N66U Wireless Dramatically Lowered

[JayX]

Hi everyone

About a year or so ago, we purchased the N66U for our house as it's quite a large property, and the modem/router supplied by our ISP wasn't fit for the job (so I had an old Linksys WRTG hooked up to it to extend the range).

I put the old router into modem mode, plugged the N66U in and everything was great - solid, good quality wifi signal throughout the house.

As everything was working fine, we never updated the firmware until the aicloud vulnerability discovered in around February. We updated the firmware and later that week I noticed that wifi range has severely dropped. I'm not sure if it's related, or if it's a coincidence.

Things we've done since:

* Updated to even more up to date firmware again (and also I believe we tried rolling back to the old version to see if it fixed anything).

* Factory reset the router and manually put our own settings in by hand rather than restore from a settings file

* Limited the channel bandwidth to 40mhz which I saw suggested elsewhere (it feels like this has helped a little bit)

* Done a network channel scan to ensure we're the only wireless device in range on the channel.

I've considered using one of Merlin's firmwares to see if this does anything, as I know they're well recommended here. I'm just not sure what's changed to make such a difference. It is a pretty large and old property, but things were absolutely fine for ages. Getting the router with the best range was why we purchased this, so it would've gone back if it was behaving like it is now.

Any suggestions? Happy to provide any screenshots/info as needed.

Current Firmware Version:3.0.0.4.374_5517

We only use the 2.4ghz radio, the 5ghz signal never got as good coverage (albeit when we were close enough the speeds were cracking).

 

[CaptainSTX]

The most likely reason you have lost range is that a nearby neighbor has bought a new more powerful router and you are now getting interference. Using a double wide 40 Ghz channel you are subject to interference on six channels. Since 1 - 6 - 11 are recommended you probably would have problems if anyone is using those channels.

I would change your setup to use only a 20 Ghz channel (1 -6 -11 ). Use inSSIDer or some other utility to try and determine if anyone of those channels are free. If they all are in use then you will need to experiment to see which works best for you.

It shouldn't make much difference but try turning off B/G protection unless you have some older devices that don't use N and must connect using N.

Finally try shifting the positions of the antennas to see if you can get a stronger signal in areas where coverage is poor. Easiest way to do this is with a tablet or laptop running a WiFi utility so you can wander around the house and check signal strength as someone move the antennas.

Good luck!

 

[dsring]

The range with the newer firmware is less. There is a work-around by using the latest Merlin firmware. Read through the following posts for details on the issue: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15639#

 

[JayX]

Thanks both, I'll definitely go through your advice and see if any of that makes a difference. I kind of hope it is due to neighbours running networking gear as they'll be moved out shortly!

Funnily enough it was that thread that made me find this forum in the first place, but there wasn't a resolution at the time I believe (I've not had the chance to deal with this properly, but kept the site bookmarked!). Will definitely re-read it now, cheers.

 

[marnold]

Yep, I upgraded to Merlin's firmware and noticed a substantial increase in wifi range. I especially notice it on the 5.0Ghz radio since that's where I keep my computer and Moto X.

 

[Builder71]

This is a known issue with the stock firmware.
Asus switched from SDK5 to SDK6 WiFi drivers some time ago.

After that it's downhill with the wifi range.
Unfortunately they still didn't fix this problem.

The only thing you can do now is switch to RMerlin firmware.
He uses a special wifi driver Asus can't use.
This will give you better range. (Similar to SDK5 range.)

Make sure that AFTER the firmware upgrade you do a factory reset on the router and reconfigure manually. (Don't use a saved config file!)
Also delete the wireless profiles on all you clients and reconnect to the router.
(Or use a different SSID.)

Let us know if this fixes your issue.

 

[JayX]

Just to confirm I followed the tips from captain and dsring and things do seem better. Still not quite at the level before I'd say, but that makes sense based on the previous posts.

Definitely worth using the 3rd party firmware for sure. When I've got some time I'll do another factory reset and reconfigure again, and maybe I'll see another slight boost. Thanks again!