N66R noise issue?

[PSWild]

Picked up an refurb N66R. I have used the stock Asus build, Merlin's build, and DD-WRT. On all three builds, I can be sitting within five feet of the router with a 2012 rMacbook Pro - an RSSI of -34 and noise of -90 on the 5Ghz band, best transfer rate possible is 215Mbps. No possible radio interference from outside sources (house is isolated). Roughly the same on 2.4Ghz.

N66R is being used as an AP (using Cradlepoint as gateway for my UML290 as I can't get that to work correctly on the ASUS using any build). Have manually selected channels, channel width, everything - no luck. It is placed 5.5 feet up on a bookshelf. Four feet away and below is a 60 inch LED TV, which shouldn't be interfering on either channel. There is a Roku Stick which uses 2.4 Ghz wifi for the remote to work, but that shouldn't interfere with the 5Ghz band. I have moved the router to the opposite end of the room, and gotten same results. What may I be missing?

 

[RMerlin]

Picked up an refurb N66R. I have used the stock Asus build, Merlin's build, and DD-WRT. On all three builds, I can be sitting within five feet of the router with a 2012 rMacbook Pro - an RSSI of -34 and noise of -90 on the 5Ghz band, best transfer rate possible is 215Mbps. No possible radio interference from outside sources (house is isolated). Roughly the same on 2.4Ghz.

N66R is being used as an AP (using Cradlepoint as gateway for my UML290 as I can't get that to work correctly on the ASUS using any build). Have manually selected channels, channel width, everything - no luck. It is placed 5.5 feet up on a bookshelf. Four feet away and below is a 60 inch LED TV, which shouldn't be interfering on either channel. There is a Roku Stick which uses 2.4 Ghz wifi for the remote to work, but that shouldn't interfere with the 5Ghz band. I have moved the router to the opposite end of the room, and gotten same results. What may I be missing?

What is your actual problem?

 

[PSWild]

My problem, Mr. Merlin, is that no matter what I try or do, I am getting far below the possible 450Mbps with the N66R on either band, regardless of firmware, router settings, or router location. This causes issues when running multiple Plex streams (which happens often in my house) or transferring files from my laptop to my PC. I am wondering what I might be overlooking as possible causes for my speed maxing out at 215Mbps.

 

[L&LD]

Are the antennae connected tight? Have you tried different channels? Are you using 40MHz wide channels?

Is your mbp equipped with 3 antennae and do you have it setup to use 40MHz or higher channel width? Have you tried replacing the Lan cables? What kind of speeds do you get wired to the 'N66? What kind of speeds do you get when connected to the cradlepoint directly? How is the 'N66 connected to the cradlepoint?

Have you ever had 450MHz connections at your location with the same equipment?

450Mpbs per band is the max possible, it is not guaranteed that you will actually get that connection and throughput though.

Most important, when switching firmware, are you resetting to factory defaults after flashing and then manually entering the minimum required settings to securely connect? Are you using any wireless or other settings not at their default? Have you turned all other features off that you're not using?

 

[john9527]

I think you need to reset your expectations a bit....getting 215Mb/s is actually pretty good.

http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-is-the-actual-real-life-speed-of-wireless-374

The only thing I disagree with is the AC real life speed....with the latest firmware and adapters I would expect over 200Mb/s.

 

[wouterv]

...
I am getting far below the possible 450Mbps with the N66R on either band, regardless of firmware, router settings, or router location.
...
I am wondering what I might be overlooking as possible causes for my speed maxing out at 215Mbps.

As mentioned before: the 450 Mbps is the technical maximum for 802.11n at one frequency band (either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz).
450 Mbps requires at least the following at both ends of the wireless connection (both the router and the client):

1. No neighbor disturbance (check the use of the wifi channel spectrum).
2. Free line of sight between router and client (no walls, no floors, no objects).
3. Bandwidth of 40 MHz (the router will automatically scale down to 20 MHz in case of disturbance).
4. Support for 3 spatial streams (150 Mbps each), this requires 3 antenna's (most clients do have only one or two antenna's).
5. No other clients using bandwidth at the same time at the same frequency.
6. No 802.11g or 802.11a clients (forcing the router to a bandwidth of 20 MHz).
7. No clients using the other frequency and causing a high CPU load of the router.
8. No other applications (e.g. VPN from outside the LAN) consuming CPU load.

In short: 450 Mbps is theorethical, any rate above 200 Mbps in the real world is great.