Big WiFi issue with latest firmware

[Le_Sage]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been running some new tests with the latest 102.6 firmware, and I think I’ve found the issue:

Wi-Fi now only works properly when the transmit power mode is set to “Performance”.

Let me explain: for the past two days I gave the latest Merlin firmware another try, and I set both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands of my RT-BE88U to Performance mode. Since then, I haven’t had a single disconnection.
But with firmware 102.4 and earlier, I could use any power mode and everything worked fine. I always used “Balanced”, “Fair”, or even sometimes “Power Saving”, and that was more than enough for me! Like I mentioned before, I even felt that using lower transmit power inside the house created “less interference and a cleaner signal”, and the Wi-Fi coverage was great throughout the house (150 m²).

But here’s the worst part with 102.5 and 102.6: whenever I choose anything other than “Performance”, not only does the Wi-Fi become unstable and disconnect all my devices within 2 hours max, but after that it becomes impossible to reconnect to the Wi-Fi unless I change a setting on the router to “reset” the connection!

So I just want to ask you all:
Have you noticed the same behavior?
Are you always using Performance mode and didn’t notice anything unusual?
Is this something that only happens on the RT-BE88U?
Or even worse, could it be happening only on my router, meaning it might be defective?

 

[Ripshod]

I've always used the 'Balanced' setting without any issues. I live in a flat (apartment) and don't need any more.

 

[Tech9]

or even sometimes “Power Saving”

Not sure about your specific model router, but on many ASUS routers Power Saving setting does more than reducing the Tx power to minimum. It also limits the radio to single stream. Otherwise your observations about lower Tx power resulting in less interference and more stable Wi-Fi are correct.

 

[Le_Sage]

I've always used the 'Balanced' setting without any issues. I live in a flat (apartment) and don't need any more.

Oh, it's amazing that you don't have any problem at all with the same model, perhaps there another setting with the power setting or you have a different hardware revision?
could you send me a picture of your professional tabs for the both bands?
Actually, the size of the apartment or house doesn’t matter, because even if I keep the Wi-Fi device in the same room, it disconnects after one or two hours. The router’s Wi-Fi basically bugs out, and no device can connect anymore. I have several smartphones, laptops, and IoT devices (smart plugs) at home, and all of them have the same issue. So the problem definitely comes from my router.

 

[Ripshod]

As requested:

I don't change much from the default. MLO is disabled.
I have less devices than you, but again a good number of wireless devices, including IoT.

 

[Le_Sage]

As requested:

View attachment 69346View attachment 69347
I don't change much from the default. MLO is disabled.
I have less devices than you, but again a good number of wireless devices, including IoT.

Ok, Thank you.
How many Wireless network do you have? and do you have a network for each band?

For me I've 2 networks :
- one for the IoT only 2,4ghz, WPA2-personal
- and one for all the other devices both bands, No wifi 7, no MLO WPA2/WPA3 personal.
For the both band I've fixed the channel and chose all the bandwidth (20/40 and 20/40/80 but not the 160MHz).

I'll try the same setting as you to test if it's my own router the problem...

 

[degrub]

i would start with 2.4GHz channel width of 20 not 20/40 and 5GHz fixed at 80, not 20/40/80
disabling smart connect sometimes helps as well.

 

[Ripshod]

As requested:

Ok, Thank you.
How many Wireless network do you have? and do you have a network for each band?

Main network is 5GHz only - 161/160.
IoT network is 2.4GHz only - 13/20.
I agree with @degrub, fixed channels and bandwidths are likely the key to stability, particularly on the 2.4.

 

[jerry6]

i would start with 2.4GHz channel width of 20 not 20/40 and 5GHz fixed at 80, not 20/40/80
disabling smart connect sometimes helps as well.

