2.4GHZ speeds are brutally slow

[Parafly]

Hey guys,
I just picked up a new Asus AC66R router to replace my older Linksys WRT610N (same as the Cisco E3000, I think). It's connected to a SB6141 modem, I think.


Anyway. I put a custom firmware build on the Asus (Merlin), the most recent one as of a few days ago. My ISP is charter and I have a 30 down / 5 up package.


I have about 20 or so client devices in the house. 2 laptops, 2 phones, a tablet, 2 chromecasts, a desktop, a ps3, ps4, a roku, a wifi TV, 2 nest thermostats, 3 ip cameras, a sonos system, and a Synology NAS.


I've noticed extreme lag on the internet and with my IP cameras recently and I've run some speed tests. I'm noticing that when I'm connected to the 5ghz network, I'm getting my advertised speeds - 30 down and 5 up. When I'm on the 2.4ghz band though, I'm only getting maybe 2 - 3 down and 4 or so up.


I don't think there is much interference. I have no home phones and the router is located in a closet - same spot as the older Linksys router was.


This was a refurb - is it possible it's just an issue with the 2.4ghz band? Or is there something else I should check?

I should also add, I have channels set to autoselect. I'm on a home in a 3 acre plot of land so at the perimeters of my house I might just barely pick up my neighbors wifi but there isn't any other real competing wifi networks in the area, I checked using the android app Wifi Analyzer.

Even LAN over 2.4ghz is slow, I tested with my NAS Tester to my Synology some file copies.

A day ago I had QOS setup but I turned it off to see if that was contributing to the slow speeds as well.

It seems sporadic, but I haven't tested continuously until this morning. Any ideas?

 

[Parafly]

I should add. I ran NAS Performance tester with my synology to remove the internet from the equation. Test is 100MB file w/ 3 loops. The NIC in my test laptop is an N - adapter.

With Ethernet, I'm getting about 60 write and 70 read from my NAS from my desktop.

With 5GHZ, I'm getting about 11 write and 13 read

With 2.4ghz, I'm getting about 5.5 write and 11 read.

 

[Parafly]

Just a follow-up, just got home from being out this morning and everything seems to be running fine again.

A note: I was using the real time monitor on the Asus while doing the tests below and nothing else significant was running. I do have some backups that go up to Glacier and FTP site backups that automate every night but I verified before my testing that nothing was running on the network that would saturate it so much.

 

[Ford Prefect]

...what is your expected range/performance then?
What about your old setup...was it any better?

..honestly, a test with a 100MB file over ethernet and 60/70 (i gather that's MBytes/sec)
and a synology on the other side of the stream is a bad result already.

 

[Parafly]

...what is your expected range/performance then?
What about your old setup...was it any better?

..honestly, a test with a 100MB file over ethernet and 60/70 (i gather that's MBytes/sec)
and a synology on the other side of the stream is a bad result already.

I can't recall what I'm getting. I have Cat6 from my desktop to my router, and then cat6 from the router to the synology. Synology has 2 WD Red 3tb drives in it.

I think the benchmark performance on the synology is about 80 - 100 so it is a bit slow for some reason. not sure why exactly.

STill it's manageable and it works. The major problem I'm having is that the 2.4ghz wireless band slows on occasion. It's working OK now but it slows to 1 - 2 MB/s and when that happens, my laptops can't browse the internet almost at all and all my wireless cams shirt the bed, which is the biggest issue because 2 of them are used as baby monitors in my kids rooms.

 

[Parafly]

PS the NAS speed seems OK,

..." advertised read speed of 110 MB/s and 54 MB/s write when configured in RAID 1"

So I guess I need to look at the read speeds for some reason but it's not like it's crazy off.

Also I realize this is a stupid newb kind aquestion but I just realized I didn't fully appreciate the difference between MB and Mb. 802.11N is ~300 Mb/s which is only 37.5MB/s so the Cat6 cable is obviously already significantly faster than that.

And my internet speed which is 30Mb/s actually only translates to 3.75MB/s, I guess. Lol.

Learning every day!

 

[Ford Prefect]

...I don't have that many clients connected concurrently on 2.4GHz.
My best guess is that something in the settings is preventing the ASUS from serving
all guests equally (as I presume this has been the case with your former linksys model).
Maybe the defaults are not suitable for you.

I'd turn to 20MHz bandwidth ... and -maybe- try and disable beamforming?

 

[Parafly]

No, the thing is with my old Linksys wrt610n I never had this issue at all. They were rock solid. I'm still wondering if it's just a bad unit, as a result of it being a refurb....

I'll give the bandwidth a try. I left everything as default.

 

[Ford Prefect]

...sorry, english is not my native tongue.
I presmue that your setup with the linksys was performing OK, which you just confirmed.

Yes, MBytes/sec and Mbit/sec is a difference by factor of 10 and "WLAN-cable" is performing at a factor lot less than taht of wired ethernet.
So 300Mbit WLAN equals 50-100Mbit ethernet...roughly, I'd say

 

[Ford Prefect]

...a refurb? ..not just an "open package"?
I don't even expect someone to refurb anything by working with a soldering iron on the unit...a replacement would be much cheaper economically (not ecologically, whih is sad enough).

But maybe this is a reason for the cause...are you able to return/RMA/exchange it?

 

[Parafly]

That's what I'm checking. It was a refurbished unit from Newegg. I'd rather just RMA it now and see if a new unit solves my issues.