Optimizing wireless settings of RT-AC66U with ASUSWRT-Merlin 380.59

[kevindd992002]

So what are the best wireless settings to get the best out of this router?

 

[ColinTaylor]

The default ones.

 

[kevindd992002]

Except for the channels, I presume?

 

[bodean]

Except for the channels, I presume?

Correct, manual channel selection.
Give this link a good read http://www.rickygao.com/tuning-the-asus-wireless-router-to-best-performance/

 

[kevindd992002]

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a good read later.

If I'm the obly 5GHz band user ib my neighborhood, I'm reading that it is better to set channel selection to Auto. Is this accurate?

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a good read later.

If I'm the obly 5GHz band user ib my neighborhood, I'm reading that it is better to set channel selection to Auto. Is this accurate?

No.

 

[kevindd992002]

No.

Why not?

 

[L&LD]

Why not?

Because a manually selected channel will almost always be the better choice.

Btw, where did you read that auto channel was better?

 

[kevindd992002]

Because a manually selected channel will almost always be the better choice.

Btw, where did you read that auto channel was better?

It was in a forum I saw last weekend. I'm trying to search my history for it but cannot for the life of me! Anyway, I was always a believer of not setting to automatic as long as you know what you're doing so we're good.

Generally though, it's better to pick a lower channel than a higher one since lower frequencies tend to propagate farther, right?

 

[jeff288]

It was in a forum I saw last weekend. I'm trying to search my history for it but cannot for the life of me! Anyway, I was always a believer of not setting to automatic as long as you know what you're doing so we're good.

Generally though, it's better to pick a lower channel than a higher one since lower frequencies tend to propagate farther, right?

There was a big reddit thread a couple weeks ago in TIL and someone praising autochannel was highly upvoted, maybe that was it. First it's TIL, then reddit so unless it's a networking site or technical subreddit, take what you read there with a grain of salt.

On the last part, you're right but afaik, I think power is increased slightly for the upper channels to make up for it. Edit: Apparently it depends on the router, source. Anecdotally, on my N66U, I seem to have better luck with the lower channels.

 

[bbsc]

I'd prefer 380.57 for RT-AC66U.
380.59 is 10-15% slower in my case.
I use channel 44, n/ac mixed, 80MHz bw, hidden SSID, wireless scheduler is off.
Everything else is default.
LAN-WLAN speed is shown here

 

[kevindd992002]

There was a big reddit thread a couple weeks ago in TIL and someone praising autochannel was highly upvoted, maybe that was it. First it's TIL, then reddit so unless it's a networking site or technical subreddit, take what you read there with a grain of salt.

On the last part, you're right but afaik, I think power is increased slightly for the upper channels to make up for it. Edit: Apparently it depends on the router, source. Anecdotally, on my N66U, I seem to have better luck with the lower channels.

That's probably it.

Would the settings in the link above be all I need to follow? The channel BW's recommended there are set to Auto.

I'd prefer 380.57 for RT-AC66U.
380.59 is 10-15% slower in my case.
I use channel 44, n/ac mixed, 80MHz bw, hidden SSID, wireless scheduler is off.
Everything else is default.
LAN-WLAN speed is shown here

Thanks for the suggestion. Why did you decide to use a Band I channel instead of the standard Band IV?

 

[bbsc]

Why did you decide to use a Band I channel instead of the standard Band IV?

It's an "Asus standard" for my country although other channels are allowed and I have unlocked CFE.
Channel 44 works not worse for me than the rest (but not better too) on 380.57.

112-114 seemed to be a little better on 380.59

 

[dlandiss]

Generally though, it's better to pick a lower channel than a higher one since lower frequencies tend to propagate farther, right?

If you are thinking of 2.4GHz vs 5GHz, true.

But between (let's say) 5.100GHz or 5.200GHz, you would not see any difference.

 

[L&LD]

There was a big reddit thread a couple weeks ago in TIL and someone praising autochannel was highly upvoted, maybe that was it. First it's TIL, then reddit so unless it's a networking site or technical subreddit, take what you read there with a grain of salt.

On the last part, you're right but afaik, I think power is increased slightly for the upper channels to make up for it. Edit: Apparently it depends on the router, source. Anecdotally, on my N66U, I seem to have better luck with the lower channels.

Mine and my customers RT-N66U's, RT-AC66U's and RT-AC68U's were much faster using lower 5GHz channels too. I may have to test again though after 380.60 comes out.

Those social networks mentioned are very obtrusive and 'noisy' (vs. actual data you can use and trust) and I don't use or rely on any of them at all. Particularly not for technical subjects like routers.

 

[kevindd992002]

Gotcha. Would following the link posted above for the settings be enough? Or should I test manually myself? I just don't know what all those settings do

 

[Kronyx]

If you open the link, you will see that all the settings are explained one by one.

 

[kevindd992002]

Ok. It says there that for 2.4GHz, enable roaming assitant if I have another AP in the environment. I do have another 2.4GHz in the other section of my house to extend the same SSID and do handover from AP to AP. Now the default threshold for roaming assistant is -70dBm, is this the optimal value?

Also, for 5.4GHz it also says to enable roaming assistant if I use the same SSID for this router's 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. I just tried using the same SSID today (coming from using two different SSID's for both bands) and see if it's actually better. Same question as above though, is -70dBm the optimal value to have this feature working?

 

[bodean]

is -70dBm the optimal value to have this feature working?

Yes

 

[NGRhodes]

So what are the best wireless settings to get the best out of this router?

Very situational, depends what your goals are, tuning for lots of users, best coverage, legacy devices, a specific room in the building, fairness with neighbours, close vs numerous brick walls to go through, legally available bands in your country and more.
The only way to really know is to take lots of performance measurements/benchmarks, anyone who claims a certain set of settings will be best for you is guessing. At-least the sensible people will qualify which settings have worked best for them or more importantly ones that have caused issues, for example Protected Management Frames caused WiFi issues with some Android devices on my WiFi network.