Asus RT-AC68U and horrible 802.11ac range?

[RamGuy]

Greetings,

I'm having some issues with the 802.11ac range from my Asus RT-AC68U. It's currently running Merlin 380.59, but I've also tried with 380.58, 380.57 as well as the two latest Asus firmware's and the end result is pretty much the same.

My problem is quite simple. The wireless range/coverage when using 802.11ac to iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and MacBook 12-inch notebooks. There is never more than maximum three to five units at a time connected to the 5.0GHz network. It's isolated for AC-usage only, everything else is connecting to either the 2.4GHz of the RT-AC68U or to my other Asus RT-AC66U which is running as a dedicated access point for older devices.


I have fiddled around with the professional settings to no avail. Disabling Beamforming etc, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Disabling 802.11ac / Explicit Beamforming seems to only make things even worse.

I'm currently running it in N/AC mixed mode, 80 MHz channel width on control channel 100 (the default). There are no other 5.0GHz in close proximity other than my RT-AC66U access point running on channel 36.

All professional settings are running default. Expect IGMP Snooping and Universal Beamforming disabled (802.11 / Explicit is enabled).


It's not like I'm expecting anything special. I do know that 5GHz range is not very good. But both my iPhone 6S Plus, my girlfriends iPhone 6S and our two MacBook 12-inch notebooks are struggling with the connection while in the bedroom. The router is located in the living room, which is next door to the bedroom. There is just a single wooden wall between the living room and our bedroom and we are talking about 10-12 meters in range.


What can I do to improve the range of 802.11ac? Using 802.11ac on the RT-AC68U is behaving about the same, so it does not seem to be something wrong with the RT-AC68U itself. It's located ontop of a bookshelf so it's standing high in the living room. It's not hidden behind anything.

A small portion of the wall in our living room is made out of concrete, and I suppose that is no good for 5GHz signal's. But this wall is not located in between the router and our bedroom so I find it hard to belive it should be affecting much? There isn't really anything between the router and our bedroom at all other than our fridge. We don't even have any door to our bedroom so instead of a wooden door, the entrance is covered by a carpet.

When lying in bed you will actually have free line of sight directly to the router right from the bedside if it wasn't for the fridge. You can see the antennas though a they raise higher than the top of the fridge.



Using 802.11n on the other hand, range is no problem at all. But then we are not able to utilise our 500/500mbit speeds to it's full extend. There is no obvious way to track wireless performance on iOS devices, but on our MacBook's we are able to see what kind of TX rates it's showing and whatnot. So I've attached two screenshots of what Mac OS X is reporting when connected with 802.11ac to my RT-AC68 and RT-AC66.

Of course while troubleshooting, it reports better performance right now compared to what I usually get. Normally the TX rate drops below 100 mbps and even though the TX rate itself doesn't really matter as long as the performance is good, my problem is that our iPhone 6S's and iPad Air 2's are simply dropping the connection entirely at times and even though or MacBook 12-inches never drops the connection entirely, the performance keeps dropping to a halt at times making the connection feeling pretty much useless for extended periods of time.


How to improve the range? This seems really lacklustre considering the short distance?

 

[pete y testing]

well from what i can see from those links you have an issue with the tx rate as its stuck at 234M with an msc index of 5 , your rssi of nearly -70db is what i would expect at 25 meters through 3 of 4 walls

move into the main room near the router and check it again and see what it does , you may have a lemon or broken antenna or something akin

 

[RamGuy]

Seems awkward that there would be something wrong with the antennas? It's the same thing on two iPhone 6S's, two iPad Air 2's and two MacBook 12-inch models. And it's the same with both RT-AC66U and RT-AC68U.

 

[SoCalReviews]

I'm currently running it in N/AC mixed mode, 80 MHz channel width on control channel 100 (the default). There are no other 5.0GHz in close proximity other than my RT-AC66U access point running on channel 36.


How to improve the range? This seems really lacklustre considering the short distance?

Place the router up as high as possible (or up to room door height) in a location unobstructed by large metal objects such as a desk, metal file cabinet, refrigerator, etc.. I was having intermittent 5Ghz range problems with my ac68p router even at close range in the same room until I used a wall mount accessory to raise it higher... Range, stability and performance were improved. See wall mount links below.

Under the 5Ghz settings try setting everything back to default or auto except for keeping it in N/AC mixed mode (of course legacy A mode is not used much anymore). Your access point device which is the AC66U in this case might be initially trying to connect to a different bandwidth or there might be interference in your neighborhood across one or both 80 bandwidths. If allowed the device or devices should connect at the highest bandwidth (20/40/80) they detect are free from interference. Seek stability and range first and then you can tweak and test individual settings later for performance if you want. Btw... I use a lot of Apple/Mac devices with my ac68p and they work great. I am currently using the Asus 380.2695 beta firmware.

