RT-AC68U 5GHz performance issues, cant use channels 149+

[rchr]

Hi all, long time SNB reader, first time posting. So I've got an RT-AC68U, purchased 2015. Been a solid router for years, but recently been having a lot of issues with it. Long story short the 5 GHz band is having some issues - it seems when the router auto-selects (or is set manually) to use any channel from 149 or higher it becomes impossible to connect. Every device I've tried - an iPhone, a desktop with an Asus PCE-AC88, a MacBook Pro - all can't connect to the router when its using channels 149 or higher. They can see the network but upon attempting to connect will throw various errors, on iOS "the password is incorrect", on Windows "Unable to connect to the network".

The reason I want to switch to a 149 or higher channel is that 36-48 are slightly congested by my neighbours. I'm in Australia and the region on the router is set to that. I've attempted all sorts of things - I'm no newbie to networking. Done power cycling, resetting to factory settings, using Merlin, using the default ASUS firmware.

Additionally to this I've been getting flaky performance at a distance from some devices. Maximum LAN speeds of 10-20 Mbps on 5 GHz when only a few meters away from the router (albeit through a wall, but I've never had this issue in the past) and then after a few reboots I'm back to 200-300 Mbps (granted this might not be related to rebooting). I'm at a loss to figure out what is going on.

What do you think? Is my 68U on its last legs? Or could it be something else?

 

[Grisu]

Additionally to this I've been getting flaky performance at a distance from some devices. Maximum LAN speeds of 10-20 Mbps on 5 GHz when only a few meters away from the router (albeit through a wall, but I've never had this issue in the past) and then after a few reboots I'm back to 200-300 Mbps (granted this might not be related to rebooting). I'm at a loss to figure out what is going on.

What do you think? Is my 68U on its last legs? Or could it be something else?

sounds like hardware failure.

Before throwing it away try with Johns fork L-version with older WiFi drivers.

 

[indark]

I will also try power cycle + clear nvram with wps button
maybe it help, maybe it wont

power off the router for 30+ sec, hold wps while powering on
wait till power led start blinking/flashing, then release.
now reconfigure from there.

 

[zerodegrekelvin]

Hi all, long time SNB reader, first time posting. So I've got an RT-AC68U, purchased 2015. Been a solid router for years, but recently been having a lot of issues with it. Long story short the 5 GHz band is having some issues - it seems when the router auto-selects (or is set manually) to use any channel from 149 or higher it becomes impossible to connect. Every device I've tried - an iPhone, a desktop with an Asus PCE-AC88, a MacBook Pro - all can't connect to the router when its using channels 149 or higher. They can see the network but upon attempting to connect will throw various errors, on iOS "the password is incorrect", on Windows "Unable to connect to the network".

The reason I want to switch to a 149 or higher channel is that 36-48 are slightly congested by my neighbours. I'm in Australia and the region on the router is set to that. I've attempted all sorts of things - I'm no newbie to networking. Done power cycling, resetting to factory settings, using Merlin, using the default ASUS firmware.

Additionally to this I've been getting flaky performance at a distance from some devices. Maximum LAN speeds of 10-20 Mbps on 5 GHz when only a few meters away from the router (albeit through a wall, but I've never had this issue in the past) and then after a few reboots I'm back to 200-300 Mbps (granted this might not be related to rebooting). I'm at a loss to figure out what is going on.

What do you think? Is my 68U on its last legs? Or could it be something else?

Since you have a MacBook Pro, you can do a wireless trace to see what is happening over the air, since you said "I'm no newbie...".
I can look at the trace.