looking form wi-fi perspective (not only from wi-fi ) - to be honest Xiaomi not talking about Samsung have much better wi-fi than iPhone (personally tested at 5S, 7 and now 12) - I would never buy it myself it is company cell .

here you have interesting article https://www.snbforums.com/threads/how-we-test-wi-fi-revision-11.72746/

 

[TheExodu5]

Well the good news is at least 5GHz performance is stellar. My iPhone gets around ~600mbps at close range and ~100mbps at the edges of my house (though with increased jitter). And AX performance is through the roof, basically capping my 1gbps connection. I'm just not sure what type of device is needed to get the ~300mbps I'm seeing in reviews on the 2.4GHz band.

 

[TheExodu5]

I'm very tempted to pick up an AX-88U to see how it fares. It sounds like it might have more stability at range, and the built-in WTFast won't hurt for FF XIV (I honestly thought it was a scam, but pings to drop fairly noticeably for me having tried it in the past). Question is whether or not it will match the absolutely incredible short range AX performance I'm getting from my AX-86U.

 

[L&LD]

It won't match the RT-AX86U. WTF isn't a reason to try it either.

Do you have 40MHz bandwidth set up for the 2.4GHz Band?

 

[TheExodu5]

I'm currently on the default 20/40. I'll try 40 later once the wife is done work.

 

[KevTech]

2.4 will always drop to 20 even if set for 20/40 unless there are no other stations around.
You can force 40 but then you will be stomping on your neighbors connections.

Was written about years ago.

Bye Bye 40 MHz Mode in 2.4 GHz - Part 1 - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7161

www.smallnetbuilder.com

Bye Bye 40 MHz Mode in 2.4 GHz - Part 2 - SmallNetBuilder

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7161

www.smallnetbuilder.com

 

[TheExodu5]

Good to know. Well, I'm a semi detached house and the only heavily competed channel here is channel 11, so I could try channel 1 @ 40Mhz.

Another thing that's a bit odd. Not sure if I'm reading the SNB router rankings right, but my connection over 5GHz is ~-45-50db and I still manage 950mbps, and yet the charts there seem to imply I should only expect ~200-300mbps. Maybe the attenuation I'm reading in Windows is wrong?

 

[TheExodu5]

I'll ask here since I'm continuing to tweak the router. I'm trying to make use of 80MHz or even 160MHz on the 5GHz band if possible, but no such luck so far.

The neighbor's band is annoyingly on channel 44 which limits my options a bit. I think 160MHz is out since the highest channel I'm allowed to select for that is channel 64.

I tried manually setting channel 161 at 80MHz, but even so it appears it's still only using 40MHz. Is there any way I can actually get 80MHz here, or even 160MHz?

This is still a step up from default settings. When I had it on "auto", it operated at 20MHz on channel 36 but it seemed to also have a hidden SSID operating at channel 157 (I assume this was the DFS channel?). Throughput was significantly worse at range (30ft: 100mbps vs 500mbps), and signal strength was about 18db lower. The higher channel appears to have a much better signal strength.

This is probably good enough and there's likely no need for me to push for 80MHz or even 160MHz, but I'm still baffled as to why I can't break the 40MHz mark.