Not happy with my wifi network

[speedlever]

I have an AC-56U running Merlin 380.58 as my main router connected to fiber (1 GB internet). I have an N66U connected (LAN to LAN) via cat5E cable on the other side of the house setup as an AP. It's running 380.62.1.

I don't know if all my tweaking has gone astray or just what. But my wifi throughput (when I transfer a file over my wifi network) has dropped from around 18-20 MB/s to 2-3 MB/s. I also have issues with sticky clients and have gone away from a single SSID for all radios (2 in each router) and use a unique SSID for each radio now so I can manually connect to the strongest signal where ever I may be in the house.

I just d/l the latest Merlin FW (380.62.1) and updated the AP with it. I reset everything back to default other than my login credentials and naming the radios, set the 2.4GHz bandwidth to 20MHz and still am getting poor throughput. I have yet to work on the main router (AC56U) though.

When I connect via ethernet to the AP, I see 900+MB/s speeds on the dedicated ISP's speedtest site. When I connect via wifi, I see around 100 MB/s download speeds. When I try to transfer a large file over my netowrk via wifi, I'm seeing around 2-3 MB/s throughput when I'm sitting less than 5 ft from the AP. (This is on a Lenovo Y500 Ideapad with N capable wifi).

I'm finding that as I get older, I'm not enjoying tinkering like I used to and wonder if I should switch over to one of the mesh options?

That being a consideration, I'd still like to tinker just a bit more and see if I can figure out where I've gone wrong in my network configuration. Any suggestions where to start?

 

[System Error Message]

could be more wifi in your area, run inSSIDer for example and it will show how crowded it is. Wifi is a shared medium and 2.4Ghz only has 3 non overlapping channels. So with many wifi routers in your area could be a reason. Perhaps people are cranking their transmit power up too much?

For me i use max transmit for 5Ghz but minimum transmit for 2.4Ghz.

 

[speedlever]

Hmm, I don't think that's my problem. I'm seeing slow file transfers on the 5GHz band too. Here's a screen shot of my 2.4GHz environment. WLAN 1.2 (router) and 2.2 (AP) are my router (1.x) and AP (2.x) bands.

 

[sfx2000]

Hmm, I don't think that's my problem. I'm seeing slow file transfers on the 5GHz band too. Here's a screen shot of my 2.4GHz environment. WLAN 1.2 and 2.2 are my router (1.x) and AP (2.x) bands

Meh - one worries too much - I'm not seeing a problem here - that DTV unit is something to avoid as it is a set-top/wireless video bridge - so it's going to eat up some airtime what someone is watching TV...

 

[sfx2000]

I also have issues with sticky clients and have gone away from a single SSID for all radios (2 in each router) and use a unique SSID for each radio now so I can manually connect to the strongest signal where ever I may be in the house.

too many AP's too close together - they're sticking because they have no reason to move...

Reduce the number of AP's you have perhaps - or drop the Tx power on the AP's...

 

[speedlever]

Meh - one worries too much - I'm not seeing a problem here - that DTV unit is something to avoid as it is a set-top/wireless video bridge - so it's going to eat up some airtime what someone is watching TV...

If you mean that Direct-LwM288x Series, that's my Samsung laser printer. I just switched off the wi-fi for now so that is gone from the channel graph. (it's connected to my main router via ethernet cable anyway).

Also, when I took that screen shot, I was approximately half way between the router and the AP. And yeah, I only have one AP.

So I should reduce the power on the 2.4GHz radios of both the router and the AP? That will help the sticky client situation?

I thought I had the clients I could tweak set up to prefer the 5GHz radios. But that doesn't seem to be happening for some reason.

I have yet to work on the main router. But I'm dumping most of my custom settings for now and trying to start all over hoping to regain my wifi connectivity speeds I used to have. (and taking the opportunity to update to the latest Merlin build too.)

Unfortunately, it's likely to be a few days before I can get to the main router (AC56U) and upload the new firmware and set it back up.

 

[sfx2000]

Well - first - maybe consider the Samsung printer thingy - move it from Ad-Hoc to Infrastructure...

Second - just turn off the other AP for a bit, and see what happens - and then turn it back on, and down the power by half...

 

[speedlever]

Down the power on the 2.4GHz radios only? And on both the router and the AP?

 

[speedlever]

I switched off the AP. I'm sitting less than 5 ft from the router (AC56U) and am connected to the 5GHz radio. I just brought up speedtest net and downloads initially pegged the pin on the 50M limit, then rapidly dropped off to average 7.56Mbps. Uploads did similarly and averaged 6.10Mbps.

That's terrible.