Strange Issue - Galaxy S7 + WRT1200AC V1

[truoc]

Hello, everyone. I am currently experiencing an extremely strange issue with my Galaxy S7 phone and my WRT1200AC V1 router. I am connected on the 5GHz band and when I run a speed test I only get around 25Mbps download. The Internet that I pay for is 200Mbps down/25Mbps up. Wired devices receive the full 200Mbps down, and even other wireless devices connected to the same band (2 iPhones, iPad) receive ~170Mbps down. It seems to be an issue only with my S7 phone and the WRT1200AC. I tested another router (TP-Link Archer C7) with the same settings and the S7 phone gets the full ~170Mbps down. This is why I am baffled. Anyone have any ideas on why this would be happening? I have rebooted both the router and the phone several times, readded the wifi network on the phone and even factory reset the router and the same issue persists. I know the Archer C7 is probably the better device and I should use that anyway, but I use a Linksys switch and I like to stay with the same manufacturer on all of my gear (I'm weird like that) if possible. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

 

[TheManFromUncle]

Have you tried changing any firmware settings on the router?

 

[truoc]

Have you tried changing any firmware settings on the router?

Yeah I've tried changing a few things that Linksys support has told me to change such as changing the channel on the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, making sure media prioritization is off, turning off bluetooth and a few other settings on my S7 and nothing has helped. I still get 25mbps download on the 5GHz band with the Linksys router, but can plug in an Apple Airport Extreme or a TP-Link Archer C7 and get the full 200Mbps my ISP provides. It is the strangest thing. I think I have a Level 2 Linksys tech calling me later today to discuss this, but I'm not sure what can really be done. Just really weird.

 

[sfx2000]

Odd - the only suggestion I can offer is set the 2.4GHz radio to b/g/n mixed and 20MHz channels, which tends to clean things up in the b/g/n band...

For 5GHz, set it to auto, and try setting the channel to 149...

(the marvell driver in factory firmware advertises MU in the VHT element, even though it's not a MU device - and the S7, if I recall, is MU client capable, so this might be an interop issue that I was expecting a couple of years ago when I first noticed it in packet captures..)

 

[sfx2000]

One other thing - for testing purposes, ensure that the 5GHz SSID is different than the 2.4GHz SSID -

with the settings I mention above (b/g/n mixed, not auto, b/g/n mixed will disable MU) - test both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and see if there's a difference there.

can also try this in the 5GHz radio by setting the radio there to N only (or A/N mixed)...

Test and report back...

 

[truoc]

One other thing - for testing purposes, ensure that the 5GHz SSID is different than the 2.4GHz SSID -

with the settings I mention above (b/g/n mixed, not auto, b/g/n mixed will disable MU) - test both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and see if there's a difference there.

can also try this in the 5GHz radio by setting the radio there to N only (or A/N mixed)...

Test and report back...

Thanks for the suggestions. I wanted to report back that I received a call from a Level II support tech today and we got the issue solved. I contacted thier support on Twitter @LinksysCares on 12/20 to report the issue I was having with the router and the S7. We went back and forth for a little while trying different things on both the router and the S7 to no avail. During this time I made sure to check and see if there was a firmware update available in case that might be the easy fix, but there was not at the time. When I received the call today 12/28 the tech had me check a few settings and noticed there was a new firmware update available on the website (I previously checked both via the web interface and the website). It was dated released on 12/21. He had me download it and flash the router to the new firmware. After I did this the S7 works just as it should along with all my other devices. I'm not sure if me contacting support had anything to do with them looking into the issue further and deciding to release a new firmware version or if it was just luck that one got released, but either way it resolved my issue. The release notes are as follows:


Firmware version: 1.0.5.177401
Release date: December 21, 2016

- Wireless driver updated to drv_7.2.9.2.p9_fw_7.2.9.26
- Integrated security fixes
- Added an opt-in box for reliability data collection

Hopefully this thread can help someone else out that may be experiencing a similar issue because it was driving me nuts not being able to figure out what the problem was. Thanks for the help!

 

[sfx2000]

Sounds good...