RT-AC5300 is the worst router ever

[Fingers]

OMG, days i have spent messing with this router, and I can come up with only one conclusion that it is not fit for purpose. My 87u works like a treat out of the box with Asus or Merlin firmware. This one with same settings in same location and the wireless is spiking up and down with about half of my speed compared to the 87U. 2.4ghz works, but 5ghz...a disaster no matter what channel and width!
I am no expert, but whatever firmware I flash doesnt make a difference apart from the newest release from Asus and that made it worse still. So frustrating...

 

[Revelstone77]

I'm sorry for your problems, but the funny part is that I would have similar comments about my 87u. I have a feeling that ASUS has quality control issues and you either get a good one or a bad one of any model.

 

[System Error Message]

I have the AC88U which basically uses the same components as the AC5300 and it is really good. You may want to check the PSU first.

Other thing you will want to do is find out what 5Ghz channels in your area are in use and use channels that other brands cant use. Ive found some hidden APs always switching their channels to the same one i use despite other channels being free(mac address corresponds to some other AP manufacturer that i dont use).

Once you get interference out of the way consider not using smart connect. Disable it and seperately label the SSIDs. This will help in finding the problem.

The AC87U is more of a problem than the AC5300 actually because of its bottlenecked internal design. So when you finally need performance out of it using all 4 LAN ports + wifi + WAN you will run into issues.

 

[Fingers]

Ive found some hidden APs always switching their channels to the same one i use despite other channels being free(mac address corresponds to some other AP manufacturer that i dont use).

This is happening to me on one of the 5ghz bands, no matter what i change to it follows me?

 

[Fingers]

Well i changed to all available channels the unknown AP didnt follow me to and I was lucky to open a web page. No other interference on inssider. Looks like I'll sell it and change brand, and hopefully get some proper firmware support. Never used smart connect or QOS btw. Even upgraded to the PCE-AC88 card for my PC

 

[dlandiss]

Ive found some hidden APs always switching their channels to the same one i use despite other channels being free(mac address corresponds to some other AP manufacturer that i dont use).

This is happening to me on one of the 5ghz bands, no matter what i change to it follows me?

I have seen video streaming devices (example: my Roku 3 and Roku 4) do this. They have no way to disable the radio even when a wired connection is preferred, and they do not identify themselves.

I located them by using a WiFi scanning app on my mobile phone and walking around until the signal was strongest.

 

[Fingers]

What's annoying, is that the unidentified wireless device must have been there 2 days ago when i had the 87u connected on the same channels and there was no issue.
Previously I was getting 72/18 and now I'm lucky to get 30/5 on an 80/20 FTTC connection.
If I change to DFS channels I can't even complete the speed test as it just stops

 

[john9527]

Just have to ask to double check that you didn't try and load a saved configuration file from your old router. That won't work. If you did, you need to do a factory reset and reconfigure from scratch.

 

[Fingers]

No I started from scratch. In a last ditch effort I will try to sort it again today.
I just need to be clear on a few things.

1. When I restore to factory settings do I need to clear nvram? If so what is the sure way to do it on these boxes?

2. I've always used Merlin firmware and never had an issue so I should be OK with the latest release?

Many thanks

 

[microchip]

restore to factory automatically clears the NVRAM

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ive found some hidden APs always switching their channels to the same one i use despite other channels being free(mac address corresponds to some other AP manufacturer that i dont use).

You'll see this behaviour if you have something like a smart TV. My Sony android TV will create (when turned on) an ad-hoc Wi-Fi Direct access point on the same channel as it uses to connect to my router. It uses Wi-Fi Direct for "casting" from mobile devices. Wireless network printers can also use Wi-Fi Direct.

 

[Fingers]

You'll see this behaviour if you have something like a smart TV. My Sony android TV will create (when turned on) an ad-hoc Wi-Fi Direct access point on the same channel as it uses to connect to my router. It uses Wi-Fi Direct for "casting" from mobile devices. Wireless network printers can also use Wi-Fi Direct.

Hmm lol I just bought a smart TV the same day I got the router. And it wasn't plugged in when I was using the 87u.

I will turn WiFi off the TV and test again. Before more drastic measures

 

[ColinTaylor]

I will turn WiFi off the TV and test again. Before more drastic measures

On the Sony there is a network setting that allows you to turn off just the Wi-Fi Direct function.

 

[System Error Message]

in my case it wasnt any of my devices as i keep a lean config on all of them, turning off wifi for ones that dont use them and so on. Someone elses device was shadowing mine when not connected to it.

 

[Fingers]

It actually looks like this is the same with me. I have turned off all my WiFi devices except for the pc and it has appeared again. So if it is that, a restore isn't going to do much. Anyway I'll give it ago.

 

[Fingers]

all day messing with it and its worse than ever. Enough is enough. If anyone could recommend a replacement I would be grateful. Maybe the Linksys EA9500?

 

[Fingers]

I just thought I would quickly update. Maybe I made a school boy error by not doing this in the first place, but I reset my network services on my pc on the cmd prompt and everything seems to have sorted themselves out. I have been running speed tests and swapping between 2.4 and 5ghz and all seems as it should.
Coverage is slightly better than my 87u but nothing to go mad about. I'm sure this will be an obvious thing to do for experts here, but maybe useful to noobs like myself, so hopefully it will help someone else with router issues.