There are some nice aluminum wall mount units available that work really well for the RT-AC68U series of routers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DDQMT3S/?tag=snbforums-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C71OCXK/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[System Error Message]

I have used an AC68U and it provides good signal when i last used it in a house from 3rd floor with it on first floor. Check your settings and antenna and check your mac so try using another device to rule out the client.

 

[appleseed]

I have the Asus RT-AC68U like you and running Merlin 380.59. One thing that helped is finding a wireless signal strength indicator for Android (or your equivalent on the App Store). Install it on your phone and you can walk around the house checking signal strength, observe any changes in the noise floor, if any, neighbor channel overlap, effects of changing your antenna positions, router position, and compare all of these while walking after flipping channels on the router for each test. (You could also install on a tablet, or two or three phones leaving each in a separate location of the house.)

Going through one wall should not be this bad of a problem, so there are definitely some config changes to be made.

For example, I saw good and bad changes by turning my router just a few degrees left or right, moving the router higher or lower, and/or moving antenna positions to get signal through a top floor with carpet - and have no illusions this will be quick because you will have to invest some time finding optimal positions. Primarily walking up and down stairs watching your phone/tablet or waiting on the router after making changes.

Also, I notice in your screenshots you use channel#100 DFS and #36, so what happens on higher channels for you? I use higher channels to boost signal (a tiny bit) to get through carpet upstairs and have a 5GHz RSSI of -44/-43 for Roku/Chromecast, -60 for Macbook Pro in the kitchen through two walls, -69 for Android phone, but the point is the speeds are good because my neighbors mostly use 2.4GHz channels, and the ones that use 5GHz channels I can work around because I can see their signal strength on the app. This took some creativity but I found the magic spot for all rooms despite neighbors left/right/front/back.

On Android I use "WiFi Overview 360" and it's free but I bought it because it's great, having compared it to others - they all do the same basic things though. I won't link it because I'm not trying to sell you anything and there are at least twenty different apps out there - you just need to find the Apple equivalent for your phone.

Again not trying to sell you anything, I use "inSSIDer" (free old version) on the Mac laptop running BootCamp, and lastly you can search Google for "LAN speed test" free software for testing after you get the best RSSI you can for your location.

Finally, Broadcom has closed-source components so take that into account when deciding which firmware to choose (Asus/John's Fork/Merlin/Other). I have not had any problems always running the latest Merlin except for once with a 2.4GHz issue caused by Broadcom which was rare, for me.

Also, see:

Lessons Learned from Antenna Experiments
Discussion in 'General Wireless Discussion' started by Just Checking, Sep 17, 2014.
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/lessons-learned-from-antenna-experiments.19561

Help with ASUS RT-AC68U router
Discussion in 'ASUS AC Routers & Adapters' started by donchen, Feb 21, 2016.
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/help-with-asus-rt-ac68u-router.30581/

Decided to fool around with antenna placements...Opinions?!
Discussion in 'ASUS AC Routers & Adapters' started by willyburz, Jan 29, 2016.
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/decided-to-fool-around-with-antenna-placements-opinions.30142/

tl;dr
forum search term: donut
(this is the shape of the wireless signal)

 

[sfx2000]

Again not trying to sell you anything, I use "inSSIDer" (free old version) on the Mac laptop running BootCamp, and lastly you can search Google for "LAN speed test" free software for testing after you get the best RSSI you can for your location.

Option-Click on the Airport Icon in the MenuBar - this will open Wireless Diags - under the "window" menu, lots of nifty utils, including a scanner...

WiFi Explorer, which costs a little bit, is an excellent tool for scanning WiFi...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifi-explorer/id494803304?mt=12

 

[sfx2000]

Finally, Broadcom has closed-source components so take that into account when deciding which firmware to choose (Asus/John's Fork/Merlin/Other). I have not had any problems always running the latest Merlin except for once with a 2.4GHz issue caused by Broadcom which was rare, for me.

This used to work - I don't think it does anymore after Asus starting locking down the wireless drivers...

nvram set wl0_reg_mode=h
nvram set wl1_reg_mode=h
nvram commit
reboot

Asus has never been "apple friendly" with Macs, iPhones, iPads - no reason for it, and other vendors don't seem to have the same issues as Asus with Apple gear...

 

[Daybreak]

Call Apple.

 

[bodean]

This used to work - I don't think it does anymore after Asus starting locking down the wireless drivers...

nvram set wl0_reg_mode=h
nvram set wl1_reg_mode=h
nvram commit
reboot

Asus has never been "apple friendly" with Macs, iPhones, iPads - no reason for it, and other vendors don't seem to have the same issues as Asus with Apple gear...

What type of things have been "Unfriendly?"
Do you still recommend turning off beam forming for 5/2.4ghz when using apple products? Or has this issue been fixed.