Need help finding a powerful and stable Asus router

[MarcusVR]

I have a AC88u, wifi is solid and stable as a rock, great range.

 

[Sanna1967]

+ 1 for Ac86u

 

[Sohaib Sarwar]

I have a AC88u, wifi is solid and stable as a rock, great range.

I am assuming with Merlin running?

 

[Sohaib Sarwar]

I have a AC88u, wifi is solid and stable as a rock, great range.

With Merlin?

 

[Sohaib Sarwar]

Help please... I got 86u all setup with running Merin latest version of 384.7. It's rock solid on 5G and getting really fast speed. However, 2G is extremely slow I mean it's slower then my N66.. I have WPS disabled, running on 20mhz with auto channel. I do have a lot of other 2G near me and not sure what can be done to resolve it.
Also, I did factory reset after Merlin upgrade. Now I am even noticing drop in 2G. Could be just bad device you think? Same is happening on 2G guest Network. Any help would be much appreciate it.

Just do as you feel better, all solutions will work, and some for special purposes even better.

If you want some devices only on 5G or only on 2G, than you need different SSID for 2G and 5G, but you allways can use them on AP-node too, makes it easier as you dont need to connect all devices once with each SSID.
Or you use for these devices guest-SSID, means one main SSID 2G/5G, one guest_2G in 2G guest setting and one guest_5G in 5G guest setting.
So you can have all devices on main SSID which shall work everywhere, or some connecting only to 2G or 5G using explicit guest-ssid.
I have it this way, but only for testing each band on each router/node.
Ususally all devices here are allowed to use main SSID either on 2G or 5G.
And I got a guest_friends for friends with easy password maybe changing every month with same guest SSID 2G and 5G too.

If you have lot of signals around let it in auto mode 20Mhz or test all channels if you get one performing better (faster) then the others.
But keep in mind if not auto, others can change their channel and you are fixed to whatever you set long time ago.
If others are not strong in your area you can set 40Mhz too, would double speed.
TEST it, nobody can say in advance whats will be best for you.
5G let it auto 20/40/80 and autochannel, probably the best for most home users.

And dont forget: clients connected to node even using guest SSIDs will allways be able to reach your intranet on main router !!!
If you dont want this you must disable guest SSIDs on nodes!
Aimesh wont make guest SSIDs too on nodes for same reason, so that wont help you either ...
Till now and maybe never (?) they did not tell anything about this issue or whether they will support guest in future Aimesh.

 

[Sinner]

Help please... I got 86u all setup with running Merin latest version of 384.7. It's rock solid on 5G and getting really fast speed. However, 2G is extremely slow I mean it's slower then my N66.. I have WPS disabled, running on 20mhz with auto channel. I do have a lot of other 2G near me and not sure what can be done to resolve it.
Also, I did factory reset after Merlin upgrade. Now I am even noticing drop in 2G. Could be just bad device you think? Same is happening on 2G guest Network. Any help would be much appreciate it.

Could be interference but have you disabled all the mu mimo and beamforming on the 2g? That may help. Also set the usb3 option to favour wifi speed as it can also interfere with the 2g band.

 

[bitmonster]

I suggest you start a dedicated thread to this under the Merlin section with precise symptoms, configuration, devices and steps taken so far. And where / how you bought it too.

 

[doczenith1]

I would use the Wi-Fi Radar in the router's GUI to see which 2.4 GHz channel is the least crowded. It can be found on the last tab on either of the wireless settings screens. Then click on the Wi-Fi Site Survery and then "Configure" and click "Start data collection". Then back to the site survey tab and see which of 1, 6 or 11 is the best. The channel statistics tab can aid you in picking the best channel. Once that's done on the 2.4 GHz professional tab make the following changes which might help with wifi issues.

Wireless 2.4 GHz Professional
Turbo QAM - Disable (Only helps with clients that support it and there are not very many)
Airtime Fairness - Disable (causes connectivity issues for various devices, including wireless printers)
Multi-User MIMO - Disable (not an option on all models)
Explicit Beamforming - Disable
Universal Beamforming - Disable

Also set the usb3 option to favour wifi speed as it can also interfere with the 2g band.

If I'm not mistaken that option no longer exists by default in 384.7. I think the option only presents itself if you have a USB stick plugged into the USB 3 port.

 

[Sohaib Sarwar]

I have never run different SSIDs for the bands. Why bother.
The 86u handles single SSID and client pushing to 5GHz fine and there's a heap of options around that even in Merlin (Smart Connect). You only lose AIMesh with Merlin but they're working on it.

Leave all the wireless settings on Auto. It works fine.

Don't over complicate it.

Just get the 86u, and run stock if you need AIMesh, Merlin if you don't.

Simple.

