376.49_5: loss of 40 MHz on 2.4 GHz when "Auto" channel selected.

[BitingChaos]

I don't remember it being like this in the previous release.

Firmware 376.49_5, RT-AC68U: 2.4 GHz 802.11n is only 20 MHz when I have "Auto" chosen for the channel.

If I manually set the Control Channel, then 40 MHz works fine.

5 GHz works fine in 80 MHz when set to Auto. This seems to only impact N.

One of my WiFi devices has been acting up recently. I found out it was because it was only connecting on one 20 MHz channel.

I didn't see anything mentioned like this being fixed in the 378.50 beta.

Is this happening to anyone else?

 

[Dilvish]

Seconded

Yes, I believe you've found a bug. This seems to be happening to me also.

I only recently started using the wireless capability. I got a older used notebook whose built-in wireless max is apparently limited to 801.11n on the 2.4GHz band only.

I noticed that the max speed listed for the link was 65Mbs. After poking around the internet I found that this indicated it was using 20MHz. The 2.4GHz band on my AC66U was set to AUTO. When I changed it to 40MHz, the link speed jumped to 150Mbs.

Good catch.

 

[KevTech]

Yes, I believe you've found a bug. This seems to be happening to me also.

Not a bug but by design.

If you set the 2.4 radio to auto and other networks are detected in the area it will fallback to 20Mhz per the 802.11n specification.

Really should not use 40MHz on 2.4 unless you have no other networks around you.

Edit: Questions/reasons about fallback can be found in the article link.

http://mail.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...es/31743-bye-bye-40-mhz-mode-in-24-ghz-part-1

 

[BitingChaos]

Really should not use 40MHz on 2.4 unless you have no other networks around you.

Well, then. It looks like I'm sticking with manual channel assignment.

The 2.4 GHz spectrum is so crowded around me that nothing works well on it.
At home it is dozens of networks. My stuff is just drowned out unless I force 40 MHz.

At work? I've picked up 40+ other WiFi networks and access points in the same room as me. That isn't even counting the Bluetooth devices or anything else operating around 2.4 GHz.

I have as many things as possible moved to 5 GHz, but my older stuff just doesn't work with that (unless it's really old and supports 802.11a).

My 300 Mbps 802.11n Laptop? 2.4 GHz only. My new Moto G? 2.4 GHz only. My printer? My Wii U? My little Raspberry Pi devices? My Roku? My Chromecasts? My Apple TV? They are all stuck on 2.4 GHz.

I can "be nice", stick with 20 MHz, and then suffer slow speeds and get frustrated when nothing works. I go with 40 MHz and get noticeably better connections.

I'm sure that I got 40 MHz when I left the channel set to "Auto" before. Maybe the previous version had a bug that allowed that.