RT-AC56U Miserable 2.4 Wifi expereince

[Injuis]

I might have some good news for those still having this issue.

I have attached a 60mm fan to the back of the case and have lowered my temps from:

48 °C (2.4ghz), 50 °C (5ghz), 68 °C (cpu)
to
38 °C (2.4ghz), 41 °C (5ghz), 50 °C (cpu)​

The result is that my 2.4 ghz network is able to hit 20 mbps on speed tests and the intermittent speed drops have not been seen so far.

The speed of the fan is quite low (probably 5-6 cfm) and the temp drop is substantial. I plan on increasing the speed a bit more to get it cooler.


---

Update: Spoke too soon. Wireless speeds have tanked again and the speed drops are back. Man I hate this thing

 

[MichaelR64]

Just to chime in here:
I have the same with an N66U AND a brand new AC66U !
I bought the last one since all of a sudden my 2.4band on my N66 just stopped working as they did before.
All clients, both g and n devices connect badly and when they connect the throughput is abysmal.
This unit has been working flawless for the last two years.

So i bought a new one, but now with the ac part extra, the ac66.
That one is just marginally better.
It has the same problems, my 2.4ghz clients can connect but have very bad throughput.
A windows laptop can almost never connect at all anymore.
My Mac which has 2.4 and 5ghz clients connects fine at 5ghz but can almost never connect at 2.4ghz .

I use this router just because i wanted a stable connection.
So i don't use any of the AIcloud, traffic shaping an what not. Only some dhcp fixed ip adresses for nas etc.

I flashed the latest merlin build and one of a begin 2013 and the first build.
All of them have the same problem.
I tried it with just the default settings just after factory reset(done this after every flash). All settings were manually entered.

i deleted profiles on windows and mac every time.

If i use speedtest.net on my mac then on 5ghz it performs ok but on 2.4 , that is when my mbp connects at all, it most of the time just doesn't start.
I am on fiber internet here so internet is always stable, and indeed the lan side is stable.

Nothing has changed here as far as i know .

These routers went from the best which i would recommend to everyone to utter crap.
Any input anyone ?

 

[WiFiNut]

Asus RT-AC56U 2.4 GHz Range Problem

As many others here have described, my Asus RT-AC56U has lost range on its 2.4 GHz band. I installed this router in late December 2013. Both 2.4 and 5.0 bands performed flawlessly for about 3 weeks. Then I started noticing that my 2.4 band clients would hesitate to enumerate web pages. I looked at the link speed of my main laptop which always maintains 48 to 54 Mbps in its permanent location and it was at 5.5 Mbps. Ookla Speedtest that typically runs around 15 Mbps down and 6 Mbps up were running below 2 Mbps. After turning off another 2.4 band client the link speed and speed test results returned to normal for a few hours (just coincidence it turns out). Over the next week this intermittent behavior became worse and the Speedtest slowly degraded to the point where my main laptop and HTC DNA dual band phone could not function on the 2.4 band unless I moved them to within 10 feet of the Asus RT-AC56U. During this time, all 5 GHz clients continued to perform normally with no hint of delay or speed loss.

I then upgraded to Asus firmware Version 3.0.0.4.374.542 on the suggestion of Asus tech support. No change in behavior at all. 2.4 still unusable and 5.0 great throughout the house.

Next I replaced the Asus with my old Hawking HWRN2 in the same location and 2.4 throughout the house and to all devices returned to normal. I put the Asus back and the 2.4 GHz problems return.

I sent the Asus RT-AC56U back to Amazon today. What AC router do you recommend as a reliable replacement? Does SNB do any reliability testing? The more reviews I read of Asus, Netgear, Linksys, and others, they all appear to have serious problems of one kind or another and the vendors expect us to do their alpha testing for them.

Recommendations?

 

[KGB7]

You probably got a faulty router in the first place.

Try Kongs DD-WRT firmware first.

I have wifi degradation on one of my AC68R's (2.4ghz), and with DD-WRT firmware it got better. It would still degrade over time, but it was still usable.

So i know one of my routers is a DOA, but it works.

Other wise send it back and get your self another AC56U.

 

[WiFiNut]

RE: Asus RT-AC56U 2.4 GHz Range Problem

Thanks for the reply KGB7. I suspect faulty router hardware as well given the symptoms and the fact that the firmware upgrade and all the other changes I made did not change the behavior on 2.4 GHz at all.

