I've been using Merlin's firmware on my router for a while now. I've always used either Ethernet or Powerline to connect to the router. I don't use my phone that much, so I rarely use WiFi nowadays. That said, I've got a new phone recently (Galaxy S8+) and I wanted to test the WiFi on the phone.
My internet plan is 200Mbps down and 20Mbps up. The only devices using up the ports on my router are just my laptop (connected via Powerline) and an Ethernet that connects my server to my router. My server has been turned off for several months now, as it is not in use. So there is only 1 port in use on the router. I get about 195Mbps down on either Ethernet or my Powerline.
I'm the only one living in the house, so there are no other users eating up bandwidth and affecting my speed tests. I always perform one test on one device at a time and I don't have any torrents or streaming or downloading going on in the background.
Now, onto the WiFi tests. I ran a couple of Speedtests on 2.4Ghz SSID and they all average 90~100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Also ran speedtests with the 5Ghz SSID (I normally disable this radio, but enabled it only for this test) and the result is more or less the same. I've tested standing directly in front of the router (maybe 10cm away), as well as from a few rooms away. Result is the same. This isn't right, as I used to get 136Mbps back when I was still using a Galaxy S6. Router hasn't changed.
FYI, all Speedtests (either Ethernet, Powerline or WiFi) are all connected to the same server in the same region.
Here are the my router settings:
I've tried changing the Preamble from Short to Long, tried enabling legacy wireless mode with TX bursting (I know this doesn't make much sense, as this only applies to legacy wifi protocols/devices, but I've tested it anyway), and pretty much played around with all the settings found in the screenshot above.
I'm getting full signal bars on my phone and on my laptop. Laptop signal reports 144Mbps (2.4Ghz), but actual Speedtest is around 90Mbps. Phone reports 192Mbps (2.4Ghz) and 702Mbps (5Ghz), but actual is as mentioned above, 90~100Mbps for both bands.
If I test my phone from a few rooms away, the router's Wireless log reports my phone's -dbm at around -65 to -72. If I move my phone closer to the router, the -dbm drops to e.g. -50dbm. I have other devices around the house that sit closer to the router - a couple of Belkin Wemo Switches and a security IP camera. They are reporting the correct -dbm range (around -50 to -60). So it doesn't seem like the signal is the issue here.
I've also tried to adjust the antenna positions, but I doubt that made any difference as signal isn't an issue here. Furthermore, I've tested directly in front of the router, so that's as good of a signal as you can get. I did remove the antennas and installed them again. I've made sure they are installed correctly, not loose or anything like that.
I've also tried disabling my Firewall (including IPv6, although I don't have any IPv6 connections). No luck.
Disabled QOS, no luck either.
Finally, I've tried flashing the latest Asus firmware and my WiFi speed on the phone is the same, no change. Here's what I've done:
1. On Merlin, restore factory settings.
2. Powered off router and unplugged for 1 minute.
3. Plugged power back in and flashed official ASUS firmware.
4. Restore factory defaults on Asus firmware.
5. Setup basic WiFi settings (just WPA2-Personal with a password and that's it) and did a few speedtests (again, using the same Speedtest server).
Then I've reverted back to Merlin, pretty much the same steps as above:
1. On official Asus firmware, restore factory settings.
2. Powered off router and unplugged for 1 minute.
3. Plugged power back and flashed Merlin firmware.
4. Restore factory defaults on Merlin.
5. Setup basic WiFi settings and test. Same result. Then did a restore of my router config/settings.
6. Did another test, including Ethernet/Powerline. Same result as before - Ethernet/Powerline gets around 190~195Mbps down and WiFi still at max 100Mbps.
After flashing Merlin back, I did notice in the System log, it said something about:
"Dead loop on virtual device vlan10, fix it urgently!"
I haven't seen this message before and this message showed up twice at different times. Did a quick search online and people recommend telnet to the router and input the following:
"tc qdisc add dev vlan10 root pfifo"
So I've done that, but router says "File already exists".
People also recommend disabling AI Protection (which is enabled, as I've restored my router config). I intend to keep using this feature, so didn't really want to disable it. So I rebooted the router from the GUI and checked the logs again. This time, the message doesn't come up. To be sure, I power cycled the router and my ONT (router's WAN connects to my ONT) and message still hasn't come up. So hopefully this is all good now.
I thought the above might be related to my WiFi, so I've done a few more WiFi tests afterwards. No change.
