WiFi Performance

[ChrisUK]

Hi guys,

New on here after purchasing a RT-N66U.

I've not long recently upgraded to Unlimited Plusnet Fiber BB & found that the wireless signal in the room next to my living room (where the original Plusnet Router was situated) dropped around 50%.

After playing with the settings, channels, site survey etc, I gave up on the standard router & purchased a N66U - as I heared that the wireless signal was meant to me amazing on these.

I've flashed it with RT-N66U_3.0.0.4_376.47_0 & set it all up etc. I've performed a few tests today & found that the wireless signal (both 2.4 GHz & 5GHz is also terrible in the next room - in fact, the speed has dropped around 70% with this router & almost 95% in the far corner (not talking about a massive house here - plus its a new build, so only fairly thin walls).

It's actually that bad with this new router, that my Sonos player can't even pick up the wireless signal, although it could on the other standard router.

Is there anything I'm doing wrong or need to change ? I've turned off smart QoS, but as I'm new to this router & firmware, I'm not sure if I'm missing something obvious.

NB: Channel is set to auto & is correctly picking 6 (there is a channel 11 & channel 1 router within pickup range).

Thanks
Chris

 

[amigohd]

I had similar wifi problems with my RT-N66U as well since some merlin asuswrt releases (never tried stock firmware).
I just deactivated eth1 (2.4GHz) as I am just using the 5GHz one (eth2). No more problems since then performance, range and stability of wifi is excellent.

I deactivated eth1 completly by script after boot with "ifconfig eth1 down".
It's worth a try for you I guess.

 

[ChrisUK]

I'm running stock now to test it & its still the same.

Wired/5GHz is good (although wifi range is still not any better than my ISP stock router) - but 2.4ghz is terrible.

I can't disable that either as my laptop doesn't pick up the 5GHz wifi signal - only the 2.4 Ghz signal.

Quick google & its the only one my wifi card can pick up (which has surprised me in a 2013 i7 laptop !).

I'm contemplating using my stock router again & putting the N66U back on the market

Gutted really after all the hype I've read about it.

 

[ColinTaylor]

As an experiment I would suggest that you install firmware version 374.43, do a factory reset and then set Wireless > Professional > Tx power adjustment to 100mW.

The wireless driver changed after 374.43 so that might have had some effect. Remember to delete and recreate any wireless profiles on your devices after changing firmware versions.

Also, see the sticky: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12825

 

[Deleted member 22229]

As stated Asus has lowered the output power in all there new builds this is also present in all the new 376.xxx Merlin builds. John makes a Merlin Fork from the 374.43_2 firmware that has all the security fixes of the new builds it works great with the N66.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=18914

 

[ChrisUK]

Thanks for the input guys.

I've installed the Merlin Fork as above, performed a factory re-set, re-set my network profiles & also changed the power.

It does indeed increase the signal strength slightly (although sitting next to the router, I'm still not getting full signal).

But my 65mb down speeds have been reduced to 5-13mb. Wired is fine (getting on average 63 down 18 up), but 2.4GHz wifi is terrible.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Thanks for the input guys.

I've installed the Merlin Fork as above, performed a factory re-set, re-set my network profiles & also changed the power.

It does indeed increase the signal strength slightly (although sitting next to the router, I'm still not getting full signal).

But my 65mb down speeds have been reduced to 5-13mb. Wired is fine (getting on average 63 down 18 up), but 2.4GHz wifi is terrible.

You may have a hardware issues there because on my N66 using the Merlin Fork 5Ghz band i can get full signal even 20 ft from the router and full coverage across my whole house. To bad you dont have the AC68U there is a way to really make that one crank as far as signal.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=19262

 

[ChrisUK]

You may have a hardware issues there because on my N66 using the Merlin Fork 5Ghz band i can get full signal even 20 ft from the router and full coverage across my whole house. To bad you dont have the AC68U there is a way to really make that one crank as far as signal.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=19262

Only bought it today, eBay job, everyone raves about them so I thought I'd give it a go

Any other settings need changing or am I on a wild goose chase now ?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sounds like a duff router. That close to the router you should be getting maximum signal strength irrespective of any settings.

Try using something like InSSIDer or Wifi Analyzer to see if the signal really is that low. Do you have anything else that might be interfering with it, cordless phones, baby monitors, TV senders, portable nuclear reactor, etc?

My ancient laptop gets a "very good" signal 20ft away in the next room. Download speed is 70Mbps.

 

[RMerlin]

Make sure you don't reuse the SSID of your old router, or your clients might be using some invalid settings. Either delete the wireless profile from clients, or just use a completely new SSID to rule out that problem.

Also make sure wifi is disabled on your other router (if it's still powered on) to avoid strong interference.

