[Root Cause Found] RT-AX88U Can't get link speed over 866.7Mbps with AX210 or AC-9260 WIFI in laptops (160MHz)

[kittmaster]

EDIT: Root cause found for my issue, Post 28 describes the method to find the issue, Post 62 shows the issue at hand. ROOT CAUSE: Router is region bound to Canada and being using in Rhode Island USA affecting DFS channel operation.

First post here, thanks for reading.

I have 2 laptops, one with an AX201 WIFI6 160MHz card and my other that is the Intel AC-9260 160MHz card. With both less than 10 feet away from the main router (not the 4 nodes I am using), I've never been able to get the 1.73Mbps link speed which I believe correlates to the 160MHz option.

I have it checked in the wireless area to enable 160MHz, I've tried both 20/40/80/160 and 160 only options. I've tried channel 157, 36, Auto but I can never get either card to connect at 160MHz.

The drivers are from Intel are V22.100.1.1 for the AC-9260, and latest and greatest for the AX201.

Started to talk to Asus support and one thing they mentioned was in the professional tab was to enable "Extended NSS" which is also pointed out within their support pages to get it to work. The issue is, that particular option does not exist in the professional tab for this router. I've tried the stock firmware, and the latest version from Merlin....just doesn't exist.

[Wireless Router] How to ensure compatibility of 160MHz and device with RT-AX89X? | Official Support | ASUS Global

I've tried to do a restore on the latest version to see if something got lost during a firmware upgrade.....zippo.

So I've seen people say that it works, but yet I'm unclear on how to make it work.

Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong so I can get my link speeds to work at 160MHz?

Thanks.
Chris

 

[OzarkEdge]

First post here, thanks for reading.

I have 2 laptops, one with an AX201 WIFI6 160MHz card and my other that is the Intel AC-9260 160MHz card. With both less than 10 feet away from the main router (not the 4 nodes I am using), I've never been able to get the 1.73GHz link speed which I believe correlates to the 160MHz option.

I have it checked in the wireless area to enable 160MHz, I've tried both 20/40/80/160 and 160 only options. I've tried channel 157, 36, Auto but I can never get either card to connect at 160MHz.

The drivers are from Intel are V22.100.1.1 for the AC-9260, and latest and greatest for the AX201.

Started to talk to Asus support and one thing they mentioned was in the professional tab was to enable "Extended NSS" which is also pointed out within their support pages to get it to work. The issue is, that particular option does not exist in the professional tab for this router. I've tried the stock firmware, and the latest version from Merlin....just doesn't exist.

[Wireless Router] How to ensure compatibility of 160MHz and device with RT-AX89X? | Official Support | ASUS Global

I've tried to do a restore on the latest version to see if something got lost during a firmware upgrade.....zippo.

So I've seen people say that it works, but yet I'm unclear on how to make it work.

Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong so I can get my link speeds to work at 160MHz?

Thanks.
Chris

With 160 MHz bandwidth set on the router, have you tried forgetting/recreating the AX client connections?

Note that for WiFi6, 160 MHz is only possible on the lower channels 36 to 128, and both possible freq ranges require using DFS channels. So, if the router is prohibiting the use of DFS channels in your area, it will never have those channels available for 160 MHz usage.

OE

 

[kittmaster]

As of your reply, I went back to check, the router on 5GHz is set to Auto for channel selection and is on Ch 40. I went into my AC-9260 client laptop, manage all known networks.......forget......went back and reconnected the 5GHz SSID and is still currently at 866.7Mbps for the link speed.

I have it set to 160Mhz only for BW in the router.

I assume this is what you where asking....yes?

Your graph makes sense, so I will no longer use channel 157 manually as I was before.

 

[OzarkEdge]

As of your reply, I went back to check, the router on 5GHz is set to Auto for channel selection and is on Ch 40. I went into my AC-9260 client laptop, manage all known networks.......forget......went back and reconnected the 5GHz SSID and is still currently at 866.7Mbps for the link speed.