Agreed that is how I run my routers never had a problem over in over 12 years I avoid anything smart used it once back in the day never again

 

[Le_Sage]

Thank you all very much.
I think that thanks to you, I found where the Wi-Fi stability issue came from with the last two firmwares. In fact, for more than 24 hours now, I’ve set the channel bandwidth to 20 and 80 MHz and it seems stable
With all the previous drivers I used to leave it on 20/40 and 20/40/80, but now the latest Broadcom drivers require setting the bandwidth manually to be stable… Anyway, this might also explain why it was stable when the transmit power was set to maximum — maybe the drivers were forcing the bandwidth to its maximum in that mode.
It’s true that we don’t really know everything that this power setting affects, but what seems to be emerging is that it doesn’t only act on raw power; it also influences some important related options…

On my old AC88U router I had also set the bandwidth manually and never had any issues, but on my new router I wanted from the start to “let it choose”, thinking it would increase compatibility since the device could pick whatever was best based on other parameters… but apparently I was wrong.

Anyway, I hope the stability will last
Thanks again to everyone for pointing me in the right direction, because I admit it was bothering me not being able to benefit from the latest updates, which are normally useful — especially for equipment that “handles the security” of a network.

 

[Tech9]

Avoid Smart, Auto and Ai on ASUS routers and your life will be happier.

 

[Le_Sage]

PS : Actually, I also have the impression that what helped stabilize my network was putting my IoT network on 2.4 GHz only, and my main network on 5 GHz only. But that bothers me a bit for my main network, because if I connect older Wi-Fi 3 devices, they won’t work… I need to test again later to see if my network stays stable when I enable both frequencies on the main network, but I’ll do that later because for now I’m enjoying the stability

 

[Chestertheman]

I can definitely say that the rt-ax86u pro is missing some settings. We don’t have target wake time or WiFi agile multiband on the asus merlin firmware at least the newer versions. So who knows what all is messed up. I’ve been experiencing problems with WiFi as well. Upnp has been acting up at least on Xbox haven’t tested anything else. Usually its solid and I haven’t changed anything different in the settings.

 

[Tech9]

missing some settings

ASUS removed some of the settings in stock Asuswrt. If you ask me - they expose too many settings, most don't have to be changed by the user, some don't even work with all firmware releases, others make no sense because of lack of dependencies. Some clean up was needed and welcome.

 

[Chestertheman]

ASUS removed some of the settings in stock Asuswrt. If you ask me - they expose too many settings, most don't have to be changed by the user, some don't even work with all firmware releases, others make no sense because of lack of dependencies. Some clean up was needed and welcome.

The settings I was referring to are still on stock but not on Merlin. They appear on some models but are missing on the rt-ax86u pro. I’m just wondering why not carry them over for all models that support it.

 

[bennor]

The settings I was referring to are still on stock but not on Merlin. They appear on some models but are missing on the rt-ax86u pro. I’m just wondering why not carry them over for all models that support it.

Why not ask @RMerlin, the developer?
PS: And note the following.

I get code directly from Asus, it's unrelated to what's released on their website. I have particular requirements that their developers need to meet when preparing the archives, like having the same code base for all models, which is rarely the case with their own firmware releases.

 

[Tech9]

The settings I was referring to are still on stock but not on Merlin.

Different Asuswrt base used. Perhaps RMerlin has newer base and what you see missing in Asuswrt-Merlin will disappear in upcoming stock Asuswrt releases and vice versa. The two firmwares are not in sync.

 

[Chestertheman]

Why not ask @RMerlin, the developer?
PS: And note the following.

It has to do with what Asus is doing and not him most likely. From stock firmware to merged firmware that is used on asus Merlin. It’s just really confusing on whats going on.

 

[RMerlin]

I don't change Wifi related settings (aside from fixing obvious bugs, like I recently did with the MU-MIMO setting not being disabled when it should be, or fixing a JS error when saving settings like happened a release ago). If a setting is missing, then it's either moved to another location, or has been removed by Asus in the codebase that they have provided me.