Also, never leave WAN Remote Access on. That's asking for trouble. Use VPN instead.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Just do as you feel better, all solutions will work, and some for special purposes even better.

If you want some devices only on 5G or only on 2G, than you need different SSID for 2G and 5G, but you allways can use them on AP-node too, makes it easier as you dont need to connect all devices once with each SSID.
Or you use for these devices guest-SSID, means one main SSID 2G/5G, one guest_2G in 2G guest setting and one guest_5G in 5G guest setting.
So you can have all devices on main SSID which shall work everywhere, or some connecting only to 2G or 5G using explicit guest-ssid.
I have it this way, but only for testing each band on each router/node.
Ususally all devices here are allowed to use main SSID either on 2G or 5G.
And I got a guest_friends for friends with easy password maybe changing every month with same guest SSID 2G and 5G too.

If you have lot of signals around let it in auto mode 20Mhz or test all channels if you get one performing better (faster) then the others.
But keep in mind if not auto, others can change their channel and you are fixed to whatever you set long time ago.
If others are not strong in your area you can set 40Mhz too, would double speed.
TEST it, nobody can say in advance whats will be best for you.
5G let it auto 20/40/80 and autochannel, probably the best for most home users.

And dont forget: clients connected to node even using guest SSIDs will allways be able to reach your intranet on main router !!!
If you dont want this you must disable guest SSIDs on nodes!
Aimesh wont make guest SSIDs too on nodes for same reason, so that wont help you either ...
Till now and maybe never (?) they did not tell anything about this issue or whether they will support guest in future Aimesh.

Could be interference but have you disabled all the mu mimo and beamforming on the 2g? That may help. Also set the usb3 option to favour wifi speed as it can also interfere with the 2g band.

So try disabling all three options under professional for 2G for , beamforing, mimo? Where is usb3 option and what should I set that to. Thanks

 

[doczenith1]

So try disabling all three options under professional for 2G for , beamforing, mimo? Where is usb3 option and what should I set that to. Thanks

Yes, disable those that I mentioned. The one that might help the most is the airtime fairness. Disabling that has helped many people with issues.

I addressed the USB 3 comment in my earlier post.

After the firmware install and factory reset have you rebooted the router again? Sometimes it takes a few reboots before things settle in. I've read that pulling the power cord for 15 or so seconds can help to solve issues also.

 

[Sohaib Sarwar]

Yes, disable those that I mentioned. The one that might help the most is the airtime fairness. Disabling that has helped many people with issues.

I addressed the USB 3 comment in my earlier post.

All of those are disabled.. I don't have any USB device connected. But still same result. On my phone I am only seeing 5mb of network speed for 2G. This is really ticking me off as my old N66U never had any issues. Thank very much for your help. Let me know if you think of anything else.

 

[Sinner]

So try disabling all three options under professional for 2G for , beamforing, mimo? Where is usb3 option and what should I set that to. Thanks

The usb option i was referring to may not be present in the latest version. Im still on 384.5 and happy my appologies.

 

[Sinner]

All of those are disabled.. I don't have any USB device connected. But still same result. On my phone I am only seeing 5mb of network speed for 2G. This is really ticking me off as my old N66U never had any issues. Thank very much for your help. Let me know if you think of anything else.

What kinds of speeds are you expecting from 2g? Most devices will connect between 54mbs and 144mbs. That being said a 54mbs link could only possibly transfer 5.4MB/s and that not including the encryption which typically takes up approx 30% of the bandwidth.

 

[Grisu]

I think it is because of "broken" radio auto-power on 86U unable to handle interferences and other networks, txpower is jumping around 20dB up and down and no slider to set output power. Going worse with each major release jump.

USB3.0 reduction to 2.0 takes only effect if there is a device connected to 3.0-port.
Then on network-map click 3.0 icon and select 2.0-only.
As long as nothing is connected interference cannot occour.

Only solution, set to 20MHz and test all single channels and use the best you can get for now.
Maybe changing if other networks use other channel after a reboot.

 

[bitmonster]

Reset everything back to default, factory reset, set it all back to up and leave on auto with the correct region set. Then test with one device at a time while all others are powered off. Do this from the same room and then a larger distance.

Monitor the radio radar screen or whatever it is while you do this.

One thing we don't have here is a baseline or indeed any measurements at all.

Once this is established then let's try each setting individually. So much has been suggested and changed here that we need to go back to to basic problem isolation.

Why can't 5G be used?



Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[doczenith1]

I'm still wondering if for example, the old 66U's were say on channel 1 which wasn't very crowded and the new 86U maybe settled on 11 and there is more congestion on that channel. I would start with my previous recommendation of using wi-fi radar to find the theoretical best channel and checking throughput. After that, check the other two channels to see if real world throughput matches the theoretical results from wi-fi radar.