I have it set to 160Mhz only for BW in the router.

I assume this is what you where asking....yes?

Your graph makes sense, so I will no longer use channel 157 manually as I was before.

Yes.

So, the router may not be willing to use the DFS channels in your area, or there may be some other conflict that is keeping your clients from using AX at 160 MHz... they seem to be using AC at 80 MHz, so not even using AX.

Note that you can also view some client connection details in the router Wireless Log.

OE

 

[kittmaster]

What is the best way to "see" what the issue may be and/or interference with the channel widths?

Is there some logging file export that can tell me what the issue may be?

 

[disjt]

You can confirm the number of streams and bandwidth in the wireless log. Go to "system log"/"wireless log", and if you have Merlin, click on details.

For example, I have the log posted below.
In the beginning,"Channel: 153/80" means I'm using 80MHz with channel 153 as the control channel.
In the station list, you want to look at columns NSS and BW. The first is the number of streams, and the second is the bandwidth. In my case, I have 4 streams and 80MHz with that client device. The PHY column will also confirm if they're using AX to communicate with each other.
The channel information shows the channels I have access to. The ones with "RADAR Sensitive" are the DFS channels. If you're unlucky, you'll have RADAR detected or something like that. It means it's unusable.

==============================================
SSID: "SSID_xx"
noise: -91 dBm Channel: 153/80
BSSID: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx8 Capability: ESS RRM
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HE Capable:
Chanspec: 5GHz channel 155 80MHz (0xe19b)
Primary channel: 153
HT Capabilities: 40Mhz SGI20 SGI40
Supported HT MCS : 0-31
Supported VHT MCS:
NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
Supported HE MCS:
80 Mhz:
NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
160 Mhz:
NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

Interference Level: Acceptable
Mode : AP Only

DFS status: state IDLE time elapsed 0ms radar channel cleared by DFS none

Channel Information
----------------------------------------
Channel 100 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 104 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 108 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 112 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 116 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 132 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 136 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 140 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 144 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 149 A Band
Channel 153 A Band
Channel 157 A Band
Channel 161 A Band
Channel 165 A Band

Stations List
----------------------------------------
idx MAC Associated Authorized RSSI PHY PSM SGI STBC MUBF NSS BW Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Yes Yes -34dBm ax No Yes Yes Yes 4 80M 1621.3M 1801.5M 01:07:32

 

[kittmaster]

I just copied this from my wireless log area. I do not have Merlin just the latest stock Asus for this router. I did try Merlin to see if the "Extended NSS" option was there, but it wasn't either....so that still has me scratching my head.

SSID: "Ki"
noise: -90 dBm    Channel: 2
BSSID: XXXXXXXXXX8    Capability: ESS RRM
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HE Capable:
    Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 2 20MHz (0x1002)
    Primary channel: 2
    HT Capabilities: 40Mhz SGI20 SGI40
    Supported HT MCS : 0-31
    Supported VHT MCS:
        NSS1 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS2 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS3 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS4 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
    Supported HE MCS:
        80 Mhz:
        NSS1 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS2 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS3 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS4 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11

Interference Level: Acceptable
Mode    : AP Only



SSID: "Kit"
noise: -90 dBm    Channel: 40/80
BSSID: XXXXXXXXXXXC    Capability: ESS RRM
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HE Capable:
    Chanspec: 5GHz channel 42 80MHz (0xe12a)
    Primary channel: 40
    HT Capabilities: 40Mhz SGI20 SGI40
    Supported HT MCS : 0-31
    Supported VHT MCS:
        NSS1 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS2 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS3 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
        NSS4 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11 
    Supported HE MCS:
        80 Mhz:
        NSS1 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS2 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS3 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS4 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        160 Mhz:
        NSS1 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS2 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS3 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11
        NSS4 Tx: 0-11        Rx: 0-11

