AX88U Wi-fi Question/Issue

[jrmtz85]

Just got an AX88u to setup at my new place. Install to latest merlin plus scripts seems to have gone well. My question is on the Wi-Fi connection speed. While my laptop's card is a Killer 1550 (Intel 9260) with no AX, I have connected to another 160 MHZ router (a netgear R7800) at 1.7 gbits. Here I'm only seeing the usual 866 Mbps. Enabled what I think are the correct settings, but no-go. Is there anything I'm missing to get that connection speed?

Thanks

 

[swejuggalo]

Just got an AX88u to setup at my new place. Install to latest merlin plus scripts seems to have gone well. My question is on the Wi-Fi connection speed. While my laptop's card is a Killer 1550 (Intel 9260) with no AX, I have connected to another 160 MHZ router (a netgear R7800) at 1.7 gbits. Here I'm only seeing the usual 866 Mbps. Enabled what I think are the correct settings, but no-go. Is there anything I'm missing to get that connection speed?

Thanks

I guess you already have enabled 160 Mhz ;-)
I have not tried this but if I had the gear I would try this.
Try one at a time.
Set control channels manually instead of auto.
Try without AX/Wifi 6 mode.
Use a separate SSID setup instead of Dual-band Smart Connect.
Select ONLY 160 Mhz instead of all 4 frequencies.

Did you check how the original firmware behaves? New firmware in alpha is based on newest Asus firmware. It needs the manual channel trick to get 866 Mbps on the phones

 

[jrmtz85]

I guess you already have enabled 160 Mhz ;-)
I have not tried this but if I had the gear I would try this.
Try one at a time.
Set control channels manually instead of auto.
Try without AX/Wifi 6 mode.
Use a separate SSID setup instead of Dual-band Smart Connect.
Select ONLY 160 Mhz instead of all 4 frequencies.

Did you check how the original firmware behaves? New firmware in alpha is based on newest Asus firmware. It needs the manual channel trick to get 866 Mbps on the phones

I had already done everything you suggested, except running ONLY 160 MHz. Once I did that, now I'm seeing 1.7 Gbps. That's very interesting, and I wonder why that's the case? Is there a downside to not running 20/40/80/160 instead of 160 only?

 

[swejuggalo]

I had already done everything you suggested, except running ONLY 160 MHz. Once I did that, now I'm seeing 1.7 Gbps. That's very interesting, and I wonder why that's the case? Is there a downside to not running 20/40/80/160 instead of 160 only?

Well... As far as I know only if you have devices that can't connect then. But they can just as well use 2.4Ghz if they are not important in regards to speed.
But it should sense and connect with top speed automatically ofcouse.
If that is a Merlin issue or a Asus issue is the question.

RT-AX88U - just one of the latest Merlin firmwares and nothing else -

 

[jrmtz85]

Well... As far as I know only if you have devices that can't connect then. But they can just as well use 2.4Ghz if they are not important in regards to speed.
But it should sense and connect with top speed automatically ofcouse.
If that is a Merlin issue or a Asus issue is the question.

RT-AX88U - just one of the latest Merlin firmwares and nothing else -

Funnily enough, I tried again at my new place and now have it going at 20/40/80/160, and I'm connecting at 160, with AX enabled. One key difference, I noticed that at 160 only, the highest channel available was 148. When I switched back to all frequencies, I set my desired channel to 148. Not sure if that did the trick but it's running now. Maxing my gigabit line over WiFi fells great

 

[Makaveli]

Funnily enough, I tried again at my new place and now have it going at 20/40/80/160, and I'm connecting at 160, with AX enabled. One key difference, I noticed that at 160 only, the highest channel available was 148. When I switched back to all frequencies, I set my desired channel to 148. Not sure if that did the trick but it's running now. Maxing my gigabit line over WiFi fells great

Glad you got it working.

