Today I purchased a RT-AC86U ...

[Skeptical.me]

I first purchased a RT-N66U, then a RT-AC87U, and now a RT-AC86U. I've read nothing but great reviews and many in the RMerlin forum strongly recommended it. I can't wait for it to arrive.

Any hints or tips about tweaking it for better performance is welcome ...

 

[microchip]

Better performance for what? VPN? General router performance? Something else?

 

[Skeptical.me]

Better performance for what? VPN? General router performance? Something else?

Oh. yeah. Sorry about the vague request.

Ok, 1. Better VPN Client performance.
2. Push the Wireless Bandwidth to its maximum (if possible)
3. General idea about how to maximize the use of this router (ie scripts etc ...and particularly ad blocking, if I can block ads from the router that would be fantastic))

 

[VANT]

I first purchased a RT-N66U, then a RT-AC87U, and now a RT-AC86U.

Exactly same as me

 

[Skeptical.me]

Exactly same as me

When I got the N66U I wanted to learn how to flash it. And I found that open-wrt had some issue with the wireless connection (something like that - I can't remember) and some suggested I try WRT-Merlin. So I learned about it and realized how easy it was to load into the router. I started using OpenVPN profiles and I was hooked. I love ASUS routers.

 

[doczenith1]

The generally accepted wireless settings based on feedback from this site are:

Wireless 2.4 GHz Professional
Turbo QAM - Disable (Only helps with clients that support it and there are not very many)
Airtime Fairness - Disable (causes connectivity issues for various devices, including wireless printers)
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (not an option on all models)
Explicit Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

Wireless 5 GHz Professional
Airtime Fairness - Disable
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (FWIW I got better 5 GHz speeds with MU-MIMO disabled)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

 

[Skeptical.me]

The generally accepted wireless settings based on feedback from this site are:

Wireless 2.4 GHz Professional
Turbo QAM - Disable (Only helps with clients that support it and there are not very many)
Airtime Fairness - Disable (causes connectivity issues for various devices, including wireless printers)
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (not an option on all models)
Explicit Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

Wireless 5 GHz Professional
Airtime Fairness - Disable
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (FWIW I got better 5 GHz speeds with MU-MIMO disabled)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

Excellent, thanks for taking the time to write that. I'll get that done when I set it up.

Cheers,

 

[OzarkEdge]

The generally accepted wireless settings based on feedback from this site are:

Wireless 2.4 GHz Professional
Turbo QAM - Disable (Only helps with clients that support it and there are not very many)
Airtime Fairness - Disable (causes connectivity issues for various devices, including wireless printers)
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (not an option on all models)
Explicit Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

Wireless 5 GHz Professional
Airtime Fairness - Disable
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (FWIW I got better 5 GHz speeds with MU-MIMO disabled)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

I don't have a ton of wireless clients, so I've adopted a wait and see approach to these settings.

Disabling Airtime Fairness did seem to have a direct affect on a wireless Android app finding its wired TV tuner on first try on launch, so that's been adopted.

And, I've been wondering... although simple wireless clients my not benefit, do some of these default settings assist an AiMesh wireless backhaul, router-to-router.

OE

 

[VANT]

I have default settings for wifi/professional, only i change channel for both band, and have no problem with android devices, smart tvs and other,

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have default settings for wifi/professional, only i change channel for both band, and have no problem with android devices, smart tvs and other,

So, if changing channels, then you are not using Smart Connect?

OE

 

[Grisu]

So, if changing channels, then you are not using Smart Connect?

not possible as one disables the other.

 

[VANT]

So, if changing channels, then you are not using Smart Connect?

OE

i'm not use smart connect.

 

[Skeptical.me]

I should have purchased it from Amazon, eBay is slow, still not delivered, it's almost Friday morning here in Australia. Also, thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[CriticJay]

The generally accepted wireless settings based on feedback from this site are:

Wireless 2.4 GHz Professional
Turbo QAM - Disable (Only helps with clients that support it and there are not very many)
Airtime Fairness - Disable (causes connectivity issues for various devices, including wireless printers)
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (not an option on all models)
Explicit Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

Wireless 5 GHz Professional
Airtime Fairness - Disable
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (FWIW I got better 5 GHz speeds with MU-MIMO disabled)
Universal Beamforming - Disable (non-standard, might cause compatibility issues with some clients)

I agree with your 2.4ghz suggestions but I disagree with disabling "MU-MIMO" on 5ghz.

MU-MIMO is one of the main features of wave 2 802.11ac (which is what this router is), and if you've mostly got "new-ish" devices in your household, they should perform very well with MU-MIMO enabled.

 

[doczenith1]

I agree with your 2.4ghz suggestions but I disagree with disabling "MU-MIMO" on 5ghz.

MU-MIMO is one of the main features of wave 2 802.11ac (which is what this router is), and if you've mostly got "new-ish" devices in your household, they should perform very well with MU-MIMO enabled.

Did you check the link I included in my post? MU-MIMO did not improve my speeds with my MU-MIMO capable devices.


And here is another interesting read on MU-MIMO.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/why-you-dont-need-mu-mimo.41716/

I'm not trying to tell you not to use it but I don't think it's the end all be all that the router marketing folks are making it out to be.

 

[CriticJay]

Did you check the link I included in my post? MU-MIMO did not improve my speeds with my MU-MIMO capable devices.


And here is another interesting read on MU-MIMO.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/why-you-dont-need-mu-mimo.41716/

I'm not trying to tell you not to use it but I don't think it's the end all be all that the router marketing folks are making it out to be.

Thanks for the info. I think I will try disabling MU-MIMO myself on my home setup and see how it affects my own devices.

 

[avtella]

MU-MIMO only really shows a decent benefit with Qualcomm based routers specifically the excellent QCA9984 chipset (ie Netgear R7800, Synology RT2600AC and Asus BRT AC828) and Qualcomm and Intel clients. Since this is a Broadcom based router I would disable MU-MIMO as on the Broadcom platform MU isn't very mature and may lead to worse performance in some instances.

 

[sfx2000]

I first purchased a RT-N66U, then a RT-AC87U, and now a RT-AC86U. I've read nothing but great reviews and many in the RMerlin forum strongly recommended it. I can't wait for it to arrive.

Any hints or tips about tweaking it for better performance is welcome ...

Best hint - let it settle once set up...

Other than than making the basic changes, see what works...

AC1900 class not-withstanding - a good place for AsusWRT performance tuning is actually the RT-AC68U - it's a classic these days...

Once the local LAN is settled down - give it a day or so, then perhaps start tuning things.

 

[Skeptical.me]

Will do, thanks for the advice [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[CriticJay]

MU-MIMO only really shows a decent benefit with Qualcomm based routers specifically the excellent QCA9984 chipset (ie Netgear R7800, Synology RT2600AC and Asus BRT AC828) and Qualcomm and Intel clients. Since this is a Broadcom based router I would disable MU-MIMO as on the Broadcom platform MU isn't very mature and may lead to worse performance in some instances.

Yeah, that's unfortunate. Did wave 2 bring anything else to the table, if we're all disabling MU-MIMO on our Broadcom products? Beamforming was already part of wave 1 wasn't it?