HELP! Very slow wireless speeds with rt-ac66u

[Sneezy]

I just purchased the asus rt-ac66u last week and have not been able to get an acceptable wireless speed. I have a 30mbs/2mbs internet speed. Hard wired to the router I get perfect speeds but when I connect wirelessly I usually get .8mbs/2mbs and the most that I have got is 5.6mbs/2mbs. Seems like only the download speed is affected. I have tried multiple firmwares including stock, a couple builds from dd-wrt, and the newest Merlin build which I am currently using, all have the same issue. Right now I am only working on the 2.4GHz frequency, 20/40MHz band width (I have tried just 20 and just 40), channel 11 (I have tried every channel, this one is the clearest) and I am using WPA 2 personal AES security. I only have a couple of IPhones and laptop using the 2.4GHz frequency. I have another computer running on the 5GHz frequency and speeds are better but still low (about 9-11mbs download). My wireless signals are strong (full bars), I even ran speed test standing next to the router. I have read multiple forums searching for an answer but unable to figure this out. I am usually kind of good at figuring this stuff out but I just can't figure this out. Is it likely a setting I'm over looking or is it possible I just got a bad router? Please help..

 

[overdrive31]

Same speed with all clients or just the laptop? Speed test the iPhone's too. How old are the iPhone's? iPhone 4 or newer are wireless N, 4S will test faster than a 4 even though they have same speed wireless radio(My 4 max is 17Mbps, 4S will max out my connection at 28Mbps).

The laptop using any of the modern Intel wireless cards, namely the 7260? Have you disabled (AiRadar)beamforming? Apparently, stock firmware only supports it on 5GHz, but may also use 2.4GHz with third party firmware. Some clients don't play nice with beamforming, so you must disable it to get them to work right. Some have said the disabling on the 5GHz(stock firmware) actually made an improvement on the 2.4GHz clients.

Only use 20MHz on 2.4GHz and use inssider to see if there are any channel bonds nearby. If there are, you may need to have a chat with a neighbor about using just 20MHz.

Disable b/g Protection? Likely not a feature in other firmware besides stock, and if you don't have any legacy clients, it can be disabled. The setting may impact N clients if there are no legacy devices.

 

[Sneezy]

The iPhones are both 4s and the laptop is older, it on has a wireless g card in it. It doesn't get used much. The speed test that I have ran are mostly from the iphone but I have ran it from the laptop and desktop and all get the same results. b/g protection is not enabled. I used wififofum on my iphone and changed my channel to 9 but still slow.

 

[overdrive31]

The desktop wireless card, is it legacy wireless A or wireless AN? Legacy will max out like ~20Mbps and that is like 15-20ft away with LOS, any further or with obstructions it drops off quite a bit. Should upgrade to AC1200 clients that support beamforming(Broamcom, Realtek chipsets) to gain some speed and distance on 5GHz.

The 2.4GHz spectrum may just be too crowded or too much channel bonding going on nearby to get the results you want. Until you run inssider, we may never know. Look for AP's that list two channels like 5 + 2(channel bond), for example. If you're worried the router is a lemon, take it to a friend's that doesn't have issues like you to test it.

My 2.4GHz is kinda crowded, no channel bonding nearby, but tons of bandwidth hogs. Sometimes I can max out the connection on wifi and sometimes just barely 20Mbps(G speeds) during peak streaming hours.

There are metal flake paints to block wireless coming in and going out of a building, but that also blocks cellular and cordless home phones. Not a practical solution.

 

[Sneezy]

Overdrive31,

I found the issue and now I feel really dumb. I can't believe I didn't check it sooner but the problem that I was running the speedtest from the same server and the server was junk! Thanks for the help but sorry for wasting your time.