Asus TUF-AX5400 Slow Wireless

[nebulozny]

Ok so this router is literally driving me mad for the past two weeks since I bought it. I've been in the networking and internet game for 25 years and never ever have I come across such ridiculous issues I am having with this router. Basically... it just slows down Wi-Fi over time, no idea why. Tried every trick in the book and stuff I've read on this forum for weeks... all options, factory resets... you name it.

For example my Samsung phone connects to Wi-Fi 6 at 500 mbps or so... cool, then it says checking internet connection speed and suddenly drops to 8 Mbps! Happens on my wife phone too.. on my TV.. laptop. Reboot and it comes back to normal speed but then it starts acting again at uneven intervals. I have only 100Mb internet connection but need steady and good Wi-Fi coverage, hence me buying this so called high end router. It's not internet modem issue for sure as speed tests show constant stable speed all the time. It's just the router acting up and throttling speed for some reason. LAN speed has no issues.

I changed channels, turned off 2.4Ghz, installed Merlin, ticked off all the advanced beamforming and other settings off like QOS etc... the problem still persists.

I know it's a long shot but anyone here has any advice how to deal with this before I pull the plug and return this damn thing. The only thing I could come up with is maybe... just maybe an issue with WAN directly connected to Australia NBN via bridged modem? Could this be an issue or it's purely router acting up with wifi stuff.

 

[nickie]

I have a tuf-ax5400 and it has been working fine on a 500/100 connection via wifi with AiProtection, traffic analyzer and so on. Maybe do a full reset and start from scratch, without any change in the wifi settings. Also, there is no merlin version of the firmware. There is the gnuton fork, but i would install the latest official firmware first and see if any issues arise from there. You might also have a faulty unit...

 

[OzarkEdge]

Ok so this router is literally driving me mad for the past two weeks since I bought it. I've been in the networking and internet game for 25 years and never ever have I come across such ridiculous issues I am having with this router. Basically... it just slows down Wi-Fi over time, no idea why. Tried every trick in the book and stuff I've read on this forum for weeks... all options, factory resets... you name it.

For example my Samsung phone connects to Wi-Fi 6 at 500 mbps or so... cool, then it says checking internet connection speed and suddenly drops to 8 Mbps! Happens on my wife phone too.. on my TV.. laptop. Reboot and it comes back to normal speed but then it starts acting again at uneven intervals. I have only 100Mb internet connection but need steady and good Wi-Fi coverage, hence me buying this so called high end router. It's not internet modem issue for sure as speed tests show constant stable speed all the time. It's just the router acting up and throttling speed for some reason. LAN speed has no issues.

I changed channels, turned off 2.4Ghz, installed Merlin, ticked off all the advanced beamforming and other settings off like QOS etc... the problem still persists.

I know it's a long shot but anyone here has any advice how to deal with this before I pull the plug and return this damn thing. The only thing I could come up with is maybe... just maybe an issue with WAN directly connected to Australia NBN via bridged modem? Could this be an issue or it's purely router acting up with wifi stuff.

It should just work reasonably well with default settings out of the box... install current Asuswrt firmware, reset it, configure it minimally from scratch... if no joy, replace it.

Reset FAQ
Reset via Reset button/webUI Restore/node removal (automatic) - clears settings in NVRAM; reboot restores fw defaults from CFE (fw defaults)
Hard Reset via WPS button/webUI Restore+Initialize - also clears data logged in /jffs partition (fw defaults+clear logs)
Restoration - uploads fw in Rescue Mode

OE

 

[nebulozny]

I've done a change in setup, let my modem do the routing and Asus in AP mode. And it works ok last 12h or so. Obviously a stupid way to use this kind of router but at least it gives a hint of what might bw the issue. I assume something in WAN settings doesn't align with my ISP.

 

[Tech9]

Tried every trick in the book

Not sure what book are you reading. The same advice as @OzarkEdge above - use Asuswrt firmware, reset to default, do minimal configuration. Wi-Fi Professional settings on default, change 5GHz control channel to 36 and 80MHz wide, 2.4GHz to Auto and 20MHz wide. If it doesn't work - replace it.

 

[nebulozny]

Not sure what book are you reading. The same advice as @OzarkEdge above - use Asuswrt firmware, reset to default, do minimal configuration. Wi-Fi Professional settings on default, change 5GHz control channel to 36 and 80MHz wide, 2.4GHz to Auto and 20MHz wide. If it doesn't work - replace it.

