AC68U weak range

[sbacct]

When I first set up the AC68U 2 days ago and changed the 2.4Ghz channel to 1, the router was a huge improvement. 2 Firesticks (1 in a different room, same floor and 1 on the next floor up above) were both showing a "very good" signal with 2.4 Ghz (and streaming was actually confirmed as significantly improved - super smooth where it would normally skip with older router).

I decided to try to move the router closer to the firestick (located on same floor) to take advantage of the 5ghz connection. That did not work out so well for the rest of the house, but when I moved it back to the initial location and settings, all of my connections are terrible now. Both firesticks are now showing "marginal" signal on this router. This router is now worse than my Asus RT-N66R (which is at least showing "good" as opposed to "marginal"). I tried to reset to default settings and start again, but same issue. When I pull up the "view list" for connected "clients", both firesticks are shown as 3 bars (out of a total 4).

I dont know what to do. Is this just a bad router? It went from a beast to complete garbage in just 1 day. can someone help me diagnose and possibly fix the problem? I was so impressed at how great it was initially running. How can it have a worse range than my Asus RT-N66R? That...and the Asus RT-N66R is disrupted when our microwave runs ...lol

I found this:
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31104469-AC68U-extremely-poor-signal-strength

 

[appleseed]

you should look for signal interference/overlapping from other networks. you can usually find a free wifi-analyzer for your phone, tablet, laptop, etc and scan the room. Neighbor routers may be set on automatic and have changed since you left the area 2 days ago and now it's just an unfortunate coincidence.

Also, time is an important factor. Leave the router alone. The Broadcom closed-source components are continually analyzing the area and will adjust accordingly. There is no set time recommendation but at least let it adjust for a while when you put it back in the old room or new location. It could be that your neighboring routers saw the open hole over the past day and switched channels.

Also, you didn't say if the firmware was stock/Merlin/other. I would recommend Merlin latest update. I have a 68U as well.

 

[sbacct]

you should look for signal interference/overlapping from other networks. you can usually find a free wifi-analyzer for your phone, tablet, laptop, etc and scan the room. Neighbor routers may be set on automatic and have changed since you left the area 2 days ago and now it's just an unfortunate coincidence.

Also, time is an important factor. Leave the router alone. The Broadcom closed-source components are continually analyzing the area and will adjust accordingly. There is no set time recommendation but at least let it adjust for a while when you put it back in the old room or new location. It could be that your neighboring routers saw the open hole over the past day and switched channels.

Also, you didn't say if the firmware was stock/Merlin/other. I would recommend Merlin latest update. I have a 68U as well.

Merlin 384.13

 

[sbacct]

you should look for signal interference/overlapping from other networks. you can usually find a free wifi-analyzer for your phone, tablet, laptop, etc and scan the room. Neighbor routers may be set on automatic and have changed since you left the area 2 days ago and now it's just an unfortunate coincidence.

Also, time is an important factor. Leave the router alone. The Broadcom closed-source components are continually analyzing the area and will adjust accordingly. There is no set time recommendation but at least let it adjust for a while when you put it back in the old room or new location. It could be that your neighboring routers saw the open hole over the past day and switched channels.

Also, you didn't say if the firmware was stock/Merlin/other. I would recommend Merlin latest update. I have a 68U as well.

so here's the odd thing. When I switched it over to 20hz, channel 1, it became a beast. Was definitely not that strong on the other channels.

When I came back to the RT-N66R, channel 1 sucks. Channel 5 and 6 is the best (6 teeters between good and very good). I tried putting the AC68U on channel 6 and it sucks.

also, I have different signal overlaps in my office (router location) and firestick (opposite end of the house). I did download and use a signal "wifi analyzer" when I set up the AC68U.

Looking at the wifi analyzer now while in my office, my current router is taking up a big chunk of 4-8 (-35) at channel 6. 9-12 seems to have a very large band (-30). There seems to be some small activity (1 band) between 1-3 which is why I chose channel 1 initially.

However, that changes when I walk over to the firestick on the other side of the house. There are about 3 medium bands on each channel range (1-3, 4-8, and 9-12) (looks like a lot of interference by the firestick)

summary:
RT-N66R - best on channel 5 or 6
AC68U - best on channel 1 (but still is weaker than RT-N66R); sucks on channel 6
why the difference?

 

[doczenith1]

I understand that we all like to see a stronger signal level but in the end throughput is what really matters. I realize that on some devices that may be hard to check but if you can I would attempt to measure throughput and see how the two routers compare.