I recently bought both a RT-AC68 and a R7000 to upgrade from e3000 running Tomato RAF. I basically wanted a router that is a little more robust that the e3000.
Right now I run it with 2.4GHz set to G only and 5GHz set to N only. I live in a 3 level townhome with the router located on the 2nd level at the front of the house. This is on a slab so no basement. The house is roughly 60 feet long. I have not run Ethernet and don’t really plan on it at this point. I also know that the router placement is not ideal but again I no plans to move it right now.
My biggest wireless problem is that I can't reliably reach my Linksys Media Center Extender on the 3rd level and Chromecast+HP Media Center Extender on the 1st level. Both devices are located at the rear of the house. I’m able to connect to both devices this way and stream it’s just not stable. Right now I worked around the 3rd level issue with a pair of Netgear 200Mbps poweline adapters. The 3rd level I just grin and bear it.
I figured one of these beasts, with their external antennae, would allow me the extra oomph I need to stabilize these connections. The problem is I can’t even get it to replicate the setup I have right now. I have 2 other Media Center Extenders in rooms directly above the e3000 that connect on 5GHz and stream just fine. For some reason the extenders refuse to connect to both routers on 5GHz when trying to set them up. On the 2.4GHz band they’re only able to connect to the R7000 though this does not provide enough bandwidth to stream.
When I setup the connection on the HP extender it can’t grab and IP and sets a private 169.254.* address. Setting it up with a static IP allows the setup to complete with no connectivity. On the Linksys extender it just tells me the network is no longer there when completing the setup. My laptop and Galaxy S4 both connect to 5GHz just fine, the laptop as an N client and the S4 as an AC client.
I’ve tried various firmwares and have ran them as routers and APs where the IPs are pulled from the e3000.
Firmwares Used:
Nighthawk
V1.0.2.194_1.0.15
V1.0.3.12_1.1.18 Beta
r23460 Kong
r23490 Kong
AC68
3.0.0.4.374_583
3.0.0.4.374.39 Merlin
This is what I get over and over from the R7000 when I have DD-WRT loaded and try to connect the HP extender:
Feb 2 23:58:01 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:01 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:07 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:07 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:13 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:13 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
This is what it looks like on the e3000 which is working correctly:
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:* HP-Extender-2
Does anyone have any ideas? Is this a compatibility issue?
Right now I run it with 2.4GHz set to G only and 5GHz set to N only. I live in a 3 level townhome with the router located on the 2nd level at the front of the house. This is on a slab so no basement. The house is roughly 60 feet long. I have not run Ethernet and don’t really plan on it at this point. I also know that the router placement is not ideal but again I no plans to move it right now.
My biggest wireless problem is that I can't reliably reach my Linksys Media Center Extender on the 3rd level and Chromecast+HP Media Center Extender on the 1st level. Both devices are located at the rear of the house. I’m able to connect to both devices this way and stream it’s just not stable. Right now I worked around the 3rd level issue with a pair of Netgear 200Mbps poweline adapters. The 3rd level I just grin and bear it.
I figured one of these beasts, with their external antennae, would allow me the extra oomph I need to stabilize these connections. The problem is I can’t even get it to replicate the setup I have right now. I have 2 other Media Center Extenders in rooms directly above the e3000 that connect on 5GHz and stream just fine. For some reason the extenders refuse to connect to both routers on 5GHz when trying to set them up. On the 2.4GHz band they’re only able to connect to the R7000 though this does not provide enough bandwidth to stream.
When I setup the connection on the HP extender it can’t grab and IP and sets a private 169.254.* address. Setting it up with a static IP allows the setup to complete with no connectivity. On the Linksys extender it just tells me the network is no longer there when completing the setup. My laptop and Galaxy S4 both connect to 5GHz just fine, the laptop as an N client and the S4 as an AC client.
I’ve tried various firmwares and have ran them as routers and APs where the IPs are pulled from the e3000.
Firmwares Used:
Nighthawk
V1.0.2.194_1.0.15
V1.0.3.12_1.1.18 Beta
r23460 Kong
r23490 Kong
AC68
3.0.0.4.374_583
3.0.0.4.374.39 Merlin
This is what I get over and over from the R7000 when I have DD-WRT loaded and try to connect the HP extender:
Feb 2 23:58:01 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:01 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:07 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:07 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:13 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:13 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 2 23:58:19 dnsmasq-dhcp[22359]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.1.3 00:01:*:*:*:*
This is what it looks like on the e3000 which is working correctly:
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:*
Feb 3 10:17:18 RT-98FC* daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[941]: DHCPACK(br0) 192.168.2.69 00:01:*:*:*:* HP-Extender-2
Does anyone have any ideas? Is this a compatibility issue?