Rob_mc
New Around Here
Hi all,
Sorry if this is the wrong place, my post kind of sits in between buying advice and ASUS advice forum! Happy to have it moved to buying advice if it's better suited there.
I live in the UK and have recently moved into a new house which is a lot larger than my previous one! At my old house, I actually had the place rewired when I moved in (long story, but it almost burnt down first day I owned it!) which allowed me to get ethernet port right next to my desktop PC and an ethernet port going to the living room behind the TV, where I put a switch to allow connection to multiply devices. We have Virgin Media broadband and I was using their stock router, the Hub 3.0. Although we had the odd problem, I never really thought much about it as it seemed to do the job without too much to worry about. Since the router was located right next to where we work, we always had a good connection.
Moving into my new home, the port for the cable connection for Virgin is located in the living room, right at the front of the house and effectively in a corner. My office is upstairs in the opposite corner of the house. For my desktop which has no wireless, I was able to dig out some 5 year old powerline adapters I bought from when I was in rented accommodation (TP-LINK TL-PA4020), and although not the top speeds, they've done the trick without any additional costs.
Since I'm working from home, I noticed I was getting dropouts on my connection, and thought it's most likely that the Virgin stock router isn't powerful enough. Thus, doing some research, I was drawn to the ASUS RT-AC86U, which came with a lot of people with Virgin Broadband recommending it! Set up was, naturally, quite easy.
My initial problems started with my old work laptop. It was the only device that connected to 2.4ghz by default. What I would notice happen is that my remote desktop connection would suddenly freeze, and when I'd go to the normal desktop of the laptop and try open a web page to check, the page just wouldn't load. It never really showed the connection drop at all (in fact sometimes it happened it appeared on the laptop as if it was 3/5 bars, for example), but when going to the router network map, the "access time" would be reset, thus I presumed it had dropped out. I've updated to the latest firmware and know there have been issues with this router and the 2.4ghz connection, although most of those seem to be from 2018, while this is a 2020 model (judging from the writing on the manual).
Work sent me a new laptop (hadn't mentioned the problem, just something they were planning) and it's on 5ghz. This morning, I noticed a slight hiccup and the access time was at 1 minute when I checked, suggesting that it had dropped off the internet. Curiously, the wifi bars on the laptop are always fairly high, although when I check "interface" on the ASUS dashboard, these usually don't translate (are often 1 or 2). My girlfriend's laptop has actually just done the same who is in the office next to me. I have two devices sitting in the room of the router, one has an access time of 67 hours, while the other, the TV, has an access time of 10 hours.
So I'm at a bit of a loss right now as to what to do. My main problem is that I'm not actually sure if the AC86U is faulty or if I'm just in a bit of a darkspot of the house for signal. Judging by the fact my device in the room has been connected for 67 hours, I'd say it's the signal through building issues, although the TV on less time makes me question that. I should mention that I do not get any problems with the powerline connection wired to my desktop PC. I bought the AC86U specifically as I wanted something with better range due to home working. I've already been speaking to an electrician to get a wired connection to parts of the house (mostly for my desktop), but I'm not sure this resolves the issue of the overall connection, as I'll struggle to be able to move the router somewhere else (and since he's one I trust, I'll have to wait a bit until he's free for the work!) I know that you can do the "mesh" system with this router, but I'd rather avoid spending an extra £150 for another AC86U when I'm not having the best experience so far. Plus, my girlfriend has already commented that she thinks the AC86U is ugly, so don't think I'll get away with another one!
So, while I've tried the AC86U, I'm not sure it fully meets my needs and wondering what is best for my situation. I'm happy to spend a bit, but wondering if:
1. What is the best possible set up that is somewhat cost effective for my issues? Should I return the AC86U for something like a pre-bundled mesh system like a TP link Deco? Or is there something simple I can get to put upstairs with the AC86U. I'm not looking to do anything too fancy, just something that can give a decent, reliable wifi signal for upstairs and downstairs that'll be a quick set up. I'd ideally like it to be a single device, but happy for more if necessary.
2. Do my drop outs sound like there is a true issue with the AC86U, or is it more than likely that the layout and building are causing these issues? I have my phone sitting next to the laptop in the office room which has been connected for 13 hours when that one dropped off. My phone does sometimes disconnect when I'm moving about,
3. Is it normal for things to reconnect on the access time? My TV, for example, is in the same room as the router, but has only been connected for 10 hours, but I'm not sure if that's a connection issue or just the TV has decided to discretely shut down? I never really considered these things before. Maybe it's the downfall of the very informative ASUS dashboard that it makes me overthink!
4. As an extra issue, it appears as if the downstream power levels on the Virgin router (now modem) are too high. They're all 7-11 dBmV. Is this likely to have any impact on connectivity through wifi? I am trying to get an engineer around to fix that (on the phone they just tried to tell me to reset the Virgin router/modem).
