[RT-N12 D1] Poor wireless range

[powerleakin]

I just purchased an Asus RT-N12 D1 to function as an AP while connected to my N56U which has been performing well.

However I have not had good performance with this router, in particular on range over 2 walls.

This router was meant to replace a strong performer, the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH which has been in place for 3 years but needed to be replaced as the wireless constantly dropouts out after an extended period of time and needs to be power cycled.

So, in my situation these are the rough findings on the same location & distance from my Macbook Air, with the routers swapped back to back:


Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH (on both DDWRT and stock fw, I prefer stock)
avg transfer rate of 6MB/s

Asus RT-N12 D1 (3.0.0.4.378.9479)
avg transfer rate of 3MB/s


Is this really the best this device can do? I was particularity surprised because the G300NH is a few years old and I figured the ASUS, given all the improvements with drivers and radio over the years, would at least match the older router.

I know that N56U and N66U are the ones renowned for their coverage and performance, but it is well double the price and out of my current budget. I bought this well knowing that but still expected average to above average performance.

Is this all the N12 D1 can do?

Returns are not the norm in my part of the world (at least when device is not broken or faulty) so this will have to be shelved till I find use for it elsewhere. :/

 

[praet0ri4n]

Hi,

this is a farily old thread, but I had to set up this Asus N12 D1 recently and struggled hard with the wifi as well.

The symptoms were that wireless devices, despite showing good signal strength, were dropping wifi connection in relatively close range, between rooms and walls, not more than 4-5m away. The throughput was a disaster except from within 1-2m from the router.

After experimenting with the tx power and ACK time I came to a conclusion, that the tx power setting may be wrong from the beginning. I mean the factory ddwrt setting for this router.

My build is an older one, DD-WRT v3.0-r44715 mega (11/03/20). While searching for other threads on ddwrt forums I came across similar problems on N12 and N16 routers, where users reported poor range. The only difference was, that the tx power setting for N16 is said to be in dBm, not in mW as hinted in the settings mask (range:1-1000mW). So I tried to lower the values to find out. To my surprise I came as low as to 7, or even 5, where the pings, response times and latency were great. Compared to the state before with tx power set to 100, 150 or auto, this was a huge improvement.

At the same time i started to play with ACK time which again went down from recommended 500 to a value of 7. If this is the expression of meters to the most distant device, then this setting worked the best.

The conclusion is, I think, that there might be a problem in these builds with how they interpret the tx power value, dBm or mW.

My problem with unstable wifi is gone. I got 40-60mbps transport now even being in a distant room and connections don't drop.