Interference Level: Acceptable
Mode    : AP Only

DFS status: state IDLE time elapsed 0ms radar channel cleared by DFS none

Channel Information                 
----------------------------------------
Channel 36    A Band
Channel 40    A Band
Channel 44    A Band
Channel 48    A Band
Channel 52    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 56    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 60    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 64    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 100    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 104    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 108    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 112    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 116    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 132    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 136    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 140    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 144    A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 149    A Band
Channel 153    A Band
Channel 157    A Band
Channel 161    A Band
Channel 165    A Band

Stations List                           
----------------------------------------
idx MAC               Associated Authorized   RSSI PHY PSM SGI STBC MUBF NSS   BW Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time
    XXXXXXXXXXXXX Yes        Yes        -29dBm ax  Yes Yes Yes  Yes    2  80M 1201.0M      6M     01:26:06
  
    XXXXXXXXXXXXX Yes        Yes        -60dBm ax  Yes Yes No   No     2  80M  907.4M      6M     01:26:20

 

[OzarkEdge]

What is the best way to "see" what the issue may be and/or interference with the channel widths?

Is there some logging file export that can tell me what the issue may be?

The issue appears to be that your client is not connecting with the AX protocol... check the client MAC entry in the router's 5.0 Wireless Log.

Make sure the router 5.0 wireless is set to use AX at 160 MHz on fixed control channel 36, 40, 44, or 48. And turn OFF the other 4 nodes to remove their radios from the equation... 5 APs is a lot a WiFi flying around depending on the area of coverage.

Any airports around you?

OE

 

[kittmaster]

I will shut off the 4 nodes and try......and fix the control to ch 40.

In terms of airports around me......here is what I know:

Airports with scheduled flights sorted by distance.

Type	Airport Name	City	IATA Code	Connectivity	Distance
	Theodore Francis Green State Airport	Providence	PVD		17.64 mi
	New Bedford Regional Airport	New Bedford	EWB		34.13 mi
	General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport	Boston	BOS		35.58 mi
	Bradley International Airport	Hartford	BDL		62.17 mi
	Barnstable Municipal Boardman Polando Field	Hyannis	HYA		65.23 mi

 

[disjt]

I just copied this from my wireless log area. I do not have Merlin just the latest stock Asus for this router. I did try Merlin to see if the "Extended NSS" option was there, but it wasn't either....so that still has me scratching my head.

The log shows that your connection is 80MHz. Your clients both are using AX-80MHz. Heck, the first one has a an RSSI at -29 dBm giving you the max link rate for 2-stream 80MHz: 1200 Mbps.

I'm supposing you're in Canada given the DFS channels you have available to you (I believe Europe and US would have channel 120). In Canada, you only have access to one 160MHz channel: 36-64. Moreover, your log shows no radar issues on the DFS channels. To test things, you can try setting 160MHz-only and set the control channel to 52. Keep in mind that it will take a few minutes for the 5GHz channel to come on while your router is checking if it can use the DFS channels.

 

[OzarkEdge]

The log shows that your connection is 80MHz. Your clients both are using AX-80MHz. Heck, the first one has a an RSSI at -29 dBm giving you the max link rate for 2-stream 80MHz: 1200 Mbps.

I'm supposing you're in Canada given the DFS channels you have available to you (I believe Europe and US would have channel 120). In Canada, you only have access to one 160MHz channel: 36-64. Moreover, your log shows no radar issues on the DFS channels. To test things, you can try setting 160MHz-only and set the control channel to 52. Keep in mind that it will take a few minutes for the 5GHz channel to come on while your router is checking if it can use the DFS channels.

I stand corrected... clients are connecting with the AX protocol in the log posted. Maybe not always, and maybe never at 160 MHz using DFS channels.

My US AX86U log reports:

Channel Information
----------------------------------------
Channel 36 A Band
Channel 40 A Band
Channel 44 A Band
Channel 48 A Band
Channel 52 A Band, RADAR Sensitive
Channel 56 A Band, RADAR Sensitive
Channel 60 A Band, RADAR Sensitive
Channel 64 A Band, RADAR Sensitive
Channel 100 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 104 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 108 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 112 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 116 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 120 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 124 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 128 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 132 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 136 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 140 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 144 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 149 A Band
Channel 153 A Band
Channel 157 A Band
Channel 161 A Band
Channel 165 A Band

Ch 120 is present and the low DFS channels are not marked Passive, whatever that means.