Thanks for any help!
Sorry if this is the wrong place, my post kind of sits in between buying advice and ASUS advice forum! Happy to have it moved to buying advice if it's better suited there.
I live in the UK and have recently moved into a new house which is a lot larger than my previous one! At my old house, I actually had the place rewired when I moved in (long story, but it almost burnt down first day I owned it!) which allowed me to get ethernet port right next to my desktop PC and an ethernet port going to the living room behind the TV, where I put a switch to allow connection to multiply devices. We have Virgin Media broadband and I was using their stock router, the Hub 3.0. Although we had the odd problem, I never really thought much about it as it seemed to do the job without too much to worry about. Since the router was located right next to where we work, we always had a good connection.
Moving into my new home, the port for the cable connection for Virgin is located in the living room, right at the front of the house and effectively in a corner. My office is upstairs in the opposite corner of the house. For my desktop which has no wireless, I was able to dig out some 5 year old powerline adapters I bought from when I was in rented accommodation (TP-LINK TL-PA4020), and although not the top speeds, they've done the trick without any additional costs.
Since I'm working from home, I noticed I was getting dropouts on my connection, and thought it's most likely that the Virgin stock router isn't powerful enough. Thus, doing some research, I was drawn to the ASUS RT-AC86U, which came with a lot of people with Virgin Broadband recommending it! Set up was, naturally, quite easy.
My initial problems started with my old work laptop. It was the only device that connected to 2.4ghz by default. What I would notice happen is that my remote desktop connection would suddenly freeze, and when I'd go to the normal desktop of the laptop and try open a web page to check, the page just wouldn't load. It never really showed the connection drop at all (in fact sometimes it happened it appeared on the laptop as if it was 3/5 bars, for example), but when going to the router network map, the "access time" would be reset, thus I presumed it had dropped out. I've updated to the latest firmware and know there have been issues with this router and the 2.4ghz connection, although most of those seem to be from 2018, while this is a 2020 model (judging from the writing on the manual).
Work sent me a new laptop (hadn't mentioned the problem, just something they were planning) and it's on 5ghz. This morning, I noticed a slight hiccup and the access time was at 1 minute when I checked, suggesting that it had dropped off the internet. Curiously, the wifi bars on the laptop are always fairly high, although when I check "interface" on the ASUS dashboard, these usually don't translate (are often 1 or 2). My girlfriend's laptop has actually just done the same who is in the office next to me. I have two devices sitting in the room of the router, one has an access time of 67 hours, while the other, the TV, has an access time of 10 hours.
So I'm at a bit of a loss right now as to what to do. My main problem is that I'm not actually sure if the AC86U is faulty or if I'm just in a bit of a darkspot of the house for signal. Judging by the fact my device in the room has been connected for 67 hours, I'd say it's the signal through building issues, although the TV on less time makes me question that. I should mention that I do not get any problems with the powerline connection wired to my desktop PC. I bought the AC86U specifically as I wanted something with better range due to home working. I've already been speaking to an electrician to get a wired connection to parts of the house (mostly for my desktop), but I'm not sure this resolves the issue of the overall connection, as I'll struggle to be able to move the router somewhere else (and since he's one I trust, I'll have to wait a bit until he's free for the work!) I know that you can do the "mesh" system with this router, but I'd rather avoid spending an extra £150 for another AC86U when I'm not having the best experience so far. Plus, my girlfriend has already commented that she thinks the AC86U is ugly, so don't think I'll get away with another one!
So, while I've tried the AC86U, I'm not sure it fully meets my needs and wondering what is best for my situation. I'm happy to spend a bit, but wondering if:
1. What is the best possible set up that is somewhat cost effective for my issues? Should I return the AC86U for something like a pre-bundled mesh system like a TP link Deco? Or is there something simple I can get to put upstairs with the AC86U. I'm not looking to do anything too fancy, just something that can give a decent, reliable wifi signal for upstairs and downstairs that'll be a quick set up. I'd ideally like it to be a single device, but happy for more if necessary.
2. Do my drop outs sound like there is a true issue with the AC86U, or is it more than likely that the layout and building are causing these issues? I have my phone sitting next to the laptop in the office room which has been connected for 13 hours when that one dropped off. My phone does sometimes disconnect when I'm moving about,
3. Is it normal for things to reconnect on the access time? My TV, for example, is in the same room as the router, but has only been connected for 10 hours, but I'm not sure if that's a connection issue or just the TV has decided to discretely shut down? I never really considered these things before. Maybe it's the downfall of the very informative ASUS dashboard that it makes me overthink!
4. As an extra issue, it appears as if the downstream power levels on the Virgin router (now modem) are too high. They're all 7-11 dBmV. Is this likely to have any impact on connectivity through wifi? I am trying to get an engineer around to fix that (on the phone they just tried to tell me to reset the Virgin router/modem).
Thanks for any help!
Last edited:
