Lag issues in-game with 5Ghz RT-AC87U

[TurboFreak68]

I´m not sure where the problem is but guess it have to do with Quentenna drivers or my wifi client. This problem with lag only appear on 5Ghz wifi never on 2.4Ghz wifi.

I play a lot of games online (FPS/MMO) like BF 3/4, CounterStrike - GO, WoT (World of Tanks), WoW (World of Warcraft) so connection is very important.

So whenever I start playing and is on the 5Ghz wifi network my ping runs up to 999 ms after couple of minutes and after 2 seconds back to normal 30-40 ms (rinse & repeat).

I have tried different FW from RMerlin now running the latest one now 378.50_0.

Anyone that can provide any idea how to solve this or what I should try/test is gladly welcome.

 

[tsunami2311]

if connection is important why are you using Wifi for gaming? wired connection only way to go when gaming to many thing can and will interfere with wifi and 2ghz does not use the same band as 5ghz so something is interfering with 5ghz signal

 

[Deleted member 22229]

if connection is important why are you using Wifi for gaming? wired connection only way to go when gaming to many thing can and will interfere with wifi and 2ghz does not use the same band as 5ghz so something is interfering with 5ghz signal

Not always the 87U's 5 Ghz radio is not stable when i had mine it would just shut down and stop transmitting requiring a reboot to get things going again. This issue may have been fixed with 50 final but certainly was present in the beta builds.

 

[Rankdropper84]

Have you installed something like "wifi analyzer" for android to check if there is any of 5g routers around? Have you tried pinging your router constantly for a period of time from another 5G computer? Maybe try raising your 5G band to its max channel and see if that helps.

Outside of that if you don't lag on the 2.4 band then why not just use it? How fast is your internet connection from your ISP? Just remember link speed and actual speed are two different things.

 

[Rankdropper84]

Not always the 87U's 5 Ghz radio is not stable when i had mine it would just shut down and stop transmitting requiring a reboot to get things going again. This issue may have been fixed with 50 final but certainly was present in the beta builds.

Have you had the same 5GHZ band dropout problem on stock Asus firmware?

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Have you had the same 5GHZ band dropout problem on stock Asus firmware?

I cant answer that i never used Asus stock firmware only Merlin because it always works better. But from what i have read in multiple forums and web research shows i was not alone. Don't get me wrong the 87U will someday probably be a great router but i just don't have the time to wait for that day i needed something that works now.

 

[Rankdropper84]

I cant answer that i never used Asus stock firmware only Merlin because it always works better. But from what i have read in multiple forums and web research shows i was not alone. Don't get me wrong the 87U will someday probably be a great router but i just don't have the time to wait for that day i needed something that works now.

How can you blankly say Merlins firmware is better without ever having tried the stock firmware? Care to site some sources for those comments you are making? I'd wager that of the sources you even could cite most would be dated by now. I just don't think its fair to tell others that merlins firmware is the best firmware you can get and that merlins firmware "always works better" than Asus' stock firmware when you identify yourself as not the most techie person. I feel like that'd be like someone telling me my FTP server is unsecure because of some article they read awhile back about how Asus routers are vulnerable on port 21.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

How can you blankly say Merlins firmware is better without ever having tried the stock firmware? Care to site some sources for those comments you are making? I'd wager that of the sources you even could cite most would be dated by now. I just don't think its fair to tell others that merlins firmware is the best firmware you can get and that merlins firmware "always works better" than Asus' stock firmware when you identify yourself as not the most techie person. I feel like that'd be like someone telling me my FTP server is unsecure because of some article they read awhile back about how Asus routers are vulnerable on port 21.

I have owned the RT-N66U,RT-AC66U,RT-AC68U and RT-AC87U so i know all about Asus vs Merlin. Hey take it for what it is, my posts are from my personal set up and experience. YMMV.

 

[Rankdropper84]

I have owned the RT-N66U,RT-AC66U,RT-AC68U and RT-AC87U so i know all about Asus vs Merlin. Hey take it for what it is, my posts are from my personal set up and experience. YMMV.

I really hope we can keep this debate civil, although I should probably tell myself that mainly lol

Just because you owned those routers doesn't mean you know everything about them. I have owned an AC66R and a AC68U although i regularly maintain my old AC66R (parents now) and mine and my wifes fathers AC68U. That doesn't mean much though in the greater realm of things.

If I told you that my parents AC66R suffered from frequent disconnects a day and would slow to a hault until manually reset which really wasn't a problem seeing as how it would go about a week before destroying DL speeds and a reset fixed it instantly other than my parents barely understand how to go to google let alone have the smarts to understand when to reset the router. Point being After I uploaded the stock Asus firmware to it all the problems went away.

I feel for the average person the stock Asus firmware is there better bet kind of how like the stable channel on a chromebook is better suited for elderly/non techies and where the beta channel (merlin) is reserved for those who want cutting edge or a feature that isn't available on the stable channel.

