Asus RT-N66U slower than Netgear N600 @ 2.4GHz

[dhatcher]

Hi Everyone,
New here. I am a sys admin by day and wireless tinkerer by night

I bought an Asus RT-N66U last night to replace my aging Netgear N600. I was hoping, after seeing the test results for the N66U on SNB that the N66U would help me pull down a little bit faster data rates in the 2.4GHz range.

I tested my N600 before I unplugged it using my macbook pro which has the 3x3 airport extreme nic in it and pulled down an average of 14.9Mbps (N600 was actually set to auto channel at this point and 20Mhz). I use testmy.net for testing because I like that it's not flash and actually transfers large files.

Then I unplugged the N600 and setup the N66U. I actually set the N66U to channel 6 and 20Mhz and couldn't manage more than about 10.5Mbps down. I messed with the channels and 40Mhz and ultimately settled on channel 8 and the 20Mhz (I live in an apartment complex and didn't really want to use 40Mhz anyways). On those settings I was able to get up to about 13Mbps. Still well below the N600 which was getting 14.9Mbps avg. I also used inSSIDer to check out the wifi neighborhood and that's how I ended up deciding to settle on channel 8 (saw it's overlap was actually in between many of the other wifi networks in the apartment complex).

I was really excited about the N66U but, now I'm kind of bummed my old router is out performing the newer one. All these tests were done with my laptop about 5ft from the router, at the same level and it being the only client connected to the network. Signal strength was great and there were no obstructions between the router and the laptop.

Any help or ideas with what might be going on or what I could change and test again would be great. I'm hoping I'm really just a dummy and forgot to do or try something so I can really give the N66U a fair shakedown.

Thanks all!

 

[jerry6]

What FW you using ? Try it with the latest Asus FW or Mrlin . I always get better results using Merlin FW .

 

[dhatcher]

I just use the built in fw in the router.

 

[dhatcher]

just realized you meant firmware not, firewall, heh. giving the merlin firmware a try now.

 

[jlake]

Merlin's firmware for the N66U uses a completely different wireless driver than stock firmware. For best results, you'll want to reset N66U to factory defaults after you flash Merlin .41 and also remove your old wireless profiles from computers, phones, etc...."forget this network".

It's usually best to stay with 1,6 or 11 in most cases......as explained in link below.

http://www.metageek.net/support/why-channels-1-6-and-11/

 

[RogerSC]

Where the RT-N66U really shines for me is on 5GHz., where there's much less interference, and I can use 40MHz. channel width. The RT-N66U gives me coverage throughout my house on 5GHz. The only thing that I use 2.4GHz. for anymore are for clients that only support 2.4GHz., otherwise 5GHz. is faster and more reliable for me.

So the 2.4GHz. speed isn't really important to me anymore, any wireless streaming that I do is going to be on 5GHz.

And yes, I would also strongly recommend RMerlin's firmware...you can see from my signature line below that's my preference *smile*.

 

[dhatcher]

Thanks guys. I did flash to the latest Merlin firmware and it does appear to have improved speed. I know it's normally recommended to stay on channels 1,6,11 for 2.4GHz but, after extensive testing between a mac and windows laptop (windows laptop only has 2x2 wifi card but, the mac has 3x3) i found channel 2,3 gave me the fastest wan -> lan throughput on 2.4GHz range. Channels 1,6,11 were about 28% slower.

Yeh I like the 5GHz range too. Unfortunately, my wife and I use our chromecast like it's going out of style and it obviously only operates on the 2.4 range. So all of our laptops, phones and tablets are connected to the 2.4 range because at any given time we may want to pop a video onto the chromecast.

 

[RogerSC]

Thanks guys. I did flash to the latest Merlin firmware and it does appear to have improved speed. I know it's normally recommended to stay on channels 1,6,11 for 2.4GHz but, after extensive testing between a mac and windows laptop (windows laptop only has 2x2 wifi card but, the mac has 3x3) i found channel 2,3 gave me the fastest wan -> lan throughput on 2.4GHz range. Channels 1,6,11 were about 28% slower.

Yeh I like the 5GHz range too. Unfortunately, my wife and I use our chromecast like it's going out of style and it obviously only operates on the 2.4 range. So all of our laptops, phones and tablets are connected to the 2.4 range because at any given time we may want to pop a video onto the chromecast.

You know, there are alternatives to chromecast *smile*. For example, I love my old Roku XDS. While it is dual-band (2.4GHz. and 5GHz.), I'm not currently using the wireless with it for streaming. I'm using MoCA for the Roku, leverages the cable TV coax in my walls. I thought I was going to use wireless with it, but that was when I was using an RT-N56U which just didn't have the oomph on 5GHz. to be useful. MoCA is great, very reliable, and more bandwidth than the Roku needs. I do have the wireless for a backup, and a couple of great 5GHz. routers to fall back on if I want or need to for this.

Anyways, there's lots of ways to go with this stuff that aren't really expensive. I've had the Roku box at least a couple of years now, and it has been 100% reliable.

 

[dhatcher]

Oh yeh I hear ya. I'm just working with what we have for now. Cut the cable tie a while back so looking for ways to optimize our media experience with the devices we have (was given the chromecast for christmas and we really do love that thing). I also just did the boxee hacks to our boxee box and am running xbmc on it. lovely change.