Google Nexus Tablet wireless drops in RT-N66U 378.56.2

[ruasonid]

Whilst this problem appears to be device specific (other tablets, PC's, Mac, and phones) are OK it appears to have some connection to this router and firmware. I have another RT-N66U router running dd-wrt and this problem does not occur (although that is at another location).

You can search on Google and find lots of complaints about Google Nexus WiFi problems after upgrading from the early versions of Android Kit Kat. And that was a big mistake on my part because I've had problems ever since. I've applied all the updates. Recently it seems to have got worse. The problem is WiFi dropping and reconnecting frequently, but sometimes it does not reconnect quickly. Playing streaming video is at times very difficult.

I have experimented with various settings including using N only, different channel bandwidth, and changing control channel settings after doing a site survey. I probably need to do this more scientifically but cannot pin it down. 2.4GHz is generally easier to connect with and maintain than 5GHz.

Just wondering if there is anything I might have missed, or if there is anything problematic with this version of Merlin (which I doubt).

 

[bbunge]

I ran my N66R on 378.56-2 for several months and my Kit Kat Android on a Kindle Fire ran very well...on 2.4 GHZ. I like to use the high channels on 5 GHZ and Kit Kat just would not do the high channels. Set your 2.4 GHZ to 20 MHZ bandwidth. I'm now running 380.58 alpha 3 with no issues. My Asus Android 5 tablet works just fine!

 

[ruasonid]

I was awake last night in the early hours (3am-4am) and used the Google Nexus 10. I was in the room with the router and the signal was at full strength and no drop-outs for the hour that I used it. This suggests maybe it could be a time of day thing, early to mid evening seems worse.

What does alpha 3 have over 56.2?

 

[bbunge]

The alpha 3 allows you to turn off the hourly Networkmap scan, has SMB2 support, Miniupnp secure mode, and DNSSEC support as well as a couple of other features. I have been running it for seven days now. As for your WIFI issues you should check other WIFI's in your neighborhood, set your 2.4 GHZ to the least used channel of 1, 6 or 11 at the 20 MHZ bandwidth. I use Acrylic WiFi Home.

 

[ruasonid]

That's a good tool. Ch 1 and 6 are the same/least worst:

Channel quality 4
Signal quality 1.5
Signal to noise 1.5
Network security 2 (WPA-Personal/AES)
Transmission speed 2
802.1 standards 2.5

This is on a desktop with an external antenna (ASUS PCE-AC68 dual-band adapter) and not on the Google Nexus. The router is no more than 4 metres away in the adjacent room (one internal wall). I was wondering about external/antenna extensions for the RT-N66U.

Looking at other networks on these channels nearby they are worse!

Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?

 

[bbunge]

Merlin builds have Wireless/Site Survey that you also can use to pick a less busy channel. Some neighborhoods are tough as most folks do not follow the 1,6,11 rule. Especially those that think they have to use 40 kHz!

Sent from my P01M using Tapatalk

 

[ruasonid]

I've set the 2.4G preamble to short (it was long) and reverted to an auto setting for the channel which seems to have improved 2.4G (20MHz/N) performance with the Nexus.

Using 5G for my desktop and performance is fine at 450Mbps, so the problem is related to the 2.4G frequencies. Unfortunately the Nexus won't connect to the next room at 5G.