 

[ChrisUK]

Sounds like a duff router. That close to the router you should be getting maximum signal strength irrespective of any settings.

Try using something like InSSIDer or Wifi Analyzer to see if the signal really is that low. Do you have anything else that might be interfering with it, cordless phones, baby monitors, TV senders, portable nuclear reactor, etc?

My ancient laptop gets a "very good" signal 20ft away in the next room. Download speed is 70Mbps.

It's on the other side of the room from all other electrical equipment & I don't have anything wireless other than a wireless burglar alarm, not sure on its frequency though.

I cant say it would be anything though as the old router gets over 60mb download on WiFi in the same spot.

 

[ChrisUK]

Make sure you don't reuse the SSID of your old router, or your clients might be using some invalid settings. Either delete the wireless profile from clients, or just use a completely new SSID to rule out that problem.

Also make sure wifi is disabled on your other router (if it's still powered on) to avoid strong interference.

Hi mate,

Thats one of the things I did after reading your sticky - it made no difference.

Old router is not powered on, this was meant to replace it.....

 

[ChrisUK]

One quick question before I throw it out of the window...

Would it really be a Hardware problem if the signal at 5GHz is brilliant, giving me good upload/downloads ?

I cant test it on the Laptop (it cant pick up 5Ghz signals), but the iphone is showing 53mb/18mb - I could never get that on the 2.4GHz signal on the old router, maxxed out at 40mb on the iphone.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

One quick question before I throw it out of the window...

Would it really be a Hardware problem if the signal at 5GHz is brilliant, giving me good upload/downloads ?

I cant test it on the Laptop (it cant pick up 5Ghz signals), but the iphone is showing 53mb/18mb - I could never get that on the 2.4GHz signal on the old router, maxxed out at 40mb on the iphone.

No probably not but you said your 5G signal was low even right next to the router. I also dont think a iphone is the best way to check your speeds. Do you or can you get a computer that has 5ghz access ? If not you could pick up a usb wifi duel band adapter and plug that in and configure just make sure its N900 for max signal and speeds.

You could try another factory reset and only change these settings and test. Set the 5Ghz band to N only, set it to 40mhz only then set it to channel 157 or 161 set TX power to 120 mw and test again.

 

[ChrisUK]

Swapped back out to stock to make sure its not my PC/environment etc - speed back to 61mb down. Max from the Asus was 27mb

 

[ChrisUK]

No probably not but you said your 5G signal was low even right next to the router. I also dont think a iphone is the best way to check your speeds. Do you or can you get a computer that has 5ghz access ? If not you could pick up a usb wifi duel band adapter and plug that in and configure just make sure its N900.

You could try another factory reset and only change these settings and test. Set the 5Ghz band to N only then set it to channel 157 or 161 set TX power to 120 mw and test again.

It was just for a quick comparison mate - it was the 2.4GHz signal which was low, even right next to the router (when I say low, it was 4/5 bars, when I would have expected 5/5).

To be honest, its the speed of the 2.4GHz signal which is the major concern for me.

27mb vs 61mb of the stock router. The 5GH'z signal is just a bonus, I need to sort the 2.4GHz signal as a priority.

Thanks again

 

[Deleted member 22229]

It was just for a quick comparison mate - it was the 2.4GHz signal which was low, even right next to the router (when I say low, it was 4/5 bars, when I would have expected 5/5).

To be honest, its the speed of the 2.4GHz signal which is the major concern for me.

27mb vs 61mb of the stock router. The 5GH'z signal is just a bonus, I need to sort the 2.4GHz signal as a priority.

Thanks again

OK i understand. I dont use the 2.4 Ghz band here it is so crowded with other AP's it just is not stable for me no matter what settings i use. Still you should have full signal on 2.4 Ghz right next to the router.

 

[john9527]

I'm not sure what you may tried, but a couple of settings you may want to test.

Wireless mode = Auto
Optimize for Xbox = try both checked and unchecked
b/g protection = unchecked

 

[ChrisUK]

I'm not sure what you may tried, but a couple of settings you may want to test.

Wireless mode = Auto
Optimize for Xbox = try both checked and unchecked
b/g protection = unchecked

Tried all those earlier bar the Xbox one being checked.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Perhaps it's overheating. What temperature do you have shown at Administration > Performance tuning? I get 54 degrees C (I have 5GHz turned off BTW)

How about System Log > Wireless Log?

SSID: "Enterprise"
RSSI: 0 dBm	SNR: 0 dB	noise: -82 dBm	Channel: 1l
BSSID: BC:EE:7B:C3:78:A8	Capability: ESS ShortSlot 
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
	Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 3 40MHz (0x1803)
	Primary channel: 1
	HT Capabilities: 
	Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 32 ]

Mode	: AP Only