choked wifi performance while using roku box and android tablet

[akshunj]

Hello folks. Long time reader, first time poster. I've had the RT-N66U for some months now and its performance has been spectacular. I have the latest firmware, and I have the following devices connected to it (home server and a desktop pc connected via wired gigabit ethernet to a Trendnet Wireless-N bridge, a roku2 connected via ethernet directly to the router, a roku3 via it's own wireless-N radio, a work laptop on wifi, and a couple of Android jellybean tablets via wifi). I am trying to be very thorough about describing this problem

Anytime I use either roku box to stream anything over the internet (as opposed to media from my home server via Plex), my android tablets' wifi connection CHOKES. When I say choke, I mean that the speed drops from an average of 30Mb/sec (my Comcast connection MAX) to maybe 100Kb/sec with high ping times and timeouts). The Roku box is typically streaming things like Pandora or maybe a podcast. Nothing bandwidth intensive. At the same time that my android devices are choked, my desktop, server and laptop have full & stable wifi connections. This happens CONSISTENTLY. I have played with every setting, and almost every ASUS firmware (no 3rd party firmware yet; I want to figure out the problem first), but nothing has changed. The only way to unchoke the connection is to wait it out (a few minutes), toggle between the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz radio (the problem affects both frequencies, but never at the same time), turn wifi off and off, powercycle the router, or stop streaming (although the issues continue for several minutes after).

I have tried a Linksys router to see if the issue might be related to Asus. The Linksys had very similar issues. Not the same, but similar. The speed would not drop as much for the android devices, but the latency was off the charts.

Has anyone here heard or experienced anything like this? Any suggestions?

--Akshun J

 

[RMerlin]

Check all Ethernet cables. A bad cable could cause many packet retransmits, which can have a negative impact on the whole network.

 

[coxhaus]

What about using power plugs to feed your devices? I use Netgear Powerline 500 Nano power plugs to feed a 5 port switch after the power plugs to run an Apple TV wired. The Apple TV works better wired than wireless. I run both the wireless unit and the Apple TV off this same switch.

 

[akshunj]

Check all Ethernet cables. A bad cable could cause many packet retransmits, which can have a negative impact on the whole network.

Cables are good. And just for fun, I decided to disconnect the Roku box and use it via it's own wireless connection. SAME issue! I think this is unique to the way the Roku functions, but I'm not sure

 

[RMerlin]

Wouldn't be the first time I hear about weird issues specific to the Roku. For instance many models expose an invalid device name to the network, which can cause serious problems with some router (Asus were affected with their older firmware versions - the webui would be unusable while a Roku was plugged to the network).

 

[akshunj]

Wouldn't be the first time I hear about weird issues specific to the Roku. For instance many models expose an invalid device name to the network, which can cause serious problems with some router (Asus were affected with their older firmware versions - the webui would be unusable while a Roku was plugged to the network).

WHAT?! OMG that's crazy! Thanks for the insight

 

[CaptainSTX]

Wouldn't be the first time I hear about weird issues specific to the Roku. For instance many models expose an invalid device name to the network, which can cause serious problems with some router (Asus were affected with their older firmware versions - the webui would be unusable while a Roku was plugged to the network).

I use my Roku connected using WiFi to my N66U on a daily basis for several hours and by using the Speedtest channel on the Roku I consistently get speeds of around 15 Mbps. I usually have up to twelve devices connected to my network at any time and often my Slingbox is in use while streaming Netflix both of which are using my WAN connection. No problems.

 

[Pericynthion]

I posted a very similar thread to the RT-AC66U forum. 2.4Ghz getting 'choked' for no apparent reason, but it turned out to be 2 specific clients with a hosed WIFI config. No issues with signal, just throughput dropping to virutally nothing - but resolved temporarily by switching radios.

I'm not suggesting it the same in your case - but if you look at the log and its repeatedly connecting / reconnecting / getting DHCP addresses, you might be able to see the device(s) thats dragging all the others down. I had 2 that were constantly re-establishing themselves with the AP - sometimes even with the wrong password.

Worst case you can disable the radio and prove that all your wired devices are ok - check.
Then you re-enable the radio and add the devices back one at a time to see where the rate drops.

I was literally at the point of RMA'ing the unit back to ASUS , and if I hadnt put in a temporary fix with an Apple Time Capsule (which logs this kind of stuff) I would never have found it.

I had changed nothing in my network either, but it sounds like it is client-caused. In my case I had to reset their firmware back to defaults, re-stablish the wifi connection - and everything seems to be good now. Its been a painful 2 weeks though ;-)