Update your sig

 

[swejuggalo]

Funnily enough, I tried again at my new place and now have it going at 20/40/80/160, and I'm connecting at 160, with AX enabled. One key difference, I noticed that at 160 only, the highest channel available was 148. When I switched back to all frequencies, I set my desired channel to 148. Not sure if that did the trick but it's running now. Maxing my gigabit line over WiFi fells great

Great that I manged to help you find a way. Still waiting on a 160 capable device myself [emoji6]
Have used high speed wifi hardware before but it was not without some stability issues. And with Linux and too specialized hardware it may be even worse sometimes. So I stick with the most stable I know. Good old cable whenever possible and when reliable connection is of top priority [emoji39]

 

[jrmtz85]

If I'm getting 1.7gbps, is there any benefit to getting the Killer AX1650 on my laptop? or is the just taking the connection to 2.4 gbps? is there a range benefit with AX cards?

 

[jrmtz85]

Got the AX200 card and install went well. Only seeing 1.2 gbps. Is there somewhere i can check recommended settings for AX 160 MHZ setup?

 

[RAH-66]

Got the AX200 card and install went well. Only seeing 1.2 gbps. Is there somewhere i can check recommended settings for AX 160 MHZ setup?

160 Mhz working only on 36-64 (50) and 100-128 (114) channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_(802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax)

 

[jrmtz85]

160 Mhz working only on 36-64 (50) and 100-128 (114) channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_(802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax)

View attachment 22203

huh... neither of those 2 (50 and 114) are selectable in my router. My choices are: 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165.
and funnily enough, not sure if I had those 2 before, but I could swear I had more channels selectable before. Is there some setting that's reducing available channels?

 

[RAH-66]

huh... neither of those 2 (50 and 114) are selectable in my router.

50 and 114 cannot be selected, they are set automatically when you select channels from the ranges 36-64 and 100-128, respectively. See the big table at the link above.

My choices are: 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165.
and funnily enough, not sure if I had those 2 before, but I could swear I had more channels selectable before. Is there some setting that's reducing available channels?

put a strip of 20Mhz and there will be more channels​

 

[jrmtz85]

50 and 114 cannot be selected, they are set automatically when you select channels from the ranges 36-64 and 100-128, respectively. See the big table at the link above.

put a strip of 20Mhz and there will be more channels​

So selecting 48 should do the trick?

And not sure what you mean by put a strip of 20mhz. In my bandwidth section, I have 20/40/80/160 selected.

 

[RAH-66]

So selecting 48 should do the trick?

And not sure what you mean by put a strip of 20mhz. In my bandwidth section, I have 20/40/80/160 selected.

set 160Mhz not 20/40/80/160 and select any available channel

 

[jrmtz85]

set 160Mhz not 20/40/80/160 and select any available channel

View attachment 22211

Ahh interesting. And doing 160-only won't block off other devices that can only do 20 or 40? Guess i never knew exactly what that toggle does.

 

[RAH-66]

And doing 160-only won't block off other devices that can only do 20 or 40?

No, all devices 20-40-80 will work. See the table with channels, you will choose from channels with a strip of 20, of which a strip of 160 consists.

 

[jrmtz85]

Changing the channels to 160-only didn't let me select a channel, it just set it to auto, and now the connection speed is only 115 Mbps. Reverted back to channel 48 manual selected and at least getting 877 again. Are there maybe other conflicting settings somewhere?

 

[RAH-66]

Changing the channels to 160-only didn't let me select a channel,

it's some kind of nonsense

 

[jrmtz85]

it's some kind of nonsense

Yeah, there's probably some setting mucking it up somewhere.

 

[jrmtz85]

it's some kind of nonsense

I think I solved it. Turns out my Aimesh nodes were blocking those settings, at least initially (have 2 86Us as nodes. 1 wired and 1 wireless).
I shut down everything, and then solely booted the x88u. Low and behold, way too many channels to choose now. I selected 160 MHZ only, and channel 112.
Tested, and saw my laptop connect at 2400 mbps.

Turned on the wired node, and suddenly the channel selection automatically changed to Auto again, except 112 was chosen as the channel (and has been for about 5 hours now). Turned on the wireless node, and it maintained, as well as the 160 MHZ and connection speed to my laptop. still think I'm having some roaming issues with my cellphone not switching APs unless I turn off and on wifi, but i'll get there.