Why did I bother ?

[brianreid]

Having read a lot of forums and reviews I purchased an RT-N56U and a USB-N53.

I was really after increase in wireless as my older router was not that great and the laptop on the second floor was wireless G maximum.

I am on a 100 mb fibre service, so tested that out, seemed OK, so I came upstairs to setup the wireless USB side on the laptop. What a pain, constant dropouts after what seemed to be a random peice of luck for the utility to let me connect on a Win 7 laptop. Random yellow exclamation marks were coming and going.

Firstly what is the point of 5 GHz unless you are 5ft from the router, a total waste and bizarrely it shows less bars that 2.4 when I'm in the same room as the router and a slower speed.

Anyhow I had read a post that said the QOS with the latest stock firmware helped with, so I switched it on and left it in auto and my use nets speeds did max out at 103mb. So I stopped that and played with the wireless again, terrible really, and It looks like I get worse reception with this dongle than the laptop had previously. My wife likes to watch BBC IPlayer, so it was quite embarrising to have spouted how good all this stuff was then find out its terrible.

I put on the Padavan firmware the other night, but don't see any benefit from that either.

Having read some recent threads with people rolling back to 1.xxxxxx firmware, I may try that next. I am on Channel one as the router picked it, and looking at Ssids around me its the best choice.

How can there be so much variance between everyone, WiFi is WiFi to me, so this router is supposed to be so good, I feel really letdown by the hype that's just not here for me.

 

[wanttotree]

not for you

maybe asus is not for you. i have a rt-n56u and i do stumble a few problems. i heard the airport extreme is the most stable router in the world. But for me asus has the best performance and the best community here. Sure it has hiccups here and there earlier. Asus released the new firmware out(3.0.0.4-260). There are also the most stable beta firmware(3.0.0.4-206). For me before the new firmware was released, the best firmware for me was 1.0.1.8L. Padavan's firmware is also updated a few hours ago. Try them out. Make sure you restore the settings before you update the firmware. I hope it helps.
links,

3.0.0.4.260 = http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-N56U/FW_RT_N56U_3004260.zip

3.0.0.4-206 = https://www.dropbox.com/s/gb858i7r6kmd4nn/RT-N56U_3.0.0.4_206.trx

1.0.1.8L = http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-N56U/FW_RT_N56U_1018l.zip

Padavan's = http://rt-n56u.googlecode.com/files/RT-N56U_3.0.3.1-027_full.zip

 

[brianreid]

Thanks for the reply.

I am a little more comfortable with the router, I have the Padavan firmware on and it seems better. Edit : will try the latest one to. Thanks.

I am dissapointed in the Wireless side still, I removed ASUS wireless USB from the laptop as the connection was not great. Its working OK now, but highest that old card goes is G, but basically I think my old DIR-615 would have been fine, I thought going to Wireless N by using a new router and N wireless dongle would improve it, but obviously not. And like I said 5 GHz is a waste of time in the real world.

 

[wanttotree]

Asus USB? as in the USB-66? I am using my MacBook Pro built in dual band wifi card and its doing really well, even though i am not that happy about the range on 5ghz. not sure which end is weak, maybe both. But speed wise, im pretty much satisfied. But one thing i know for sure, the official/beta build is has slightly stronger signal. around 5-10% stronger than padavan's, at least in my case. But i chose padavan's over the official because of the respond time. Its a bit snappier, esp if i would compare download master and transmission.

On the other hand, talking about wireless G, i have another desktop hooked with the old d-link 802.11g. It does feel a little sluggish compared to 802.11n, not that its not working properly, maybe just because its simply dated. I also used to have dir-655 from d-link. Which is a supposedly a faster router than the dir-615, but having upgraded from that to rt-n56u, its almost blowing my mind when i first set it up. I hope that you're getting a compatible wireless adapter to match the router. cheers

 

[brianreid]

Yes it was the ASUS USB-N53 that I bought same time as the router.

I think I may as well have fitted a USB memory stick. The reception was worse on the Laptop with the G card. The software is not great either, it says you have 240 MBS then drops down to 10 and back up. But as I said you remove it and switch the laptop WiFi back on and it has more bars and seems to be OK.

So so much for buying matching equipment and so much for Wireless N and as I said before 5ghz is non existent upstairs.

 

[RogerSC]

Yes it was the ASUS USB-N53 that I bought same time as the router.

I think I may as well have fitted a USB memory stick. The reception was worse on the Laptop with the G card. The software is not great either, it says you have 240 MBS then drops down to 10 and back up. But as I said you remove it and switch the laptop WiFi back on and it has more bars and seems to be OK.

