Improving performance of RT-N66U... what are my options?

[alexbc]

So instead of being condescending which is not helpful as I also have a physics degree. Why the heck don't u recommend somethings?

I did mount it outside of the box. On top of it to be exact. That's how I'm gonna use it with this or other router. Only place that I can mount. It's in the kitchen pantry and where the fiber enters the house. What else do u want me to do? Wire it out to another room and mount the router there?

As I said, the performance did NOT improve "enough" while being completely outside the box hence I believe I need a better router to help with my issues. If you have a better solution, I'm all ears!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[L&LD]

If you can even try temporarily, to mount it about 2 feet from the ceiling (i.e. as far away from the box as possible) and at this point, choose different channels and reboot the router and your test computer for each channel test you do. One channel will stand out to be better than the others.

Don't use inssider or similar utilities. Just do a throughput test at specific locations around your place and see which channel actually gives you better real world throughput.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@alexbc In your photograph I can see the 4 wires (2 pairs) that are spliced onto the short WAN cable, but it is unclear what happens to the other 4(?) wires or what they're used for. Are they just cut off, or are they connected to something? Perhaps they carry an incoming telephone circuit.

Anyway, if you want to make it neater-looking you could un-splice the 4 wires and connect them to an RJ45 keystone jack. You must make sure that before you disconnect the existing wires you have made a note of which colour wire connects to the CAT5/6 coloured wires.

You'll need a punch-down tool to connect the wires to the keystone, although there are some tool-less versions available.

From then on you can attach any length of standard patch cable to the keystone jack, potentially allowing you to place the router a lot further away. Bear in mind that the keystone jack is not secured to anything (they're normally plugged into a frame, like the others in your box) so make sure not to put any strain on the jack which could pull the wires out.

 

[alexbc]

@alexbc In your photograph I can see the 4 wires (2 pairs) that are spliced onto the short WAN cable, but it is unclear what happens to the other 4(?) wires or what they're used for. Are they just cut off, or are they connected to something? Perhaps they carry an incoming telephone circuit.

Anyway, if you want to make it neater-looking you could un-splice the 4 wires and connect them to an RJ45 keystone jack. You must make sure that before you disconnect the existing wires you have made a note of which colour wire connects to the CAT5/6 coloured wires.

You'll need a punch-down tool to connect the wires to the keystone, although there are some tool-less versions available.

From then on you can attach any length of standard patch cable to the keystone jack, potentially allowing you to place the router a lot further away. Bear in mind that the keystone jack is not secured to anything (they're normally plugged into a frame, like the others in your box) so make sure not to put any strain on the jack which could pull the wires out.

Thanks. What parts do I need to do this? Basically this is done in such a way so different internet providers could feed their own hence that sort of a mess.

 

[alexbc]

If you can even try temporarily, to mount it about 2 feet from the ceiling (i.e. as far away from the box as possible) and at this point, choose different channels and reboot the router and your test computer for each channel test you do. One channel will stand out to be better than the others.

Don't use inssider or similar utilities. Just do a throughput test at specific locations around your place and see which channel actually gives you better real world throughput.

Unless I figure out how to extend that Internet feed cable (post above) can't really extend it too far high above the box. But already above the box I'm 2 feet away from ceiling as the box is mounted at around 5 feet.

 

[dlandiss]

As I said, the performance did NOT improve "enough" while being completely outside the box hence I believe I need a better router to help with my issues.

Our concern is that something other than the router is limiting your speed. From a distance it is hard to tell if that is local interference, nearby reflecting surfaces (conduit, HVAC ducts), or the sloppy connecting job somebody did on the Ethernet cable inside the box. With only 2 pairs in use, and untwisted for several inches at that, don't expect Gigabit speeds. Unless those are actually phone wires you are owed a service visit just for that.

As far as the RT-N66U I have installed several around St. Louis, and have one in my house along with an RT-AC68U. With the John's Fork firmware I can barely tell the difference between the N66 and AC68--in some locations one has better range; in other locations, the other.

 

[L&LD]

Unless I figure out how to extend that Internet feed cable (post above) can't really extend it too far high above the box. But already above the box I'm 2 feet away from ceiling as the box is mounted at around 5 feet.

Ah, you're right. Then you should extend it diagonally to get as far away from that box as possible.

Use a small 4-8 port 1GbE switch and a couple of 15 foot CAT5e cables if you have to (for testing) to extend what you need to.

Whether you buy a new router or not, you should ideally be doing all that has been suggested in this thread. If you want to actually maximize your WiFi experience.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks. What parts do I need to do this? Basically this is done in such a way so different internet providers could feed their own hence that sort of a mess.

There is some information here:
https://www.computercablestore.com/how-to-terminate-punch-down-style-keystone-jacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568#Wiring

They also sell a tool-less version if you didn't want to buy a punch down tool.
https://www.computercablestore.com/cat5e-tool-less-keystone-jack-90-degree-110-utp-ivory

(I've never bought anything from this company so don't take this as a recommendation)

Examine your existing wiring. The spliced wires should connect to T568 pairs #2 and #3. One pair is white/orange stripe and orange solid. The other pair is white/green stripe and green solid.

Make sure you connect the wires to the keystone in the same way as they are connected now.

 

[alexbc]

Ah, you're right. Then you should extend it diagonally to get as far away from that box as possible.

Use a small 4-8 port 1GbE switch and a couple of 15 foot CAT5e cables if you have to (for testing) to extend what you need to.

Whether you buy a new router or not, you should ideally be doing all that has been suggested in this thread. If you want to actually maximize your WiFi experience.

Thanks. Btw how should I direct the antennas? This location is at the Far East of the condo but middle of the it length wise. All devices are to the west of the router (behind the wall/box) so I need to kinda direct the signal inwards to the wall.