Lastly since this comment was the one that got to me the most. The one where you said "so i know all about Asus vs Merlin" yet you say you refuse to run Asus' firmware because of what others have said online in reguards to merlin vs stock. I just feel if you are going to go around telling people one is better than another by and large you better be sure of it. I am not trying to start a fight, if i even am coming across as trying to ( I have aspergers which makes me come across in ways I don't mean to) I am just trying to get a better picture of the why and the how because maybe Asus' firmware might just be the better choice for certain people.

With that said I would love for Merlin or someone to come in here and tell me exactly why Merlins is better than Asus' firmware or vice versa without the reasoning for there belief was the comments of others on the forums.

 

[tsunami2311]

Irrelevant, Wifi is to easily interfered with as every thing is wifi these days , there for there are many signal that can and will interfere with signals, if connection is important, you dont use wifi.

No such thing as perfect wifi signal and there never will be.

Neither asus and merlin firmware or any wifi for that mater is immune to interference.

Its as simple as the OP has something in the area interfering with his connection.

Wifi imo is only good for web surfing/streaming, anything this else i avoid it for. and for good reason

 

[Rankdropper84]

Irrelevant, Wifi is to easily interfered with as every thing is wifi these days , there for there are many signal that can and will interfere with signals, if connection is important, you dont use wifi.

No such thing as perfect wifi signal and there never will be.

Neither asus and merlin firmware or any wifi for that mater is immune to interference.

Its as simple as the OP has something in the area interfering with his connection.

Wifi imo is only good for web surfing/streaming, anything this else i avoid it for. and for good reason

While i agree to a certain extent I don't think you can say for certain it is wireless interference because if that were so wouldn't his 2.4 GHZ band be the most susceptible to interference since most wireless home phones and what not operate on that band. Not to say it isn't interference though, I just feel that even if the OP had by some chance multiple devices operating on the 5ghz spectrum that the interference would be minimal especially compared to the crowded 2.4 band considering the wide range of channels supported. I also don't think the 5ghz band is terrible for doing normal everyday things compared a standard gigabit connection depending on the circumstances. I use the 5ghz band on my nexus 6 which has a link speed of 866Mbps at most and it works perfect for copying files to my server at fast speeds. Outside of using the 5ghz band for file transfer kind of stuff I think the 2.4 ghz band is equally as good if not better for most people, that is unless you are gifted with blazing fast internet lol

The question that I should have asked is how far away is the machine compared to your router? Is the router to machine a clear shot or is there a wall or two separating them? 5ghz band suffers greatly over distance and even more so when trying to penetrate through barriers like walls. Have you checked the link speed of your machine when it is connected to the 5ghz band? That might be a good way to check how much the signal is degrading.

If the machine is fairly far away or doesn't have a clear line of sight I would think manually setting your 5ghz band to a lower channel like 44 or so might provide a better connection. You could also try disabling WMM APSD in the wireless/professional setting of your routers webpage. Although fair warning, I don't see it having any bad ramifications but I can't say it won't. Maybe someone else can chime in.

If you have an android phone that is 5ghz capable I would download "wifi analyzer" to scan the area for interference and check signal strength. I have heard windows has an "app" called inSSIDer which is the same thing wifi analyzer would do.

 

[hasuboy]

I´m not sure where the problem is but guess it have to do with Quentenna drivers or my wifi client. This problem with lag only appear on 5Ghz wifi never on 2.4Ghz wifi.

I play a lot of games online (FPS/MMO) like BF 3/4, CounterStrike - GO, WoT (World of Tanks), WoW (World of Warcraft) so connection is very important.

So whenever I start playing and is on the 5Ghz wifi network my ping runs up to 999 ms after couple of minutes and after 2 seconds back to normal 30-40 ms (rinse & repeat).

I have tried different FW from RMerlin now running the latest one now 378.50_0.

Anyone that can provide any idea how to solve this or what I should try/test is gladly welcome.

i also have similar problem, but not exactly the same. sometimes i use my iphone6 plus to play some games, once the ping delay increased, that almost never return, just like totally lost internet connection. now if i turn off/on wifi switch on my phone, the internet will return to normal.

I still think this problem is caused by Quantenna firmware/driver. i noticed something, my iphone6 which are in sleep mode, will frequently disconnect and reconnect back to the network. I noticed this when i look at the system log with many of such lines appearing "dnsmasq-dhcp[1695]: DHCPREQUEST(br0) 192.168.0.124".

i tried to use a android phone which connect to 87u 5Ghz band, the result is connected to more than 10+ hours and no disconnect. at the same time i tried to use my iphone6 which connect to 68u 5Ghz band, the connection is still very stable.

i can only think of is Quantenna problem, or that's compatible problem with apple products.

 

[TurboFreak68]

if connection is important why are you using Wifi for gaming? wired connection only way to go when gaming to many thing can and will interfere with wifi and 2ghz does not use the same band as 5ghz so something is interfering with 5ghz signal

I forgot to mention that I had a ASUS RT-AC66U before and did game (all the games I mentioned) in 5Ghz wifi without any problem and ran RMerlin FW v.376.45_0 with the same computer and still on the same spot as before.