I will order a new Asus RT-AC56U, give it a test and report back.

 

[Injuis]

I'd like to see your results... if it is indeed a hardware issue, then there are a lot of broken routers out there. I still think it's either a flaw in the design or bad software that's causing this. I think we just need to keep pushing out those bad reviews to get Asus's attention. They only care when it affects their bottom line.

 

[KGB7]

I'd like to see your results... if it is indeed a hardware issue, then there are a lot of broken routers out there. I still think it's either a flaw in the design or bad software that's causing this. I think we just need to keep pushing out those bad reviews to get Asus's attention. They only care when it affects their bottom line.

Or we return their crap back to them and buy another brand.

 

[WiFiNut]

RE: Asus RT-AC56U 2.4 GHz Range Problem

I received the new replacement RT-AC56U from Amazon today. I connected it, set up the security and upgraded the firmware using Administration > Firmware Upgrade > Check > Found Newer Version > Upgrade. The router came with firmware Version 3.0.0.4.374.134 and upgraded to Version 3.0.0.4.374.339. I moved to my office laptop and tested the 2.4 GHz band datalink speed and Ookla Speedtest. It was crap right from the get-go this time; 2 Mbps down and 1 up verses the normal 14 down and 6 up. The 5 GHz band was fine at 28 GHz down and 7 up from the same location on my HTC DNA phone.

Unfortunately I did not test the original .134 version of the firmware so I restored the router to factory default. I found the new firmware version .339 remained after the restore. I set up the security and tried it again and voila, back to the excellent datalink and internet speeds on both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz that I had with my first RT-AC56U. I then tested the distant corners of my house where the first AC56U had filled in nulls that existed with my original Hawking HWRN2 2.4 GHz router. Sure enough, it is back to working excellently on both bands.

So this appears to be a software problem and not a hardware problem as I had suspected from the failure pattern on my first AC56U. However, my first router worked like this for 2 weeks and then started degrading on the 2.4 GHz channel. The only difference between the first and second routers is the newer .339 firmware. My first AC56U degraded using the .134 firmware version that it shipped with.

I will test for a few weeks and report back.

 

[jlake]

If you ever see a 5.5 Mbps link speed, all you have to do is remove the wireless profile from your computer. Then reconnect.

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/GetAr...less_Network_Profiles_.xml&pid=80&converted=0

 

[jlake]

And follow the universal basic troubleshooting steps in link below.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=12453

 

[KGB7]

I received the new replacement RT-AC56U from Amazon today. I connected it, set up the security and upgraded the firmware using Administration > Firmware Upgrade > Check > Found Newer Version > Upgrade. The router came with firmware Version 3.0.0.4.374.134 and upgraded to Version 3.0.0.4.374.339. I moved to my office laptop and tested the 2.4 GHz band datalink speed and Ookla Speedtest. It was crap right from the get-go this time; 2 Mbps down and 1 up verses the normal 14 down and 6 up. The 5 GHz band was fine at 28 GHz down and 7 up from the same location on my HTC DNA phone.

Unfortunately I did not test the original .134 version of the firmware so I restored the router to factory default. I found the new firmware version .339 remained after the restore. I set up the security and tried it again and voila, back to the excellent datalink and internet speeds on both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz that I had with my first RT-AC56U. I then tested the distant corners of my house where the first AC56U had filled in nulls that existed with my original Hawking HWRN2 2.4 GHz router. Sure enough, it is back to working excellently on both bands.

So this appears to be a software problem and not a hardware problem as I had suspected from the failure pattern on my first AC56U. However, my first router worked like this for 2 weeks and then started degrading on the 2.4 GHz channel. The only difference between the first and second routers is the newer .339 firmware. My first AC56U degraded using the .134 firmware version that it shipped with.

I will test for a few weeks and report back.

Read your first post. Your router did have the latest 339 firmware.

 

[RMerlin]

339 is a bit old. You should manually update to the latest version, as Asus has done a lot of work in more recent versions surrounding wifi performance. Go to Asus's website, and download it from their support section.

 

[h3lmut]

try to disable hardware acceleration. I had the same problem... this fixed my problem for my nexus 7