Tx power adjustment on N66U - Testing?

[LarsErikOsterud]

Since you have the ability to check and test things.
Can you check what is wrong with the N66U Tx power adjustment?
Seem like it doesn't work at all.
Neither in 374 (adjustment in mW) nor in 376 (adjustments in %)

I tried the 374 (previous version) that has the Tx power settings in mW (and not % as the newest 376 firmware has). Tried all values from 1 to 100 (that's max for the N66U 2.4 GHz radio). No difference in signal strength nor temp.

To me it looks like the Tx power adjustments doesn't work at all!

 

[Adamm]

Since you have the ability to check and test things.
Can you check what is wrong with the N66U Tx power adjustment?
Seem like it doesn't work at all.
Neither in 374 (adjustment in mW) nor in 376 (adjustments in %)

I tried the 374 (previous version) that has the Tx power settings in mW (and not % as the newest 376 firmware has). Tried all values from 1 to 100 (that's max for the N66U 2.4 GHz radio). No difference in signal strength nor temp.

To me it looks like the Tx power adjustments doesn't work at all!

If you used the search feature you would find countless posts explaining the FCC's new guidelines and how it is impossible to modify this functionality as its now encrypted.

/thread

 

[LarsErikOsterud]

Why is there an interface for adjust power if it doesn't work?

I live in Norway. US FCC rules don't apply here.

And why should LOWERING the Tx power be harmful?

All other routers I have used has this posibility to reduce the power.
Reducing the power will give better condidtions for other nearby networks.

So, question is still: Why isn't reducing Tx power working?

 

[RMerlin]

Wireless driver is closed source, so anything related to it is beyond my control.

 

[LarsErikOsterud]

OK. So then it's a matter to take to Asus then?
But can you confirm that the power settings has no effect / are not working?
(if it's not working only on my router then it mst be somethng with that one)

 

[ColinTaylor]

Using Merlin's current firmware it seems to be working. I haven't tried stock firmware.

Close range:

Medium range:

All your other questions have been answered at length elsewhere in these forums.

 

[cofetym]

First time poster complaining here. Did you contact Asus first

 

[damir]

First time poster complaining here. Did you contact Asus first

complaining? simply asking questions? its what the forum is for?

 

[sinshiva]

i can confirm that the power setting does.. something, but the difference between 1% and 100% is negligible. definitely worth taking up with Asus.
.

 

[W500]

Buy European

If you want the channels and the power settings that are allowed in Europe, just buy an European product. The AVM routers give you the channels and power that you are allowed to use in European countries. Asus, linksys and so on make a mess of it.

 

[LarsErikOsterud]

I can understand they won't allow raising the power.
But reducing it should work. That shouldnt be a problem?

I have bought my RT-N66U in Norway so I hope it's a European version.
I got several other people in Norway to test on ther RT-*66* routers.
And (like the non-norwegian ones) they report that it's not working.

My two earlier D-Link routers work like they should here.
To bad their are to slow to keep up with higher speeds

 

[jonny]

a tip Lars-Erik

search the ebay or dhgate for wifi booster
have 2pci of them 5W my self

 

[speedbump]

Have you tried DD-WRT, I have been using DD-WRT on linksys wrt54g and asus rt-n16 for a very long time and found it very stable with loads of options. For the most part DD-WRT does not use the closed source drivers and allow for much more customizations, but looses hardware acceleration because of it.

Since getting rt-n66 I have been using merlin's builds as I found asus firmware buggy and limited. Then I decided to get another modern router to be able to play with firmware while having another router still working.

I was debating between the rt-ac68 and the NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900, both of them supporting DD-WRT. I chose asus because I wanted to have hardware acceleration with merlin's firmware. Once on my desk the rt-ac68 oem firmware (even with merlin's fixes) was so buggy that it sat on my desk for 2 months unused.

Merlin has done wonders for asus, Asus owes him a lot of business, since I am sure many people would not purchase their router without knowing that someone can fix their bugs ! However Merlin can only fix bugs in the open part of the firmware. If stuff is broken/turned-off in the closed part he can't do anything about it.

The Nighthawk does have faster hardware and is a bit cheaper, and now with per IP monitoring turned on the asus has hardware acceleration turned off, so I lost that benefit of hardware acceleration.

Looking back I should have just gone with the Nighthawk and loaded DD-WRT. As soon as I get a bit of time I am going to load it on the rt-n66 and test it out, if it works as well as it did for the rt-n16 the rt-ac68 will get it too. Last time I was using DD-WRT I had no issues setting power output and channels, regardless of my location.

 

[DrTeeth]

I can understand they won't allow raising the power.
But reducing it should work. That shouldnt be a problem?

I have bought my RT-N66U in Norway so I hope it's a European version.

I would not worry too much about the power. Doubling it will not make much difference and I am not too worried about not being able to lower it.

I am in the UK and my router was originally set for the EU <big spit> as the regulatory area. There is no such regulatory region for radio. There was no much difference between the 2.4GHz bands in the various regions, but I was limited to 4 channels on 5GHz, when the UK has so much more. The GB locale is broken in the modified Merlin wireless driver so I just chose another that matched the UK. However, I have totally removed all geographical restrictions but do operate according to UK regs.

 

[KGB7]

On ac68 router, changing from 80mw to 100mw, does make a small difference. I've verified it several times with a WiFi analyzer app on galaxy s4.
My laptop with Intel centrino n2230/WiFi card, also gets a slightly better speeds.



So I'm not sure what could be the issue on your router. Bad router, firmware, drivers, your region, design flaw....etc..

But since the issue has been observed on multiple routers of the same model, it could design flaw or WiFi drivers in the firmware.
Try older firmwares. Try all of them. Don't forget to do a full reset after each firmware flash.