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

I will shut off the 4 nodes and try......and fix the control to ch 40.

In terms of airports around me......here is what I know:

Airports with scheduled flights sorted by distance.

Type	Airport Name	City	IATA Code	Connectivity	Distance
	Theodore Francis Green State Airport	Providence	PVD		17.64 mi
	New Bedford Regional Airport	New Bedford	EWB		34.13 mi
	General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport	Boston	BOS		35.58 mi
	Bradley International Airport	Hartford	BDL		62.17 mi
	Barnstable Municipal Boardman Polando Field	Hyannis	HYA		65.23 mi

Yep, airports around... but I don't know what to conclude further from that other than DFS might be in play. Maybe the General Log shows a router DFS activity clue.

OE

 

[kittmaster]

As "guideline"......what would be an acceptable "distance" from an airport in miles to "rule out" DFS issues from Airport radar?

This really sucks, when I bought this router, I fully expected to have Gigabit wireless as I do a lot of video MP4 file transfers between my client and NAS.

 

[OzarkEdge]

As "guideline"......what would be an acceptable "distance" from an airport in miles to "rule out" DFS issues from Airport radar?

Sorry, I don't know what the router's considerations are for DFS.

OE

 

[disjt]

As "guideline"......what would be an acceptable "distance" from an airport in miles to "rule out" DFS issues from Airport radar?

This really sucks, when I bought this router, I fully expected to have Gigabit wireless as I do a lot of video MP4 file transfers between my client and NAS.

I don't think you have DFS issues given that there's no radar conflict in your log. If you had unusable DFS channels, your log would show something like this:

Channel 36 A Band
Channel 40 A Band
Channel 44 A Band
Channel 48 A Band
Channel 52 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive, Temporarily Out of Service for 26 minutes
Channel 56 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 60 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive
Channel 64 A Band, RADAR Sensitive, Passive

I would try forcing 160MHz with a DFS control channel (52-64).

 

[kittmaster]

Well that is part of the problem, my control channels are Auto, 36, 40, 44, 48 then it jumps to 149, 153, 157, 161, 165 and that is it. How do I force 52-64?

TY.

 

[kittmaster]

Also, I've NEVER seen the > Temporarily out of service messages in any of my logs.....just throwing that added data point out there.....

I do want to thank you guys for trying to help me solve this issue.

No one has yet to point out the added question about " What about the missing Extended NSS" option?

 

[kittmaster]

The log shows that your connection is 80MHz. Your clients both are using AX-80MHz. Heck, the first one has a an RSSI at -29 dBm giving you the max link rate for 2-stream 80MHz: 1200 Mbps.

I'm supposing you're in Canada given the DFS channels you have available to you (I believe Europe and US would have channel 120). In Canada, you only have access to one 160MHz channel: 36-64. Moreover, your log shows no radar issues on the DFS channels. To test things, you can try setting 160MHz-only and set the control channel to 52. Keep in mind that it will take a few minutes for the 5GHz channel to come on while your router is checking if it can use the DFS channels.

I am in Rhode Island actually just outside of Providence in Cumberland. I do not have 52 as a selection. I listed the channels above that are in my admin area.

 

[vdemarco]

I am in CA and see the exact same thing @kittmaster is seeing.

 

[disjt]

I am in Rhode Island actually just outside of Providence in Cumberland. I do not have 52 as a selection. I listed the channels above that are in my admin area.

I am in CA and see the exact same thing @kittmaster is seeing.

That's so weird! Channels 120 to 128 are legal in the US. It's as if they gave you the nerfed Canadian versions and depriving you of the 160MHz band in channels 100 to 128.