Reduced Range/Speed from new firmware on RT-N66U?

[mackworth]

I currently have a N56U that I am using. I live in a pretty urban area and have about 20 2.4ghz networks that I can see around my apartment. I love the N56U, except for its 5ghz range, which won't reach my bedroom.

I know that 5ghz range on any router isn't that good, but it looks like the range on the N66U is pretty good (according to the review). However, I noticed that someone recently said that one of the newer firmware's lowered the output from 100 to 80.

Is it possible that a decrease like that would have any effect on the test SNB test results?

 

[drinkingbird]

I currently have a N56U that I am using. I live in a pretty urban area and have about 20 2.4ghz networks that I can see around my apartment. I love the N56U, except for its 5ghz range, which won't reach my bedroom.

I know that 5ghz range on any router isn't that good, but it looks like the range on the N66U is pretty good (according to the review). However, I noticed that someone recently said that one of the newer firmware's lowered the output from 100 to 80.

Is it possible that a decrease like that would have any effect on the test SNB test results?

Various firmwares have had various defaults, but you can set it to whatever you want. Most likely it won't make a huge difference in range anyway though. Sometimes lowering power will improve range and throughput due to decreased interference and better quality signal.

The external "medium gain" antennae on the 66u should give you much better range than the 56u. In theory the "Ai Radar" beamforming helps a bit too but since it can't be disabled, no way to say exactly how much.