I have no problem at all with downloading/streaming videos and so on, only gaming have this strange lag.

My ISP is Telia and I have fiber 100/100, have also checked with that "Site Survey" in the router and can only find other 2.4Ghz wifi networks.

I attach some pics on my tests with downloading, ping etc..

 

[Rankdropper84]

I forgot to mention that I had a ASUS RT-AC66U before and did game (all the games I mentioned) in 5Ghz wifi without any problem and ran RMerlin FW v.376.45_0 with the same computer and still on the same spot as before.


I have no problem at all with downloading/streaming videos and so on, only gaming have this strange lag.

My ISP is Telia and I have fiber 100/100, have also checked with that "Site Survey" in the router and can only find other 2.4Ghz wifi networks.

I attach some pics on my tests with downloading, ping etc..

How far away is your router from your PC? Also what is the link speed of the PC when connected to the 5ghz band?

 

[saytr79]

I have owned the RT-N66U,RT-AC66U,RT-AC68U and RT-AC87U so i know all about Asus vs Merlin. Hey take it for what it is, my posts are from my personal set up and experience. YMMV.

This has also been my experience minus the AC68U (never owned one). I don't think Merlin needs to explain to anyone why his firmware is better than another.

I´m not sure where the problem is but guess it have to do with Quentenna drivers or my wifi client. This problem with lag only appear on 5Ghz wifi never on 2.4Ghz wifi.

I play a lot of games online (FPS/MMO) like BF 3/4, CounterStrike - GO, WoT (World of Tanks), WoW (World of Warcraft) so connection is very important.

So whenever I start playing and is on the 5Ghz wifi network my ping runs up to 999 ms after couple of minutes and after 2 seconds back to normal 30-40 ms (rinse & repeat).

I have tried different FW from RMerlin now running the latest one now 378.50_0.

Anyone that can provide any idea how to solve this or what I should try/test is gladly welcome.

I assume you've tested gaming with a hard wired connection to rule out the many other potential issues that could be causing the "lag" ?

 

[Rankdropper84]

This has also been my experience minus the AC68U (never owned one). I don't think Merlin needs to explain to anyone why his firmware is better than another.




I assume you've tested gaming with a hard wired connection to rule out the many other potential issues that could be causing the "lag" ?

I won't even waste my time with you other than pointing out that the steps to figure out the OPs problem have already been laid out to him.

 

[saytr79]

I won't even waste my time with you other than pointing out that the steps to figure out the OPs problem have already been laid out to him.

^ Time already wasted ?

@OP

Let us know if you were able to resolve or narrow down your issue, i'm curious to know what the problem was / is.

 

[TurboFreak68]

How far away is your router from your PC? Also what is the link speed of the PC when connected to the 5ghz band?

I would say like 5-6 meters, my PC is in the bedroom and the router in my living room. The link speed is 450 Mbps and signal strength 3/5

I putted a pic in my reply before this.

 

[Rankdropper84]

I would say like 5-6 meters, my PC is in the bedroom and the router in my living room. The link speed is 450 Mbps and signal strength 3/5

I putted a pic in my reply before this.

Sounds like it is probably in part due to the distance. Have you tried pinging your router from your pc? Open a command prompt and copy and paste this minus the parentheses "ping -t -l 1500 192.168.1.1" and let it run for like 5 minutes or until you get a couple of those latency spikes. Depending how badly you want to use the 5G band you can try different settings and test them to see what/if anything helps the most. I will go on record saying that if you lock the 5Ghz WiFi channel to something lower like 36-44 and set the bandwidth to 20mhz that I would imagine it would help.

 

[tsunami2311]

Just cause 2ghz is more widely used dont mean 5ghz is gona be clearer, Anything that transmits data wireless can and will interfere with wifi, plain and simple. farther the signal has to go the easier it is to interfere with. Your cell phone, radio signals, remote controls all of it can and will interfere with it.

Simply put it the problem is still there when wired then probably router issue, but if it is not it simple wifi issue, cause by some interference.

For years i used Wireless mouse and keyboard with the receiver less then 6 inchs from both the mouse and kb, kept tell my self i dont see difference between wired and wireless, until i switch back to wired and low and behold i saw huge difference.

I can also do either Wired or Wireless on my pc and it is about 3 feet from the router. and there is difference between wired ping/ms and wireless ping/ms that is noticeable speed might be identical but ping are not, not to mention the random ping spikes wireless gets from random interference which even more noticeable in multi player games/mmo

There will never be wireless option that CANT be interfered with. or is better then wired at lest not with current tech. and even then i doubt it.


Streaming stuff dont care about your ping times it just cares if the data keeps flowing and acceptable speeds. 1 could have 1000mbit connection and have zero issue with streaming but if they have 500ms ping (example) said MMO/ Mulitplayer games will play like trash.


To each his own but wireless is not good idea for gaming which why most use wired still. But if you have no choice in the matter, and have to use wifi, then you have no choice in the matter that wifi will always have chance to be interfered with play having with your ping. which is what is happen.