So so much for buying matching equipment and so much for Wireless N and as I said before 5ghz is non existent upstairs.

I do find that all of my wireless-n clients run faster than the max of 54Mb/s with wireless-g. I'm not sure why this is not the case for you? Both my android phone and iPad use wireless-n, and get higher throughput than 54Mb/s, and my laptop did as well back when I was using it wireless-ly *smile*. Now my laptop is sitting on my desk as a desktop replacement sytsem, and is hardwired to my router. And the wireless-n ethernet bridge that I have runs faster than 54Mb/s. Of course, all the client devices that I've mentioned have wireless-n built in, so maybe that's at least part of the answer.

I am sure that there are USB wireless-n adapters out there that also will run faster than 54Mb/s...you might ask for recommendations here for that, maybe open a new thread, if there isn't one already.

 

[wanttotree]

Yes it was the ASUS USB-N53 that I bought same time as the router.

I think I may as well have fitted a USB memory stick. The reception was worse on the Laptop with the G card. The software is not great either, it says you have 240 MBS then drops down to 10 and back up. But as I said you remove it and switch the laptop WiFi back on and it has more bars and seems to be OK.

So so much for buying matching equipment and so much for Wireless N and as I said before 5ghz is non existent upstairs.

not surprising on 5ghz, but may i know what your settings are? Just a reminder. Dont use bonded frequency(20/40mhz) choose either one based on your pref/situation. Use wireless-n only not mixed mode. Maybe dont use the software, try the windows zeroconf. wireless-g usually has more coverage, maybe because it uses 20mhz only. I hope u will sort it out

 

[mikeg]

I have the ASUS USB-N53 on 2 stationary PC:s and have a connection of 300Mbit/s on both of them on the 5 GHz band. Distance about 5 meters away and 2 concrete walls away from the router. I have issues with my laptop a Dell Inspiron with built in wifi and have an USB N53 hooked up to that also and get slighly higher connection than with the built in wifi ; 160 Mbit/s compared to 135 Mbits. Did you check for the latest firmware for the N53 at Asus ?

Yes it was the ASUS USB-N53 that I bought same time as the router.

I think I may as well have fitted a USB memory stick. The reception was worse on the Laptop with the G card. The software is not great either, it says you have 240 MBS then drops down to 10 and back up. But as I said you remove it and switch the laptop WiFi back on and it has more bars and seems to be OK.

So so much for buying matching equipment and so much for Wireless N and as I said before 5ghz is non existent upstairs.

 

[STSinNYC]

Brian, I have a similar setup with my laptop, RT-N56U router running Padavan version 26 firmware, and the USB-N53 dongle on my WinXP laptop (Thinkpad T60), mostly on the 5 GHz band, we live in an apartment building surrounded in all directions by 2.4 GHz networks. I also use the 5 GHz wireless band for my Blu-Ray player and AV receiver in the bedroom, about 20-25 feet away from the router and with a very thick concrete wall between. I use the extender on the dongle so that it stands upright, oriented towards the location of the router.

At that distance/with the thick wall in between, I get 85-90% signal strength through the USB-N53 to the laptop, and the Blu-Ray player reports its getting 75-80% signal strength, both very stable. If you are using your laptop at greater distances on the second floor, I think you are likely to experience a weaker signal. Where is your router located on the first floor? Is it high up, on top of a cabinet or on a high shelf, close to the ceiling?...that is where it should be in a two story home. Do you have it facing in the direction of the room upstairs where you use the laptop most often?

I was using a Netgear WNCE 2001 wireless adapter for the AV receiver for a while, but it was a weak wifi device, cut out often. I replaced it with an Asus EA-N66 adapter which is working great, strong and stable connection. You may to use that as a range extender for the second floor.

 

[fsatsil]

You sould post your settings for both the router and clients and maybe someone here could help? This article also may help http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics/30664-5-ways-to-fix-slow-80211n-speed

Wifi can be a real pain in the butt! The reason for the variance in performance is that there are so many factors that can effect wifi performance, some of which you have no control over such as what your homes walls are made from or how much outside interference there is in your area. The best you can do is make sure the things you do have control over are optimally setup.
My desktop is using the pce-n53 adapter and its one floor above and about 20ft away from the rtn56u and I can connect at 300Mbps on both the 2.4 and 5ghz bands. I usually only use the 5ghz band for my two Apple Tvs which are also about 20-20ft away and they almost always connect at full speed(65Mbps). Maybe there is a lot of interference in your area? Or possibly something is setup incorrectly?