I've had this router for more than 6 months and there hasn't been any new equipment added or changes made to my home, other than my new phone.
Would appreciate if someone could provide some suggestions/advice etc.
My internet plan is 200Mbps down and 20Mbps up. The only devices using up the ports on my router are just my laptop (connected via Powerline) and an Ethernet that connects my server to my router. My server has been turned off for several months now, as it is not in use. So there is only 1 port in use on the router. I get about 195Mbps down on either Ethernet or my Powerline.
I'm the only one living in the house, so there are no other users eating up bandwidth and affecting my speed tests. I always perform one test on one device at a time and I don't have any torrents or streaming or downloading going on in the background.
Now, onto the WiFi tests. I ran a couple of Speedtests on 2.4Ghz SSID and they all average 90~100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Also ran speedtests with the 5Ghz SSID (I normally disable this radio, but enabled it only for this test) and the result is more or less the same. I've tested standing directly in front of the router (maybe 10cm away), as well as from a few rooms away. Result is the same. This isn't right, as I used to get 136Mbps back when I was still using a Galaxy S6. Router hasn't changed.
FYI, all Speedtests (either Ethernet, Powerline or WiFi) are all connected to the same server in the same region.
Here are the my router settings:
I've tried changing the Preamble from Short to Long, tried enabling legacy wireless mode with TX bursting (I know this doesn't make much sense, as this only applies to legacy wifi protocols/devices, but I've tested it anyway), and pretty much played around with all the settings found in the screenshot above.
I'm getting full signal bars on my phone and on my laptop. Laptop signal reports 144Mbps (2.4Ghz), but actual Speedtest is around 90Mbps. Phone reports 192Mbps (2.4Ghz) and 702Mbps (5Ghz), but actual is as mentioned above, 90~100Mbps for both bands.
If I test my phone from a few rooms away, the router's Wireless log reports my phone's -dbm at around -65 to -72. If I move my phone closer to the router, the -dbm drops to e.g. -50dbm. I have other devices around the house that sit closer to the router - a couple of Belkin Wemo Switches and a security IP camera. They are reporting the correct -dbm range (around -50 to -60). So it doesn't seem like the signal is the issue here.
I've also tried to adjust the antenna positions, but I doubt that made any difference as signal isn't an issue here. Furthermore, I've tested directly in front of the router, so that's as good of a signal as you can get. I did remove the antennas and installed them again. I've made sure they are installed correctly, not loose or anything like that.
I've also tried disabling my Firewall (including IPv6, although I don't have any IPv6 connections). No luck.
Disabled QOS, no luck either.
Finally, I've tried flashing the latest Asus firmware and my WiFi speed on the phone is the same, no change. Here's what I've done:
1. On Merlin, restore factory settings.
2. Powered off router and unplugged for 1 minute.
3. Plugged power back in and flashed official ASUS firmware.
4. Restore factory defaults on Asus firmware.
5. Setup basic WiFi settings (just WPA2-Personal with a password and that's it) and did a few speedtests (again, using the same Speedtest server).
Then I've reverted back to Merlin, pretty much the same steps as above:
1. On official Asus firmware, restore factory settings.
2. Powered off router and unplugged for 1 minute.
3. Plugged power back and flashed Merlin firmware.
4. Restore factory defaults on Merlin.
5. Setup basic WiFi settings and test. Same result. Then did a restore of my router config/settings.
6. Did another test, including Ethernet/Powerline. Same result as before - Ethernet/Powerline gets around 190~195Mbps down and WiFi still at max 100Mbps.
After flashing Merlin back, I did notice in the System log, it said something about:
"Dead loop on virtual device vlan10, fix it urgently!"
I haven't seen this message before and this message showed up twice at different times. Did a quick search online and people recommend telnet to the router and input the following:
"tc qdisc add dev vlan10 root pfifo"
So I've done that, but router says "File already exists".
People also recommend disabling AI Protection (which is enabled, as I've restored my router config). I intend to keep using this feature, so didn't really want to disable it. So I rebooted the router from the GUI and checked the logs again. This time, the message doesn't come up. To be sure, I power cycled the router and my ONT (router's WAN connects to my ONT) and message still hasn't come up. So hopefully this is all good now.
I thought the above might be related to my WiFi, so I've done a few more WiFi tests afterwards. No change.
I've had this router for more than 6 months and there hasn't been any new equipment added or changes made to my home, other than my new phone.
Would appreciate if someone could provide some suggestions/advice etc.
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