New to the RT-N66U

[cdysthe]

Hi,

I asked in this forum about which router to purchase and ended up with an ASUS RT-N66U based on a great deal and advice given. I have set it up and it works great. I have two questions though:

1. I noticed that after I had set up the router as I want it 5 ghz wireless speed went down to half of what it was. 2.4 ghz didn't. I tried to figure it out, but ended up factory reset and configure it again. Is this a known issue?

2. I am wary of QoS and haven't used it much on previous routers. Is the implementation in this router worth using?

 

[RMerlin]

1) Make sure your 5 GHz band is configured for 40 Mhz bandwidth. Only set the 2.4 GHz band to 20 MHz.

2) This is on a case-by-case basis. Personally, I don't have any need for QoS, even tho I have VoIP. If you have a lot of clients or do heavy P2P usage, you might need it.

 

[cdysthe]

1) Make sure your 5 GHz band is configured for 40 Mhz bandwidth. Only set the 2.4 GHz band to 20 MHz.

Thanks. So I should set the 2.4 GHz band to 20 and 5 GHz to 40? They were both set to 20/40.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks. So I should set the 2.4 GHz band to 20 and 5 GHz to 40?

That's correct. This will be more stable.

 

[cdysthe]

That's correct. This will be more stable.

Sorry for asking more about this, but I am trying to learn. When you say "more stable" is that with regards to speed, or reliable connections?

P.S. I see from your sig that you offer customized firmware for this router. I have never ventured that deep into a router, but this may the time I choose to do so. If I do not come back here, it didn't work

 

[joegreat]

Sorry for asking more about this, but I am trying to learn. When you say "more stable" is that with regards to speed, or reliable connections?

Hi,

It' about stability and speed: If you choose 40MHz you will block/need 3 channels of the WLAN bandwidth.

This can lead to instability and throughput problems in areas where many WLANs are active.

With kind regards
Joe

PS.: Hope you will come back online - to read my message!

 

[RogerSC]

I think that it's really just 2 channels that are needed for 40MHz. channel width, but what tends to happen in most areas on 2.4GHz. is that the router continues to try 40MHz. and finds that it can't get two channels well enough or it does get two channels then loses one (there are rules that it uses to figure out if it needs to backoff to 20MHz. after trying 40MHz.), then it backs off to 20MHz. Which leads to unstable operation, unless you're pretty sure that you can get the required 2 clear channels pretty much all the time. This is unusual...doesn't happen in my area, that's for sure.

So just leaving the channel width at 20MHz. on 2.4GHz. is a better idea, it never tries 40MHz., just works more steadily at 20MHz. on whatever channel you set it to.

Also, I might mention that you should use an app like inSSIDer on a laptop or WiFi Analyzer on an Android phone or tablet to look and see which wireless channel is the best for you to use on 2.4GHz. in your area. Looking for the least busy channel and setting your router to use that channel will give you the best throughput, rather than letting the router set the channel using "Auto".

 

[cdysthe]

Thank you for great responses!

Thank you guys for great responses and advice. I have now completed the setup of the router and it reaches around my house better than anything I have ever used.

The last issues I will look into is using the Merlin firmware, but I am still not sure whether it mostly adds more advanced features or if it may improve the basics which I am most interested in: Wireless throughput and stability. I will do some research and find out if I should go Merlin or not.

 

[danstek]

Merlin's firmware adds a few things but its basically the stock Asuswrt firmware. If you want stock but with added stability then Merlin's is definitely rock solid since bug fixes and reliability was the goal for his firmware.

I ran Merlin's builds for quite a while before switching to Tomato for better QoS. My network expanded to too many clients so they ended up starving each other for bandwidth. Currently running Shibby's Tomato mod and its been great so far. Its also a solid choice if you need the extra features.

 

[cdysthe]

Merlin's firmware adds a few things but its basically the stock Asuswrt firmware. If you want stock but with added stability then Merlin's is definitely rock solid since bug fixes and reliability was the goal for his firmware.

I ran Merlin's builds for quite a while before switching to Tomato for better QoS. My network expanded to too many clients so they ended up starving each other for bandwidth. Currently running Shibby's Tomato mod and its been great so far. Its also a solid choice if you need the extra features.

Thanks for advice. I did install the latest stable Merlin firmware and notice that an issue I had with 5 ghz wireless speed suddenly drop drastically and not being able to get it back without a firmeware reset is gone. That alone made it worth while.