Rt-ac68u + pce-ac68

[pinkfloyd1173]

Hey guys I have a few questions. I went out yesterday to fry’s and got this PCE-AC68 for my destop, I had a D-link pci card in my rig but I wanted to take advantage of the AC features of the AC68U. It was very easy to install no issues there, but I have noticed that I am not getting the speeds that this adapter says I can get? My speeds tests are fine, I get 114 down 6 to 7 up, on 2.4 & 5G.
So I am wondering if any one of you guys are using this same set up and what Mbps speeds are you getting. What can I do to get better Mbps speeds on both 2.4 & 5G singnals???

I am running Firmware ver 3.0.4.374.4561 on the rt-ac68r.
My mobo is an ASUS Z87-A

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

 

[pinkfloyd1173]

Forgot to mention that it fluxate’s all the time, is it supposed to do that? Sorry a noob here.

 

[Buck115]

I purchased the ASUS RT-AC68U and PCE-AC68 together, but initially installed only the RT-AC68U and tested it with my established home network. After it appeared to work properly, I replaced the Dell wireless adapter in my Dell XPS-9100 desktop with the PCE-AC68. With the Router’s original firmware (3.0.0.4.374_379) and on the firmware update (3.0.0.4.374_583) the speed on 5GHz seemed to vary a lot between 866Mbps and 1053Mbps; occasionally briefly seeing 1.3Mbps. However, since going to the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.374.4561) it constantly shows 1.3Mbps both on the Window’s “Wireless Network Connection Status” panel and on the ASUS PCE-AC68 Utility’s panel.

We live in the country, but there are a few houses in our general area and occasionally I can see a 2.4GHz SSID appear at -90 to -98dBm, but nothing on 5GHz. The 5GHz connection seems to be steady at 1.3Mbps with no variation. However, the 2.4GHz band might vary down to approximately 256Mbps when one of those weak SSID’s show up as a co-channel.

I'm getting full up and down speeds from my service provider.

It was almost like Beamforming took time to adjust to the connection, but I doubt that was the case.

 

[ikoul]

You're getting much better link rates than I do (mine usually says it's at 525 and sometimes goes lower if it's idle). But the link rate isn't really that important... you can't know what real speeds you're getting unless you test your throughput. Can you try copying a file over from another machine that's wired to the router (or even a USB drive attached to the router)?

 

[pinkfloyd1173]

You're getting much better link rates than I do (mine usually says it's at 525 and sometimes goes lower if it's idle). But the link rate isn't really that important... you can't know what real speeds you're getting unless you test your throughput. Can you try copying a file over from another machine that's wired to the router (or even a USB drive attached to the router)?

What do you mean??? Sorry noob over here man.

 

[ikoul]

Basically, your network might say "connected at 866 Mbps", but when you actually try to copy files or something over your network what you really get is like 25MB/s (about 200Mbps, a bit less after overhead).

The 866 Mbps number (link rate) isn't very useful for knowing the actual performance, unless it's really low for some reason (like if it drops to 1 Mbps you may have some issue in your configuration or environment).

Based on just your screenshots from the first post I'd say your link rates look pretty normal. Maybe if you switched the channel your router was set to, you could avoid some interference from your neighbors' wifi and get better performance. No way to know without testing and scanning for neighboring networks and stuff.

But the most important question is, do you feel like you're not getting the performance you need in actual usage? Are your downloads slower than your ISP provided speed? Can you not stream videos over the network? If you're not having issues then you don't really need to do anything.

 

[pinkfloyd1173]

Basically, your network might say "connected at 866 Mbps", but when you actually try to copy files or something over your network what you really get is like 25MB/s (about 200Mbps, a bit less after overhead).

The 866 Mbps number (link rate) isn't very useful for knowing the actual performance, unless it's really low for some reason (like if it drops to 1 Mbps you may have some issue in your configuration or environment).

Based on just your screenshots from the first post I'd say your link rates look pretty normal. Maybe if you switched the channel your router was set to, you could avoid some interference from your neighbors' wifi and get better performance. No way to know without testing and scanning for neighboring networks and stuff.

But the most important question is, do you feel like you're not getting the performance you need in actual usage? Are your downloads slower than your ISP provided speed? Can you not stream videos over the network? If you're not having issues then you don't really need to do anything.

Thanks for that info, to be honest I am not having any issues at all, can stream vid, play online ps4,ps3,pc. When I run a speed test, I always get 114 to 115 down and 5 to 6 up. I use TW for my internet and I am suppose to get 100 down and 5 up. I guess I am fine then, Don't fix it if it is not broke???

Thanks again for your help and advice.

 

[whitey019]

First off I'm a big Floyd fan as well.

Secondly, in order to truly test your wireless performance you need to transfer/copy and large file between to computers on your network. I use a 3GB image (.iso) and Task Manager->Performance->Resources Monitor->Network to gauge my capabilities. Typically, I can achieve 500-575mbps with my PCE-AC68 and RT-AC68U combo, which are 45-50ft apart.

Typically Windows only shows a connection speed of 585mbps.