[Q] Abysmal wireless performance on new RT-N66U

[netfortius]

Maybe the comparison is not fair, in which case having to go back and do more homework, but I have very recently acquired an RT-N66U, after having run in the last few years various Apple based products (airports) and twice Linksys with dd-wrt images. I have read a lot of fantastic reviews, and my apple last airport was way overdue for an upgrade, so decided to take the jump.

Very disappointed (at least due to the scale of advertising and associated expectations): in spite of testing all sorts of scenarios, inclusive of forcibly disabling the 2.4GHz and 5GHz, alternatively (of course), and/or fixing other parameters in the wireless configuration aside from the obvious default config right out of the box, I could not get the stability and reachability of my old piece of junk.

Are all the expected improvements supposed to come out exclusively through other images than the Asus one? Any advice would be appreciated (especially if within the 30(-4)days money back guarantee from my vendor)

I am on 3.0.0.4.376_1071

TIA,
Stefan

 

[L&LD]

That's an old firmware.

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?slanguage=en&m=RT-N66U+(VER.B1)&os=8

The above is the official Asus versions.


But I would recommend installing the RMerlin flavors.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7846

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914


I have used both firmware versions in the two links above, but am now on the official RMerlin firmware again.

 

[netfortius]

That's an old firmware.
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?slanguage=en&m=RT-N66U+(VER.B1)&os=8
The above is the official Asus versions.
But I would recommend installing the RMerlin flavors.
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7846
http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914
I have used both firmware versions in the two links above, but am now on the official RMerlin firmware again.

Thank you for the earlier directions. Did not reply right away, as I wanted to check things out.

So i upgraded to 3.0.0.4.376_2524 ("manual" download, as it looks like the firmware update checker built into the previous image is broken??) and tested the heck out of it. OSX on Macbook pro, windows & linux on desktop with wifi card, and laptops, a few android devices - still bad performance (at least to what I used to have before, albeit 3-4 years older than this). Been very happy in the past with Asus as a manufacturer (almost all PCs I ever built had Asus mobos), but this wifi product seems to have a low ratio of performance to cost.

Will try the Merlin train, next.

 

[Revelstone77]

cpu at 100%

i was seeing poor performance also, but i saw that the cpu was pegged at 100%. i tried rebooting the router but that didnt help. i'm running 3.0.0.4.376.2524. i went into media services and turned off the Samba share and cpu dropped to 1% turned it back on and it now stays at 1%. any ideas?