Problems with new RT-Ax88U rounter

[Ansat]

Hello,
Just bought a brand new AX88U router. My issue is connecting to the 2.4ghz band. If I am right next to the router it works fine but if I move to my bedroom, about 40 feet away I am unable to connect at all. A wifi analysis app shows the signal to still be strong around -60dbm. My phone (oneplus 6T) will connect to the 5ghz band with no issues from this location. 2 other devices in this room that can only use 2.4ghz band also will not connect. Again if I move them next to router they will work fine. If I connect my phone close to the router and then move to the bedroom it will lose internet and then eventually disconnect.
I was previously using a netgear r6900 that had no issues with the 2.4ghz band in this room for the past 2 years with zero dropped signal.
I have upgraded to the latest asus release firmware and also tried the latest merlin firmware with no changes.
I have tried rebooting and doing a factory reset with no changes. I have tried setting specific channels vs auto and tried a few other setting changes but no difference.
Any ideas on what may be going on? is this bad hardware?

Scott

 

[RMerlin]

Try disabling Beamforming and Airtime Fairness on the 2.4 GHz band.

 

[FTC]

Hi, also and to avoid interferences make sure you do not have a USB3 device plugged (for testing) - or at least set it to mode USB2 -.

 

[Grisu]

and for testing set to 20MHz bandwith.

 

[Ansat]

Ok beamforming and airtime fairness both disabled, had already set bandwith to 20mhz to see if it helped, no USB drives have been plugged in. No change

 

[L&LD]

Ok beamforming and airtime fairness both disabled, had already set bandwith to 20mhz to see if it helped, no USB drives have been plugged in. No change

I see from your first post that you have tried using manual Control Channels. Which ones did you try? (Only 1, 6, and 11 are the valid choices).

It isn't clear if you're using stock Asus firmware or RMerlin's fork? In any case, have you performed a full reset to factory defaults (please see my signature below for the M&M Config guide)?

You may also benefit from doing a full Sanitize Network process too (again, please see the same signature link below). Pay particular attention to using new SSID's that are 8 alphanumeric characters long and don't contain any special characters, punctuation or smiley faces.

Are the antennae pointing straight up? Is the bedroom on the same floor? Or on another level?

Have you tested with the orientation of the router to see if the signal in that far room benefits? It may only need a few inches in any dimension to improve greatly.

What is surrounding the router? It should have at least 3'/1m in each direction for the signals to properly form and propagate uniformly. It should also be at least 10'/3m above ground level.

 

[Ansat]

When I manually chose a channel I used 11 because that was what I used on my previous router. For completeness I just changed to 6 and that actually fixed the issue.
Which to me really doesn't make sense, I show only one other person using channel 11 and it's a really weak signal. I measured and I'm only 30 feet from router on same level, 2 walls between us. I mean if the router was that sensitive to interference no one in an apartment could use it. But I guess sometimes these things don't make sense. Everything in bedroom working now so guess I'll stay away from chan 11 in future.

 

[L&LD]

When I manually chose a channel I used 11 because that was what I used on my previous router. For completeness I just changed to 6 and that actually fixed the issue.
Which to me really doesn't make sense, I show only one other person using channel 11 and it's a really weak signal. I measured and I'm only 30 feet from router on same level, 2 walls between us. I mean if the router was that sensitive to interference no one in an apartment could use it. But I guess sometimes these things don't make sense. Everything in bedroom working now so guess I'll stay away from chan 11 in future.

Thanks for the update. But it does make sense to me.

With every new router and for me, almost every new firmware, I throw out the old assumptions and just use what works now.

Even if you never changed anything in your own network, the WiFi environment changes in the immediate surrounding apartments will affect you eventually.

Thinking a bit out loud, that weak signal from the other person may be part of the issue too. If the new router you're using is more sensitive and is trying to sync with what it 'hears', it may be doing too much accounting for the environment and not enough letting you use the bandwidth you need.

 

[FTC]

Really sounds like interference in that channel... check if there is any potential source of interference around, USB3 / bluetooth devices, microwave ovens, .. and so on

 

[JemTheWire]

I had fitted a combined USB and mains socket in my office. I thought it was great, for a short while. Then I noticed my IoT devices on the 2.4 band had become very flakey. It was really bad and frustrating. In the end, I used an old trick.
Using an old AM radio tuned to 615MHz, I literally when round the house listening for interference.

Turns out that this USB/mains socket had gone faulty and was generating lots of RF interference. As it was hard wired into our mains supply, the whole house wiring had become a transmitter.

Ironically the USB unit was functioning perfectly and gave no other indication of the problem.

