RT-N66U weaker signal than my Airport Extreme

[jerrylundergard]

I was very disapointed to find out my brand new RT-N66U signal coverage was worse than my AE. Was really wanting to drop Apple completely and the Asus router plays far better with xbox live.

Anyhow, I have firmware 260 on it but its not able to penetrate the concrete walls of my house to the far corners of the bedrooms. House is not big 1600sf and the router to dead zone is only ~20-30 feet through 2 walls that have big doors for signal to pass through.

The apple reachs all corners of my house and when I called ASUS support to ask for tips they basically said "oh concrete walls, you shoulda left well enough alone, Id just return it". LOL, freaking sucks If I have to be stuck with this apple even though it has good signal cause I have to hardwire my modem to xbox to avoid lag issues created with xbox live not cooperating well with AE.

If anyone has any last thoughts about how to increase performance before I send back to newegg it would be appreciated. Id even be open to turning the apple into a AP or buying a second asus wireless transmitter if those actually work. Just scared to throw away more money on asus signal extenders and another loosing cause here.

Again, Im suprised ASUS would get trounced that hard in signal dept. vs this apple...

 

[jerrylundergard]

Update...

And thanks for all the ideas guys! lol

So I decided to pull out the rt-n66u and give it one last shot before sending back. I was planing on setup up some kinda access point or something. Ill just say those antenas are highly positional as for what the signal strength is in the far corners of my house. After placing the router on the stand and moving the antenas forward closer to the hallway entrance, I got decent signal in all corners of house.

I can now say this has about the same signal strength as the AE. It just threw me off cause the AE was in exact same location and has no antennas. I didnt figure the position of those antenas could make that much of a difference...

 

[nackerton]

Wifi transmit power could also be increased in these situations, I don't remember if stock firmware has that setting though.

 

[mikeg]

The default value of the TX-setting is 80 mW and if you start to icrease this value you could end in a worse situation because of signal distortion and that
you have to keep in mind that the pc or other unit connected to the router does
not get stronger signal back to the unit. I have read that Asus has a recommendation of max 120 mW. Use inSSIDer to see how the signal strength
looks on a pc , with a lot of drops and dips in the inSSIDer you will have to adjust the value down. The stock firmare has this setting under Professional settings in Wireless for both bands. I tried to adjust the value but it was not worth the bother - I stick with the default value.

Wifi transmit power could also be increased in these situations, I don't remember if stock firmware has that setting though.

 

[dannytill]

You could try one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Asus-WL-ANT-157-Antenna/dp/B005UBNJ48/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359556262&sr=8-2&keywords=asus+antenna
and aim it the direction you need it. Should give you increased signal strength.

 

[ChrisR]

During tests of the RT-N66U, it could make a big difference if you change directions of the antenna's.

You also could try to change firmware to latest asus version 270 or use Merlin's FW, as 260 seem to have some issues with the wireless driver...