Also, my condo has all metal studs if that makes a difference and around 6 strong other wifi signals and over 20 weaker ones from units above and below.

 

[L&LD]

Thanks. Btw how should I direct the antennas? This location is at the Far East of the condo but middle of the it length wise. All devices are to the west of the router (behind the wall/box) so I need to kinda direct the signal inwards to the wall.

Also, my condo has all metal studs if that makes a difference and around 6 strong other wifi signals and over 20 weaker ones from units above and below.

With that additional info; see if placing it at least 3 to 5 feet away from the wall (at least for testing) gets you any benefits. It should.

The metal studs will be effectively the metal box when the router is placed right against them.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks. Btw how should I direct the antennas?

If covering a single floor, then most of the time the optimal position is having them all straight up, at the vertical.

 

[geo44]

Hi alexbc,

Im going to chime in here. A couple of questions.
First the box that you show in the picture, Is that for your condo unit only? or does it feed to other units?

Next, If the box is for your unit only it appears that there are rj45 connectors there? do you have any rj45 jacks in other rooms in your unit?

Im asking this as the connectors appears to be a patch panel type
setup such that you jack in the internet connection to an outlet
elsewhere in your unit as indicated by the "1, 2, 3, 4" labels on the blue wires.
If thats the cae , you coud place your router wherever their is an rj45 outlet.

I cant imagine that the expectation is to put your router in that box.

Just a guess at this point.

 

[alexbc]

Hi alexbc,

Im going to chime in here. A couple of questions.
First the box that you show in the picture, Is that for your condo unit only? or does it feed to other units?

Next, If the box is for your unit only it appears that there are rj45 connectors there? do you have any rj45 jacks in other rooms in your unit?

Im asking this as the connectors appears to be a patch panel type
setup such that you jack in the internet connection to an outlet
elsewhere in your unit as indicated by the "1, 2, 3, 4" labels on the blue wires.
If thats the cae , you coud place your router wherever their is an rj45 outlet.

I cant imagine that the expectation is to put your router in that box.

Just a guess at this point.

Box is for my unit only. Those other rj45 outlets go to different rooms so you're right I have the potential to wire it elsewhere but it's basically not easy as two are coming back of the cabinet, one into a closet and one behind TV.

I may have to look into that though. Right now, I'm place it on top of the box like this.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@alexbc In your photograph I can see the 4 wires (2 pairs) that are spliced onto the short WAN cable, but it is unclear what happens to the other 4(?) wires or what they're used for. Are they just cut off, or are they connected to something? Perhaps they carry an incoming telephone circuit.

Can you confirm whether the other 4 wires are connected to anything or just left free. If they are not attached to anything then that would allow you to reroute the incoming grey cable down the right side of the box and utilise the unused 6th RJ45 socket as your incoming internet. Very neat, but not possible if those other 4 wires are preventing you from moving the cable.

 

[alexbc]

One wire is connected to my receiver that doesn't have wifi. All else are free.

My question is what happens to networking? Like if I connect router in another room via RJ45 to this and want it to route it ton"other rooms" through its Gigabit network? How do I do that? Seems not possible. I need to maintain two networks. One wired, one wireless.

Update:
Interestingly while trying to take a pic for a post here. I changed things slightly on mounting it outside the box and changed some antenna direction and weirdly it has been much improved throughout the apartment now! I'm getting 50mbps (max ISP speed) all over the place on both 5 and 2.4 GHz. It's mid day with less interference from other units so need to test again later tonight.

It may have been that just a small adjustment has placed the signal in a better path through metal studs in the wall. Quite surprised.

PS. This is also just a basic speed test.net and not a proper transfer speed test.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alexbc]

Router Upgrade Question:
So, now since it looks like the above the box location may have solved the wireless problems (more tests later to 100% confirm), coming back to the router question, if I should keep or replace it?

What I am missing is AC (mine is only N), plus if I need the additional processor power for (a) Hosting files on USB, (b) sending HD (and later 4K) videos from my PC file server to my TV, (c) accessing files on my file server remotely?

If I upgrade, it should be wall-mountable, and the new Asus routers don't look like they are. RT-AC66U is, but it has the same basic performance as mine, and not sure if any other router could be used similarly.

Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

One wire is connected to my receiver that doesn't have wifi. All else are free.

I think we're talking about two different things. I think you're referring to the patch cables between your router and the patch panel. I am asking about the individual wires that are in the incoming internet cable. That cable has had the outer insulation stripped off to expose 8 wires. 4 of those wires go to your routers WAN socket, I am asking what happens to the other 4 wires?

 

[alexbc]

I think we're talking about two different things. I think you're referring to the patch cables between your router and the patch panel. I am asking about the individual wires that are in the incoming internet cable. That cable has had the outer insulation stripped off to expose 8 wires. 4 of those wires go to your routers WAN socket, I am asking what happens to the other 4 wires?

No idea. I think they're used for my Phone system, which is only working to buzz people into the apartment as I don't have a home phone.

 

[alexbc]

I think we're talking about two different things. I think you're referring to the patch cables between your router and the patch panel. I am asking about the individual wires that are in the incoming internet cable. That cable has had the outer insulation stripped off to expose 8 wires. 4 of those wires go to your routers WAN socket, I am asking what happens to the other 4 wires?

No idea. I think they're used for my Phone system, which is only working to let people into the apartment as I don't have a home phone.

 

[mstombs]

...
If I upgrade, it should be wall-mountable, and the new Asus routers don't look like they are. RT-AC66U is...

See the great snb guides, for example http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...-band-wireless-ac3200-gigabit-router-reviewed the 87U (dog?) and AC-3200 clearly have wall mounting points.