I was blaming neighbours!

It could be a ‘wall wort’ PSU, faulty LED light bulb etc.

I’m just posting this so that you can realise that things can change without you being aware.

 

[Ansat]

Minutes before I plugged in the new router my old router worked flawlessly on that same channel and I didn't add anything else. Unless there is something that makes the new router more sensitive to already existing interference I can't explain it.

 

[L&LD]

Minutes before I plugged in the new router my old router worked flawlessly on that same channel and I didn't add anything else. Unless there is something that makes the new router more sensitive to already existing interference I can't explain it.

Consider that the capabilities of the old router and the new one are wildly different.

Saying the same channel was used is like saying you used to use second gear in your old car for a certain road and now need to use different gears.

WiFi is 'art' just as much as it is 'science'. The underlying theories used and leveraged in any one specific design can and will play out to differences in how one router reacts to the same environment vs. another based on different capabilities (hardware and software).

 

[jcmos]

When I manually chose a channel I used 11 because that was what I used on my previous router. For completeness I just changed to 6 and that actually fixed the issue.
Which to me really doesn't make sense, I show only one other person using channel 11 and it's a really weak signal. I measured and I'm only 30 feet from router on same level, 2 walls between us. I mean if the router was that sensitive to interference no one in an apartment could use it. But I guess sometimes these things don't make sense. Everything in bedroom working now so guess I'll stay away from chan 11 in future.

You hear dropingouts on the 2.4 Ghz frequency a lot, on all type of brands and models. People blame the router straight away because of their lack of knowledge in the field, not their fault. They are not engineers with an IT qualification. To say that there are IT "professionals" out there who would still blame the device, thou.
It makes a lot of sense. I can't stop listening to people talking about this router's dropouts on the 2.4 Ghz frequency. It is not the routers fault. This frequency is "overcrowded", too much interference from other devices, the environment, your neighbor, etc.. that's why you don't get complains with the 5 Ghz one, not many people use it yet. Some routers are more sensitive than others to certain channels. The quality of the signal on a particular channel makes a big difference. Grab an app from Google Play called Wifi Analyzer, you can check the quality of all you wifi channels and assign the one with better rating. Low rating means avoid using it at all cost. You might get a 2 star rating on channel 3 and 9 out of 10 rating on channel 8. You have to start using tools like this if you have problems with your WIFI and not go back to ASUS in the first place telling them how crap the firmware or the hardware is. In 99 % of the cases is not their fault and when it is, they will listen.

 

[Grisu]

You hear dropingouts on the 2.4 Ghz frequency a lot, on all type of brands and models. People blame the router straight away because of their lack of knowledge in the field, not their fault. They are not engineers with an IT qualification. To say that there are IT "professionals" out there who would still blame the device, thou.
It makes a lot of sense. I can't stop listening to people talking about this router's dropouts on the 2.4 Ghz frequency. It is not the routers fault. This frequency is "overcrowded", too much interference from other devices, the environment, your neighbor, etc.. that's why you don't get complains with the 5 Ghz one, not many people use it yet. Some routers are more sensitive than others to certain channels. The quality of the signal on a particular channel makes a big difference. Grab an app from Google Play called Wifi Analyzer, you can check the quality of all you wifi channels and assign the one with better rating. Low rating means avoid using it at all cost. You might get a 2 star rating on channel 3 and 9 out of 10 rating on channel 8. You have to start using tools like this if you have problems with your WIFI and not go back to ASUS in the first place telling them how crap the firmware or the hardware is. In 99 % of the cases is not their fault and when it is, they will listen.

Sorry but thats completely nonsense!
If it works well with older firmwares and or other routers (different manufacturer) than the problem is not related to all what you said.
And thats what most of us complaining about ...
Many (like me) have no neighbours or that low with <-70dB while router is seen with -30 and still dropouts.

And no, they dont listen, thats the real problem!

 

[jcmos]

You didn't read what I said did you?
Environment, neighbour, etc....
Every situation, household is different.
Learn your settings in the router too, maybe do a factory reset first prior updating any firmware, or assign static IP addresses instead of DHCP, check that clients have the correct settings ( correct gateway, subnet, etc..) and check that you are not actually chocking your network with 30 devices connected to the 2.4 GHz frequency at the same time streaming or whatever
Do you know that if you are the only one connected you get 100 percent of the bandwidth, if there are 2 connected you get 50 percent, with 3 you enjoy a third of that bandwidth and so on?
I have a AX88U with the latest firmware and I don't have any dropouts, never had them so far after 3 months of continuous run.
Most of the cases is the user who got no idea how to setup a router and a network correctly, as I said not their fault, they are not IT qualified. This group of users should just put up with the device the ISP give them and not try to experiment with a high end one instead.