Yeah tried that before...factory resets and all of other tricks. But seems WAN is the issue, router works well in AP mode when my modem does the routing. Will further investigate on local internet forum. Thanks for all the advice to all here!

 

[Tech9]

Run it in Double NAT, no big deal.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I've done a change in setup, let my modem do the routing and Asus in AP mode. And it works ok last 12h or so. Obviously a stupid way to use this kind of router but at least it gives a hint of what might bw the issue. I assume something in WAN settings doesn't align with my ISP.

A modem does not do routing... you should know that after '25 years in the networking and Internet game'.

If current stock firmware, reset and minimally configured and connected to your service modem, does not perform normally, then I would replace it.

OE

 

[TheMegaMan]

What channel have you selected for the 5GHz band? It could be DFS/TPC kicking in.

 

[nebulozny]

A modem does not do routing... you should know that after '25 years in the networking and Internet game'.

If current stock firmware, reset and minimally configured and connected to your service modem, does not perform normally, then I would replace it.

OE

Yeah, should have mentioned it is modem/router , TP Link NF18ACV, Australia NBN network VDSL2. ISP does recommend double nat configuration which I was trying to avoid, they don't even want to talk about bridge mode at all for support.

I'll see how it performs in AP mode over few days, so far it works as expected, absolutely no wifi slow downs or dropouts. I guess this excludes any wifi interference...or settings as a problem for now.

 

[Tech9]

ISP does recommend double nat configuration which I was trying to avoid

Nothing wrong with it. In AP mode you lose all Asuswrt features.

 

[nebulozny]

Nothing wrong with it. In AP mode you lose all Asuswrt features.

Yes, definitely would not be using AP mode long term.

Just got confirmation from local forum about this modem/router having issues in bridge mode for many users. That's it I think, I'll get another modem/router for this configuration and Asus stays for now.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

 

[Tech9]

At least you've found the issue and it's not the router. Good luck.

 

[seanwc101]

Ok so this router is literally driving me mad for the past two weeks since I bought it. I've been in the networking and internet game for 25 years and never ever have I come across such ridiculous issues I am having with this router. Basically... it just slows down Wi-Fi over time, no idea why. Tried every trick in the book and stuff I've read on this forum for weeks... all options, factory resets... you name it.

For example my Samsung phone connects to Wi-Fi 6 at 500 mbps or so... cool, then it says checking internet connection speed and suddenly drops to 8 Mbps! Happens on my wife phone too.. on my TV.. laptop. Reboot and it comes back to normal speed but then it starts acting again at uneven intervals. I have only 100Mb internet connection but need steady and good Wi-Fi coverage, hence me buying this so called high end router. It's not internet modem issue for sure as speed tests show constant stable speed all the time. It's just the router acting up and throttling speed for some reason. LAN speed has no issues.

I changed channels, turned off 2.4Ghz, installed Merlin, ticked off all the advanced beamforming and other settings off like QOS etc... the problem still persists.

I know it's a long shot but anyone here has any advice how to deal with this before I pull the plug and return this damn thing. The only thing I could come up with is maybe... just maybe an issue with WAN directly connected to Australia NBN via bridged modem? Could this be an issue or it's purely router acting up with wifi stuff.

Did you solve the problem? I have the same router unfortunately I can't return it anymore. At first it worked great but after a month or two the same problem as yours appeared. After a few days, the wifi download speed dropped to 8mbps. Everytime I restarted the router, it goes back to normal download speed (800mbps). It only affects the download speed, upload speed seems fine.

 

[nebulozny]

Did you solve the problem? I have the same router unfortunately I can't return it anymore. At first it worked great but after a month or two the same problem as yours appeared. After a few days, the wifi download speed dropped to 8mbps. Everytime I restarted the router, it goes back to normal download speed (800mbps). It only affects the download speed, upload speed seems fine.

I've sold it! Just could not solve the issues no matter what I tried. WiFi would always slow down to a crawl.

Got Fritz!Box 7590AX and it works great. Actually I forgot I even have a router, that's how stable the connection is. Never had to do a restart and the thing just works unlike Auss and it's quirks.

 

[seanwc101]

I've sold it! Just could not solve the issues no matter what I tried. WiFi would always slow down to a crawl.

Got Fritz!Box 7590AX and it works great. Actually I forgot I even have a router, that's how stable the connection is. Never had to do a restart and the thing just works unlike Auss and it's quirks.

I finally solved it by simply updating the firmware to the latest and perform a hard reset