 

[Grisu]

You didn't read what I said did you?
Environment, neighbour, etc....
Every situation, household is different.
Learn your settings in the router too, maybe do a factory reset first prior updating any firmware, or assign static IP addresses instead of DHCP, check that clients have the correct settings ( correct gateway, subnet, etc..) and check that you are not actually chocking your network with 30 devices connected to the 2.4 GHz frequency at the same time streaming or whatever
Do you know that if you are the only one connected you get 100 percent of the bandwidth, if there are 2 connected you get 50 percent, with 3 you enjoy a third of that bandwidth and so on?
I have a AX88U with the latest firmware and I don't have any dropouts, never had them so far after 3 months of continuous run.
Most of the cases is the user who got no idea how to setup a router and a network correctly, as I said not their fault, they are not IT qualified. This group of users should just put up with the device the ISP give them and not try to experiment with a high end one instead.

Sounds very different now, so I'm with you.
And BTW I did read what you have written but it doesnt reflect whats going on right now, you have to read postings of last 2 years or more to realize what I want to say.
Problems reported here rised a lot last months and has other still unknown reasons than usual problems with WiFi or single clients or interference.
And many or most here in this forum are somelike advanced in router setup, at least more than average users.
Here one more example: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/aimesh-did-anyone-give-up.49084/page-5#post-503698

 

[jcmos]

Got it!
When I mention IT qualified what I mean is that the advanced user might also be able to setup a router the same way as an IT qualified one, I cannot argue that we all got brains, but the main difference between the two is that the IT qualified guy knows the impact of going one way or the other, and that's very important.

 

[ukrainer]

Hello, I have a similar problem too with my RT-AX88U. I always use last Merlin and all settings were reset to defaults after installing Merlin. Except of that I use Entware, amtm with scripts (connmom, ntpMerlin, scMerlin, spdMerlin, uiDivStats), Diversion with pixelserv-tls and Transmission. There is connected USB2 RAID1 with totally new 2 SSD per 2 Tb each. So about problem which I faced:

1. I can't connect my smarthome devices (robocleaner, humidifier etc.) to 2.4 GHz wifi at all. At the same time my laptop and smartphone connect successfully to the router and to these devices (there wasn't this kind of problem on my previous router RT-AC68U).

2. Every 10-15 minutes of using Samba shares my laptop loses connection with shared folders as result the movie playing always interrupts. But the wifi connection looks as stable at the time of these troubles.

3. Using SSH the sessions are interrupting too, but more frequent - about 1 time per 3-5 minutes during active using this connection.

Previously I faced the problems 2 and 3 on my RT-AC68U. After that I did all possible steps to avoid the problem, but without success. These problems started in spring after some of updates of Merlin firmware and till this time I have the same problems on my new RT-AX88U. Before of that I has the second problem on my old router more than a year ago, but after some firmware update it disappeared.
This time I even changed my old SSD for the RAID1 with two totally other SSDs and setup all from zero point again. But It doesn't solve the problems 2 and 3, but in new router I faced even a problem 1...

Do anybody have an idea what exactly leads to these problems and how to solve them???

 

[dosborne]

I always use last Merlin and all settings were reset to defaults after installing Merlin. Except of that I use Entware, amtm with scripts (connmom, ntpMerlin, scMerlin, spdMerlin, uiDivStats), Diversion with pixelserv-tls and Transmission. There is connected USB2 RAID1 with totally new 2 SSD per 2 Tb each.

I would start by disabling all that "stuff" and try running the basics. Although it isn't likely to impact on item 1, it certainly could have huge impact on the rest of your issues. Do you really need to run all that on your *router*? Just because "you can" doesn't mean "you should".

Saying "last merlin" is completely meaningless, although many do it. Please use actual numbers as there are variants, alphas, betas, etc.

 

[ukrainer]

I would start by disabling all that "stuff" and try running the basics. Although it isn't likely to impact on item 1, it certainly could have huge impact on the rest of your issues. Do you really need to run all that on your *router*? Just because "you can" doesn't mean "you should".

Saying "last merlin" is completely meaningless, although many do it. Please use actual numbers as there are variants, alphas, betas, etc.

Unfortunately problem exists before I installed these scripts. I can uninstall some of them, but some I really need. Anyway I don't expect that it will change something.
Do you have other ideas?

I found new problem: I can't connect the new router to the Android app ASUS Router, it just doesn't see this router... It seems as all these problem somehow linked